Tom Grace Way

Tom Grace Way is a short street in The Pines, the neighborhood laid out in 1912 between Cook Street and the Shawsheen River in the Pinehurst section. Today it is in two pieces on one line: a northern piece running from MacDougall Street toward Sachem Street and the river, and a southern piece running northwest from Edgebaston Street to a dead end short of MacDougall Street. It was first laid out as Carlton Street on "The Pines, Billerica, Mass., owned by Frank W. Coughlin," drawn in June 1912 by H. A. Millhouse, civil engineer, of Boston and recorded on July 19, 1912 in Plan Book 30, Plan 13, where Carlton Street runs parallel to Ordway Street between Ordway and Argyle Streets, lined with narrow cottage lots. There was no road on this line before 1912.

Carlton was one of the British names of The Pines, but the town already had a Carlton Street in North Billerica, running from Rogers and Faulkner Streets to the railroad. The Pines street was evidently renamed in the program the Board of Selectmen began in 1988 "to eliminate duplication of names." The registry shows the change on a single property: a municipal lien certificate recorded on Oct. 3, 1990 still calls it Carlton Street, while the mortgage recorded with it gives the address as Tom Grace Way, and later deeds for lots on Plan Book 30, Plan 13 are indexed under both names. Tom Grace Way appears as a street address by 1991. The town reports do not print the vote or say whom the name honors, and no record found identifies the Tom Grace for whom it was named.

The southern piece was accepted as a public way at the annual spring town meeting of May 13, 2004, which under Article 31 accepted "Tom Grace Way, Edgebaston Street to Dead End," about 291 feet, together with Topliff Street, Mosley Street, Horton Lane and Knoll Street in the same neighborhood. No acceptance of the northern piece has been found. The street was not on the official town map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016.

References

1. Billerica town report 2004: Article 31 accepts Tom Grace Way from Edgebaston Street to dead end (291 ft.), with Topliff Street and other streets in The Pines
2. Billerica town report 1988: Selectmen's sub-committee for re-naming streets and the first street name changes of the duplicate-name program

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.