Wyman Road

Wyman Road leaves Boston Road south of the Center and runs south past School Lane toward the Shawsheen River and the Bedford line, in the southeastern corner of the town. It takes its name from Wyman's Bridge, evidently its crossing of the Shawsheen at the southern end, and from the Wyman family of Woburn, who owned the land beyond. In 1655 Francis and John Wyman bought the 500-acre Shawshin grant of President Henry Dunster of Harvard College, lying on the Shawsheen between Captain Gookin's farm and Edward Collins' and bounded by the Woburn line, and the family's taxes were disputed between Woburn and Billerica for years afterward. Amos Wyman, the last of the family in Billerica, was on the tax list from 1760 until his death in 1795, and his house, "in the southeasterly corner of the town," was the refuge of John Hancock and Samuel Adams on April 19, 1775. Its cellar hole near the Bedford and Burlington lines is marked by an inscribed boulder.

No laying out of the road has been found, but it was in use in the 18th century. Joseph Blanchard built his house on it, at the present 49 Wyman Road, in 1759, and in 1791 the town's committee on school houses set the house for the southerly ward "in Simon and Joseph Blanchard's land, 'half way between the roads,'" the roads being this one and the Lexington Road, between which School Lane now runs. A deed of 1810 bounds the Blanchard farm "Westerly on a Town Road leading from Wyman's Bridge so called to Billerica meeting house." By 1837 part of the route was already "the Old Wyman road," and later deeds call it by its houses, "the road leading from the dwelling house of Josiah B. Gleason to Joseph Blanchard's" in 1847 and the road "from the house of the late Nathl. Daniels to L. S. Bryant formerly Jos. Blanchard's" in 1859, with School Lane as "the lane road, so called, leading from the Lexington Road."

The street naming committee chosen in 1896 called it "Merriam street, running south from Main street to Bedford line, Billerica," evidently after the Merriam family, whose farm and house, attributed to Jonas Merriam, stood on it; J. Merriam is on the 1853 map and W. Merriam at the Blanchard house in 1889. In March 1898 the citizens' meeting at the Historical Society changed it to "Wyman Road," restoring the old name, and the list accepted at town meeting on March 27, 1899 gave "37. Wyman road, from Boston road running south to Bedford line." The Lowell directory of 1901 also records a name "South" as "changed to Wyman rd."

A water main was laid in Wyman Road in 1913. In 1921 the town voted to "discontinue that portion of the old Wyman Road which runs from the present Wyman Road to a point four hundred and fifty feet northwesterly from the Shawsheen River," closing part of the old way toward the river. The road was first treated with road oil in 1927, "From School Lane to Harry D. Brown's residence," and in 1931 it was scarified and reshaped for 3,000 feet and "Tarred 3,100 feet." For years afterward it was tar patched from Boston Road to the Brown place and scraped "the remaining distance to the Bedford Line," and in 1948 it had "Mix-in-place a distance of 2500 feet." The Billerica Homes subdivision and other house lots were laid out along it from the late 1950s.

Wyman Road was named in 1899 and was carried without a date in the town's list of accepted streets of 1956, "From Boston Rd. south to Bedford line." It 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 57 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The list gives it from the "Dead End where pavement ends" to Boston Road.

Historic Buildings

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register: the Wyman family and their purchase of President Dunster's 500-acre Shawshin farm in 1655
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), Genealogical Register: Amos Wyman, whose house was the refuge of Adams and Hancock on April 19, 1775
3. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883): the 1791 report placing the southerly ward school house in the Blanchards' land "half way between the roads"
4. Annual Report 1897: street naming committee's list, "Merriam street, running south from Main street to Bedford line"
5. Annual Report 1899: citizens' amendments of March 1898 to the street list, No. 37 "Change to Wyman Road"
6. Annual Report 1899: Billerica Historical Society's list, "37. Wyman road, from Boston road running south to Bedford line"
7. Annual Report 1900: street list accepted at the town meeting of March 27, 1899, Wyman road and School lane
8. Annual Report 1921: town votes to discontinue part of the old Wyman Road toward the Shawsheen River
9. Annual Report 1927: highway surveyor, Wyman Road treated with oil from School Lane to the Brown residence
10. Annual Report 1931: Wyman Road scarified and reshaped 3,000 feet and tarred 3,100 feet
11. Annual Report 1948: Wyman Road, mix-in-place for 2,500 feet, gravel section scraped
12. Annual Report 1956: streets accepted by the town, Wyman Rd. from Boston Rd. south to Bedford line
13. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads, Wyman Road from the end of pavement to Boston Road
14. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts the roads on the 1831 map as public ways (124 to 19)

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.