Twombly Avenue

Twombly Avenue runs west from Colson Street and Treble Cove Road, near the Fordway Bridge in North Billerica, to Sprague Street, along the south side of the Kohlrausch Playground. It is named for Edgar F. Twombly (1869-1931), a native of Rochester, New Hampshire, who came to Billerica about 1900, sold real estate as the E. F. Twombly Company, and served the town for many years as highway surveyor and superintendent of streets and as a water commissioner. Through his first wife he came to own the old Cyrus Ham farm, whose house still stands at 11 Treble Cove Road, and in October 1912 he had O. M. Snell, civil engineer of Lowell, survey part of it as "Treble Cove Terrace at North Billerica, Mass., belonging to Edgar F. Twombly." The plan, recorded April 18, 1913 (Plan Book 30, Plan 69), shows "Twombly Avenue," 40 feet wide, running from Colson Street west to Bond Street, with Hill Street and Bond Street running south from it to Sprague Street and fifty house lots of about 4,000 square feet. It is the main street of the development.

The western part followed a year later. When George F. Colson died in 1914, Twombly was appointed administrator of his estate, and the "Colson Heights" plan drawn for the heirs by the landscape designer Warren H. Manning, with Fred W. Stowers, surveyor (Plan Book 31, Plan 88, July 1914), carried Twombly Avenue on from Bond Street to Sprague Street through its Section 21. Building restrictions on setback, cost and height applied in the neighborhood until 1940. A water main was laid in "Twombly Road" in 1913, the town voted in 1915 to put three electric lights on the avenue, and in 1917 the highway surveyor reported "a new road built with cinders on Twombly Avenue."

The town accepted Twombly Avenue as a town way, and voted to place the street lights on it, at the annual meeting of February 10, 1917, and accepted the extension "from Bond Street to Sprague Street, shown on plan entitled 'Colson Heights'" on February 9, 1924. In 1923, after a vote of 87 to 67, it was macadamized for 750 feet from Colson Street under the specifications of the state engineer, at a cost of $3,439.12. The water main was extended on Twombly Avenue and Sprague Street in 1922, and the unmacadamized western end was graveled and oiled under a vote of 1927 and treated with Tarvia B that year "from Sprague St. to end of Macadam, 450 ft."; it was tarred again in 1932.

The name has been spelled "Twombley" in many town records, including the 1956 list of accepted streets. Twombly Avenue was not on the official map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016. In the street renaming of 1988 the Hill Street of Treble Cove Terrace, which runs from Sprague Street and Treble Cove Road to Twombly Avenue, became Toma Road.

References

1. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1915: town votes three electric lights on Twombly Avenue
2. Annual Report 1917: Article 48, town accepts Twombly Avenue as a town way and places the street lights on it
3. Annual Report 1917: highway surveyor reports a new road built with cinders on Twombly Avenue
4. Annual Report 1923: vote of 87 to 67 to macadamize Twombly Avenue from Colson Street
5. Annual Report 1923: Twombley Avenue macadamized for 750 feet under the state engineer's specifications
6. Annual Report 1924: town accepts Twombly Avenue from Bond Street to Sprague Street as shown on the Colson Heights plan
7. Annual Report 1927: Twombly Avenue treated with Tarvia B from Sprague Street to the end of the macadam, 450 feet
8. Annual Report 1956: list of accepted streets, Twombley Ave. 2-10-17 and Bond St. to Sprague St. 2-9-24
9. Annual Report 1988: street name changes, Hill Street (Treble Cove Terrace) renamed Toma Road, from Sprague Street to Twombley Avenue