Central Park

Central Park is a neighborhood between Salem Road and Pond Street in the eastern part of Billerica, across Pond Street from the Boston and Maine Railroad car shops. In November 1913 to March 1914 John N. McClintock and Robert B. Bellamy, engineers, of Dorchester surveyed the "Plan of Central Park, Billerica Mass" for James E. Burke, owner, recorded on April 27, 1914 in three sheets (Plan Book 31, Plan 49). The plan marks the "Main Entrance" of the new car shops on Pond Street, and the lots were evidently aimed at the men who would work there.

The long blocks of 25-foot lots were laid out on Chestnut, Walnut, Spruce, Pine, Ash and Willow Streets, running from Richardson Street, "formerly Folly Road," to Pond Street across a Broad Street, with Market, Arch, Race and Vine Streets near Salem Road. A third sheet laid out the "Middlesex Canal Property" of John A. Richardson in the same way, with Canal, Oak, Elm, Maple and Beech Streets crossed by Maiden Lane, Pink, Rose, Lilly and Water Streets and the Strand.

The lots sold and were built on slowly, and the streets stayed private ways for decades. Chestnut Street, by then Chestnut Avenue, and Market Street were accepted by the town in 1972. In the selectmen's program of 1988 to 1991 against duplicate street names Chestnut became Bayberry Lane and Walnut Street became Gove Road, effective July 1, 1988. The other long streets of the plan are now Sequoia Street, Moosewood Street, Ironwood Street and Sumac Street, crossed by Broadleaf Street; Market Street, Race Street and Vine Street keep their plan names.

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
A. Needham House		128 Salem Rd	1852		1961
D. Sherman House		118 Salem Rd	1852		1975