Yale Street

Yale Street is a short street on the north side of Nuttings Lake in Nuttings Lake Park, running east from the lake end of Canterbury Street to Cedar Road and the west end of Water Street. Until 1988 it was Walnut Avenue, later Walnut Street. It was first laid out as Walnut Avenue on the "Plan of Lots, Indian Knoll Terrace, Billerica, Mass., Owned by Frank Dolan," drawn by W. L. Whittemore, civil engineer, dated May 28, 1910 and recorded on July 18, 1910 (Plan Book 27, Plan 49). There Walnut Avenue is a 30 foot way between rows of lots of 2,500 square feet and more, parallel to Pine Avenue (now Perreault Avenue) on the north and crossed by Cedar Road. H. A. Millhouse's "Nuttings Lake Park, Addition, Plan F," drawn in June 1915 for the neighboring land and recorded on October 20, 1915 (Plan Book 32, Plan 91), shows "Walnut" running on from Canterbury Street to Cedar Road and Water Street. Neither plan explains the name. The street guides of 1930 to 1949 list "Walnut Avenue (north side Nutings lake) from Old Middlesex Turnpike to Canterbury." The oldest house now on the street, 7 Yale Street, was built about 1938 according to the assessors.

The annual town meeting of February 9, 1946 accepted, in one article with other Nuttings Lake streets, "Walnut Street from Cedar Road to Canterbury Street 336 feet"; the town's list of accepted streets printed in 1956 records "Walnut St. (N. L.) -- From Cedar Rd. to Canterbury St., 336 ft. 2-9-46." The part northeast of Cedar Road remained unaccepted. A warrant article of 1982 proposed to discontinue Walnut Street "from approximately 153 feet northeasterly of Cedar Road to the northeasterly end, a distance of 30 feet more or less," in exchange for sewer, drain and utility easements; its outcome has not been found. A petition article of 1992 to discontinue "part of Yale Street (formerly Walnut Street)," described as an "approximately 150 foot paper street," was dismissed.

By the 1980s Billerica had three Walnut Streets. In the selectmen's campaign of 1988 to 1991 against duplicate street names, the board voted on April 25, 1988, effective July 1, 1988, to rename "Walnut Street ... Last left off Canterbury Street" as Yale Street; the other two became Horman Road and Gove Road. The reason for the new name was not printed and has not been found. Yale Street was among the drainage projects of the town's highway division reported in 1995 and 1996.

References

1. Annual Report 1946: Feb. 9, 1946 Art. 49 voted, Walnut Street from Cedar Road to Canterbury Street 336 ft among Nuttings Lake streets
2. Annual Report 1956: list of streets accepted, Walnut St. (N. L.) from Cedar Rd. to Canterbury St., 336 ft., 2-9-46
3. Annual Report 1982: warrant article to discontinue about 30 ft of Walnut Street northeast of Cedar Road for easements
4. Annual Report 1988: street name changes voted April 25, 1988, Walnut Street (last left off Canterbury Street) to Yale Street
5. Annual Report 1992: warrant Art. 37, discontinue part of Yale Street (formerly Walnut Street), a 150 ft paper street
6. Annual Report 1992: Street Discontinuance Committee, Art. 37 Yale Street, dismissal
7. Annual Report 1995: highway division drainage projects, Queensland Road / Yale Street
8. Annual Report 1996: highway division drainage projects incl. Canterbury Street and Yale Street