Westwood Avenue

Westwood Avenue runs about 1,450 feet through the River Pines neighborhood on the west side of the Concord River, from the Old Middlesex Turnpike northeast past Avila Road and Carmena Road to River Street near the corner of Bridle Road.

The avenue was laid out on paper in 1927. The plan of River Pines, Unit 2, drawn by R. F. Smith, surveyor, of Boston Road, in May 1927 and recorded on October 4, 1927 (Plan Book 51, Plan 13), shows "Westwood" leaving the Middlesex Turnpike and curving northeast through the lots toward River Street. No road on this line appears on the older maps. The plan does not explain the name. It fits the "wood" names that run through the River Pines plans, among them Sprucewood, Edgewood, Pinewood and Maplewood, and the avenue lies at the west side of the development, but no record found says who chose it or why.

For half a century Westwood Avenue was a private gravel way, graded by the town with other River Pines streets. At the eighth session of the annual town meeting, April 27, 1978, the town accepted "the laying out of Westwood Avenue from River Street 18 ft. wide, 575 ft. southwesterly." The rest of the avenue, "from 125' South of Carmena Road to Old Middlesex Turnpike, approximate length 880' and 40' wide right of way," was accepted under Article 40 of the Fall Town Meeting on October 11, 2018, by a vote of 137 to 10. The town's plans of 2008 called for a water main to be carried across the Concord River to the junction of the Old Middlesex Turnpike and Westwood Avenue.

References

1. Annual Report 1978: April 27, 1978, Article 23, town accepts the laying out of Westwood Avenue from River Street, 575 feet
2. Annual Report 2019: Article 40 warrant, Westwood Avenue from 125 feet south of Carmena Road to Old Middlesex Turnpike, 880 feet
3. Annual Report 2019: Fall Town Meeting, October 11, 2018, Article 40 carried 137 to 10
4. Annual Report 2008: water main to be looped across the Concord River to Old Middlesex Turnpike and Westwood Avenue