Sullivan Road

Sullivan Road runs north from near Nashua Road in West Billerica, by Rangeway Road, to the Chelmsford line, in the narrow strip of town between the Rangeway and Chelmsford. No laying out of it has been found. It is one of the old ways that the town said in 2016 were shown on the official town map of 1831, and the Historical Commission's survey of 1973 called it "the old road to Chelmsford," perhaps the route used before the "new western road," now Nashua Road and Route 4, was relocated about 1830. Old house sites stood along it: the John Duren house, probably built about 1840 on part of Benoni Spaulding's farm, and a house farther north, held by Asa Hill Jr. from 1850 to 1855, that the survey thought "an early house site, on the old road to Chelmsford." The Walling map of 1853 also shows a house of J. Easty near the present 45 Sullivan Road.

In the 1890s the road was known as Wiley Avenue; the directory of 1901 notes "Wiley avenue, changed to Sullivan," and both street lists describe it as running to the Chelmsford line "near Wiley's house." The street naming committee chosen in 1896 (Martin Conway, John E. Rowell and Coburn S. Smith) listed "Sullivan street, running northerly from Chelmsford street to Chelmsford line, near Wiley's house, W. Billerica," Chelmsford street being their name for the present Nashua Road, and the Billerica Historical Society's revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, gave "Sullivan street, from Nashua street running northerly to Chelmsford line near Wiley's house, W. Billerica." The name is not explained in either report. It most likely came from John Sullivan, who was on the list of voters in 1880 and whom the directory of 1901 placed on "Nashua rd. n. school house," near the foot of the road.

The road stayed a quiet back road. It was still listed as Sullivan Street in 1930 and 1931 and as Sullivan Road in the town's list of accepted streets of 1956, which gave it "From Nashua Rd. north to Chelmsford line" with no date. The construction of Route 3 in the 1950s cut off its south end near Nashua Road, and the road now begins at a dead end. It was graveled and sealed in 1971 and hot topped in 1976, after the town engineer designed a drain and took an easement for it in 1974, and the town returned to drainage work on Sullivan Road in the late 1980s.

Sullivan Road was formally accepted as a public way at the Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, which voted, 124 to 19, under Chapter 82, sections 21 to 24, of the General Laws, to accept the old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The list describes it as running from a dead end to a point 1,250 feet past Rangeway Road northward.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
John Duren House		34 Sullivan Rd	1840		1986
Asa Hill Jr. House		23 Sullivan Rd	1850		1973
J. Easty House		45 Sullivan Rd	1852		2012

References

1. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee, "Sullivan street, running northerly from Chelmsford street to Chelmsford line, near Wiley's house"
2. Annual Report 1899: Historical Society street list, "43. Sullivan street, from Nashua street running northerly to Chelmsford line near Wiley's house"
3. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
4. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): list of voters in 1880, with John Sullivan
5. Annual Report 1956: list of streets accepted, "Sullivan Rd. From Nashua Rd. north to Chelmsford line"
6. Annual Report 1974: town engineer's drainage design and easement for Sullivan Road
7. Annual Report 2017: Article 36, 1831 list of roads, "Sullivan Road, Dead End, 1,250' passing Rangeway Road Northward"
8. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting of October 2016, Article 36 accepts the 1831 roads as public ways (124 to 19)