Street Renaming of 1988-1991

The street renaming of 1988 to 1991 was the program in which the Board of Selectmen, on the recommendation of its Street Renaming Committee, gave new names to about 214 Billerica streets whose names were the same as, or sounded like, the names of other streets in town, and gave separate names to streets that had been laid out in pieces that did not connect. Most of the duplicates were the stock names of the land developments of the early twentieth century, Pine, Elm, Walnut, Chestnut, Maple, Fairview, Hillside and Brown, each repeated in several parts of town, and the committee meant the change for the fire, police and ambulance crews, the post office and the delivery drivers who had to find them.

The trouble was an old one. The annual town meeting of 1935 was asked for $1,000 for street signs and a committee of three "to rename streets with duplicate names"; it dropped the money and had the Moderator appoint a committee to report on "the clarification and renaming of streets." That committee, Henry D. Livingston, Ernest N. Bartlett and Robert Jacobs, reported in 1936 that "a total of 139 streets bear duplicate names, or names so similar that in the opinion of this committee leads to much confusion." It explained that the Selectmen, acting as a Board of Survey, could change a name after a public hearing, record the change at the Registry of Deeds and put up signs, and suggested changing the more important streets first. The meeting accepted the report as one of progress, but the renaming was not carried out.

The committee of 1988 first met in February 1988. It was a sub-committee of the Selectmen, with Arthur L. Doyle as chairman, Stephen J. Lentine as vice chairman, Myrtie D. Smith as secretary, and Town Engineer Ralph R. Bacon, Fire Chief Anthony E. Capaldo and police safety officer Michael Tomarro; David F. Delorey Jr. had joined it as a vice chairman by 1990. It held a separate public hearing for each group of names and took suggestions from the public, and the full Board voted each group of changes, with an effective date some months later. The four rounds of 1988 were voted on February 22 (with two more names on March 7 and March 21), April 25, September 12 and November 14, effective June 1, July 1 and November 15, 1988 and January 2, 1989. They took the Chestnuts, Pines, Browns, Riverviews and Walnuts, the Elms, Everetts and Fairviews, and the Hillsides, Hills and Hillcrests: the Brown Streets, for instance, became Nussey Terrace, Nealley and Folger Streets, and George Brown Street. The same rounds made Billerica Avenue Extension part of Billerica Avenue and turned Pinehurst Avenue Extension into Pheasant Road. The Selectmen counted over sixty changes that year, and the highway division replaced 337 street name signs in 1988 and over a hundred more soon after, "totaling over 400 signs out of 838 streets."

The rounds of 1989 and 1990 were not printed in the annual reports. The Town Engineer wrote that the names of 129 streets were changed in 1989, "in an effort to eliminate duplication of names," and that where a street had been built in two or more unconnected sections "each section is being given a separate name"; every renamed street had to be checked for new house numbers, and the town map had not yet been corrected. The engineering division reported 103 more names changed in 1990, with "an overwhelming amount of renumbering." The committee finished its hearings in November 1990. The Selectmen called it "a difficult task and at times very controversial and emotional," and the committee's own last report, after "almost three years and fifteen public hearings," gave the total as 214 street names, the last of them effective January 7, 1991. "We didn't like having to change some of the Old Colonial names of streets," it wrote, but "the Town will be a safer place to live with no more duplicate street names." The yearly figures of the Selectmen and the engineers do not add up to the committee's total.

A few months later, at the annual town meeting session of May 28, 1991, the town voted unanimously to accept Chapter 291 of the Acts of 1990 and receive enhanced 911 service.

The renames of 1988 below are those printed in the town report, with the Board's dates. The later ones were not itemized in any report, and are identified from deeds and plans at the registry, directories and other street lists; the list is added to as more are found.

Streets renamed (dated)

Streets renamed (dates not recorded)

References

1. Annual Report 1935: Article 54, committee to report on the clarification and renaming of streets with duplicate names
2. Annual Report 1936 (in the 1935-1939 volume): committee report, 139 streets bear duplicate names
3. Annual Report 1988: Selectmen, Street Renaming Committee, over 60 street name changes in 1988
4. Annual Report 1988: Selectmen's Sub-Committee for Re-naming Streets, changes voted February 22 and April 25, 1988
5. Annual Report 1988: street name changes voted April 25, September 12 and November 14, 1988
6. Annual Report 1988: street name changes voted November 14, 1988, and the committee members
7. Annual Report 1988: Highway Division, 337 street name signs replaced in 1988
8. Annual Report 1989: Selectmen, street renaming an ongoing program
9. Annual Report 1989: Town Engineer, the names of 129 streets changed; separate names for unconnected sections
10. Annual Report 1990: Selectmen, the Street Renaming Committee completed its task in November 1990
11. Annual Report 1990: Engineering, 103 street names changed during the year
12. Annual Report 1990: Street Re-naming Committee report, 214 street names, last effective date January 7, 1991
13. Annual Report 1991: Town Meeting of May 28, 1991, Article 25, enhanced 911 service accepted