Webb Brook Road

Location	Map
Laid Out	1831
Right of Way	28 - 30 ft
Pavement	16 - 18 ft

Webb Brook Road runs east from Boston Road at Mason's Corner, near the foot of Wyman Road, across Webb Brook to Allen Road, about half a mile, at the old Richardson farm in the southeast part of the town. At Boston Road it divides into two short branches, the "Y" of the town reports. 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 Walling map of 1853 shows the J. White house on it near the present 14 Webb Brook Road. At its east end stood the Richardson house of about 1740, at the corner of Allen Road, where the Historical Commission noted that Allen Road "south from this site, was informally known as 'Richardson's Row.'" Later deeds of the Pasho farm on its south side describe the land as lying on "the road to the Allen Cider Mill."

The road takes its name from Webb Brook, which it crosses. The brook in turn bears the name of Christopher Webb of Braintree, one of the early settlers, whose house lot of thirty-two acres lay "on the East side of the country road that goeth from Woburn to Chelmsford," bounded by the Cambridge Church farm southward; in 1662 he asked the town for two acres "on the brook aboue his house," and Henry A. Hazen placed Ebenezer Richardson in the tax list of 1776 on the "East Road, near Webb's Brook." Webb returned to Braintree by about 1665, but his name stayed on the brook.

The street naming committee chosen in 1896 (Martin Conway, John E. Rowell and Coburn S. Smith) called it "White street, running easterly from Main street to Allen street, So. Billerica," presumably for the White family, whose house is on the map of 1853. The Billerica Historical Society changed the name, and its revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, gave "Webb Brook road, from Boston road running easterly to Allen street, S. E. Billerica."

The road was widened in 1909, when a culvert was rebuilt and 369 feet were graveled, and 2,712 feet were scraped and graveled in 1910. A water main was laid along it in 1913. In 1925 residents asked for money for "repairing and widening Webb Brook Road where necessary between Mason's Corner and Allen Road," and in 1935 the town voted $900 "for grading, widening and tarring the surface of Webb Brook Road 'Y' from Boston Road to Allen Road"; that year it was "sub-graded, gravelled and tarred," with a new headwall, 200 feet of guard rail and a catch basin. It was graveled, given a tar penetration and asphalt sealed for its whole length in 1950. In the same year the Middlesex County Commissioners, by an order of October 26, 1950, relocated the Y where Webb Brook Road meets Boston Road beside the state highway, taking small strips of land from the abutters.

The town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956 gave "Webb Brook Rd. Boston Rd. east to Allen Rd." without a date. Webb Brook 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 gives Webb Brook Road from Boston Road to Allen Road.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Thomas Richardson House	Webb Brook Country Club	36 Webb Brook Rd	1740		1995
J. White House		14 Webb Brook Rd	1852		1968

Webb Brook Road

Webb Brook Road

Historic Buildings

References