South Street

South Street runs east from near the Middlesex Turnpike to Rhodes Street, a short way inland from Lake Street on the north side of Nuttings Lake.

It was laid out on Plan B of Nuttings Lake Park, drawn in April 1910 by C. A. Thayer, engineer, of Providence, Rhode Island, for the Billerica Land Company and recorded in Plan Book 27, Plan 34. On Plan B, South Street runs from the turnpike parallel to Lake Street on the shore and Central Street inland, crossed by Peace, Cady and Rhodes Streets. The plan does not explain the name; it may simply describe the street's place in the park, but no record says so. The street guide of 1930 to 1931 lists both "South (north side Nuttings lake) from Old Middlesex Turnpike to Lexington rd" and "South from Rhoades easterly."

South Street long remained a private way. Water reached it in 1957 and again in 1968, when a six-inch main was laid "on South Street from Peace Street easterly 300 feet," and drainage was designed for it with the other Nuttings Lake streets in 1974. In 1988 the town discontinued the section of Cady Street between South Street and Central Street. A petition to accept South Street in 2001 was dismissed, but the annual town meeting of May 2002 accepted "South St. Rhodes St Westerly to Dead End," about 890 feet, as a public way. South Street is not among the roads of the 1831 map accepted in 2016.

References

1. 1968 Water Department: six-inch main installed on South Street from Peace Street easterly 300 feet
2. 2001 warrant, Article 50: petition to accept South Street as a public way (dismissed)
3. Annual town meeting, May 2002, Article 19: South Street from Rhodes Street westerly to dead end, 890 feet, and parts of Plenty Street accepted as public ways