Town Farm Lane
Town Farm Lane runs west from High Street, past the end of Billerica Avenue, in the northern corner of North Billerica near the Tewksbury and Chelmsford lines, and crosses the Lowell railroad on a bridge toward the meadows of the Concord River. It was the lane to the Town Farm, the farm on which the town kept its poor. The farm had been the Rogers farm: Josiah Rogers built a family tomb there in 1803, and a typed extract kept in the Historical Society's files records the deed by which his son Jacob Osgood Rogers sold 175 acres "with the buildings thereon" to the inhabitants of Billerica for $3,100. The cemetery commissioners wrote in 1945 that "in 1803 the Rogers family tomb was established there and in 1826 land around it was set off for burial purposes," which suggests that the town had the farm by the 1820s. The Walling map of 1853 marks the "Town Farm" with a lane running west from Russell Street (now High Street) past its buildings and across the railroad; the town map of 1831 shows no such way.
The lane takes its name from the farm. The town reports from 1865 on carry a "Superintendent of Town Farm" and the yearly accounts of the farm and almshouse. The highway accounts of 1901 call the lane the "Town Farm road" ("Town Farm road, making gutters and graveling"), and the form "Town Farm Lane" appears in the report for 1916, when "Town Farm Lane was repaired and a 24 ft. culvert crossing the same was rebuilt." The Lowell directories of 1901 to 1919 list the institution itself as "Town Farm, off High n. Tewksbury line, N. B."
The farm shrank as the industrial neighbors grew. In 1896 a special town meeting authorized the selectmen to sell the Lowell Rendering Company about forty-two acres "situated in North Billerica ... said land being a part of the town farm," on the westerly side of the railroad, and the $2,500 received went to repair the Corner bridge; in 1917 the town was asked to sell another piece to the Lowell Fertilizer Company. The bridge that carries the lane over the railroad (State bridge B-12-11) was rebuilt about 1915. In 1917 the highway surveyor rebuilt 400 feet of the lane "with cinders," and a project of 1942 rebuilt 1,350 feet. The lane stayed gravel until 1949, when it was "graveled, scraped, tar penetration entire length," and it was asphalt sealed in 1950. The farm itself was sold by 1945, leaving the Rogers burial ground on High Street in the town's care, and in 1947 an article proposed greyhound racing on "the former Town Farm."
Town Farm Lane was not among the roads shown on the official town map of 1831 that the town accepted as public ways in October 2016, and it does not appear in the town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956. No vote accepting it has been found; it was maintained by the town as the way to its own farm.
Historic Buildings
| Name | Alternate | Address | Built | Moved | Demolished |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thomas Rogers Homestead | McGlone Homestead | 11 Town Farm Ln | 1674 | 1835 | |
| McGlone Homestead | 11 Town Farm Ln | 1835 | 1916 |
References
- Annual Report 1865: salary of the Superintendent of Town Farm
- Annual Report 1897: special town meeting of 1896 authorizes sale of about forty-two acres of the town farm to the Lowell Rendering Co.
- Annual Report 1897: selectmen report the sale of town farm land to the Lowell Rendering Co.
- Annual Report 1901: highway account, "Town Farm road, making gutters and graveling"
- Annual Report 1916: "Town Farm Lane was repaired and a 24 ft. culvert crossing the same was rebuilt"
- Annual Report 1917: 400 feet of the road on Town Farm Lane rebuilt with cinders
- Town report volume 1915-1919 (warrant for 1917): article to sell part of the Town Farm to the Lowell Fertilizer Company