Concord Road

Concord Road is one of the four original "country" roads of Billerica, the highways to Woburn, Chelmsford, Andover and Concord that the town kept up at public charge from the first years of settlement. It was laid out jointly by committees of Billerica and Concord and recorded on the 19th day of the 12th month, 1660 (February 1660/61), as "Concord country road to o^r Towne." Sergeant John Parker and George Farley served for Billerica, Robert Fletcher and Joseph Wheeler for Concord, with Jonathan Danforth acting as surveyor for both towns. The record shows that a way to Concord was already in use: the committee followed "the old road which leads to Concord" and "the old beaten road to Concord swamp" for much of the distance.

The 1660 return begins "at the country road in long street," four poles wide "anent the North-west corner of Billerica meeting house." From there it ran south between the fences of John Rogers Sr., Jacob Browne and Daniel Shed, "streight on forward to the pounds, through Mr. Whiting's lott," then turned west down "charnstaff lane" along the line of Mr. Dudley's farm. It crossed the swamp "at the Island between brooks," passed the pasture fence of Ralph Hill Sr. and the barn of Ralph Hill Jr., and kept four poles wide from the entrance of the Dudley farm to "Concord great swamp." Henry A. Hazen noted in 1883 that the old road ran "a nearly straight course, still easily traced, through the swamp about a mile west of Bedford Village," leaving the present road to Bedford near Huckins Street. That southern end passed out of Billerica when Bedford was incorporated in 1729, and from then on Concord Road was in practice the road from Billerica Centre to the Bedford line.

The road has always taken its name from its destination, the town of Concord, but for a time it was commonly called after Bedford. When the town first named its streets, the committee chosen at the March 1896 town meeting (Martin Conway, John E. Rowell and Coburn S. Smith) called it "Bedford street": in their list, printed in the 1897 town report, Whiting, Winter and Common streets all run "to Bedford street." That list was referred to the Billerica Historical Society, whose revised list, accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899, gave it as "Concord road, running from the junction of River street and Boston road southerly to Bedford line." The highway reports of 1909 to 1913 still speak of the "Bedford Road." The name Concord Road was also used on the west side of the river: when Middlesex County took the land for its House of Correction in 1929, Treble Cove Road was described as "formerly called Concord Road."

Macadam came to the road in stages with state aid. In 1910 the town voted $3,000 for macadam on "the Bedford Road," provided the Commonwealth gave a like amount, and in 1913 the highway surveyor reported 4,000 feet of penetration macadam on that road, laid with oil "put on under pressure." By the end of 1914 the selectmen reported that "the macadam on the Concord Road is now within 4150 feet of being complete," 1,200 feet having been built that year under F. D. Sabin, engineer of the Massachusetts Highway Commission. Another 2,500 feet followed in 1915, and the last 1,600 feet in 1916, the Commonwealth and the county each paying one third, which gave the town "a through macadam road to Boston." Rebuilding planned in 1926 was held up for nearly two years by the "Billerica Road case," a suit brought by Edgar F. Twombly and others against the selectmen and dismissed by the Supreme Judicial Court. In the Centre a new macadam road was built for 1,200 feet south from Billerica Square in 1935, carried on from Richardson Street to Whiting Street in 1936, and in 1937, as the town's first Chapter 90 job, widened and straightened for 1,900 feet to beyond Mitchell Hill, the old roadway being "very narrow" with "dangerous curves." The next year the County Commissioners relocated the road from French Street to the Middlesex Turnpike (order of Sept. 23, 1938), taking land of Anna Jaquith to ease the curve beyond French Street and the approach to the Bedford branch railroad crossing; the old road had run as much as 70 feet off the new line.

The largest change came with the new Route 3, laid out by the state in 1952 and 1953 through the Middlesex Turnpike corridor. Concord Road was carried over the highway on a new bridge built in 1953, and the town paid its share for "construction of roadways and watermains at the overpasses on Concord Road, Rangeway Road and Treble Cove Road." The bypassed piece of the old line remains as Old Concord Road. The state altered the layout at the Route 3 crossing again in 1996, and in 1963 the town surfaced Concord Road with bituminous concrete from Campbell Drive to the 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 44 old roads "the layout of which is shown on the official Town of Billerica Map of 1831." The town manager explained that the state already treated these roads as public ways, but the town had no record of accepting them and so could not spend money to maintain them. The list gives it from the Bedford town line to Boston Road.

Historic Buildings

References

1. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 89: the 1660/61 laying out of the "Concord country road" by the committees of Billerica and Concord, with the full return
2. Hazen, History of Billerica (1883), p. 91: the old Concord road ran straight through the swamp a mile west of Bedford Village, turning near Huckins Street
3. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1897: street naming committee's list, in which Whiting, Winter and Common streets run "to Bedford street"
4. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1899: Billerica Historical Society's list of streets, "Concord road ... southerly to Bedford line"
5. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1900: street list accepted at the annual town meeting of March 27, 1899
6. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1910: town votes $3,000 for macadam on the Bedford Road with matching state money
7. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1913: highway surveyor reports 4,000 feet of penetration macadam on the Bedford Road
8. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1914: macadam on the Concord Road "within 4150 feet of being complete"; 1,200 feet built under the State engineer
9. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1915: 1,650 feet still to be macadamized for a through macadam road to Boston
10. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1916: macadam road on Concord Road completed with State and County aid
11. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1927: end of the "Billerica Road case" that held up rebuilding Concord Road
12. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1935: new macadam road 1,200 feet south from Billerica Square on Concord Road
13. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1937: first Chapter 90 job, widening and straightening Concord Road in the Centre to beyond Mitchell Hill
14. Annual Report of the Town of Billerica, 1953: town's share of roadways and water mains at the Route 3 overpasses on Concord, Rangeway and Treble Cove Roads
15. Massachusetts state highway layouts in Billerica: Route 3 layouts of 1952 and 1953 and the 1996 alteration at Concord Road
16. Annual Report 2017: Fall Town Meeting, October 2016, Article 36 accepts as public ways the roads shown on the official town map of 1831 (124 to 19)
17. Annual Report 2017: warrant for Article 36, the 1831 list of roads with their termini

Deed References Expand all

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