Truman Avenue

Truman Avenue is a short street in North Billerica running northeast from Pollard Street in Fordway Park, between Horman Road and High Street. Until 1988 it was Chestnut Street, one of the cross streets of the "Plan of Fordway Park, North Billerica, Mass., owned by J. W. Wilbur Co.," drawn in May 1897 by Frederic R. Page, civil engineer, of Boston (Plan Book 13, Plan 5). The plan laid out a street called Broadway parallel to Fordway Road, as Pollard Street was then called, and cross streets between them, from the end nearest the Fordway: Beacon, Maple, Walnut, Chestnut, Oak and Hawthorne Streets, mostly with lots 20 to 25 feet wide. Like Maple and Walnut, Chestnut was a tree name chosen by the developer.

The directories of 1919 and 1931 list "Chestnut (N B) from Pollard byd Walnut easterly." The assessors date the oldest house now standing on the street to about 1950; others were built about 1969, 1990 and 2008. By the 1980s Billerica had several Chestnut Streets, and on February 22, 1988, effective June 1, 1988, the selectmen renamed "Chestnut Street ... From Pollard Street to Broadway Street" as Truman Avenue, while the others became Callahan Street, Country Lane and Bayberry Lane. The reason for the choice of Truman is not recorded.

Truman Avenue has not been accepted as a town way. It was listed as "Truman Ave, Pollard St to Dead End," 620 feet, in Article 25 of the fall town meeting of October 2001, which was dismissed, although the town accepted 200 feet of Broadway Street in May 2002.

References

1. Billerica town report 1988: street name changes voted Feb. 22, 1988, effective June 1, 1988, Chestnut Street to Truman Avenue
2. Billerica town report 2002: fall 2001 warrant Art. 25, Truman Ave, Pollard St to Dead End, 620 ft
3. Billerica town report 2002: fall 2001 town meeting, Article 25 dismissed
4. Billerica town report 2002: May 14, 2002 Art. 19, streets accepted incl. Broadway St, Blackstone St to dead end