{"nrhp_refnum":"07000681","name":"Old Billerica Road Historic District","other_names":["Mitchell Grant","Billerica Rd.","East Rd.","Mill St."],"category":"district","location":{"address":"229-301 Old Billerica Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Bedford","county":"Middlesex County","state":"MA","lat":42.51133953450005,"lon":-71.25817477135845,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2007-07-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential and agricultural historic district of about 67 acres along a half-mile stretch of Old Billerica Road in northeast Bedford, Massachusetts. It contains 32 contributing buildings, plus sites and structures, ranging from a house begun in 1671 to mid-20th-century homes.","why_significant":"The district shows how a rural road of small family farms became a suburban residential neighborhood. The nomination highlights the 19th-century Clifton Stock Farm and the Parker family, who bought most of the parcels from the 1890s, ran a model farm and trotting stables, and shaped the area's transition to suburban housing. Its architecture spans Georgian through Colonial Revival and Modern, and fieldstone walls and mature trees preserve the rural setting.","narrative":"Old Billerica Road in northeast Bedford, Massachusetts, is lined with detached single-family houses, a church, old fieldstone walls and rows of mature maples across about 67 acres. The earliest building is the Michael Bacon House, begun in 1671, and later houses include Georgian, Victorian, Colonial Revival, Cape and Modernist designs. The district matters because it records the shift from small family farms to a suburban neighborhood. In the 1860s the Clifton Stock Farm introduced large-scale, professionally managed agriculture serving the Boston market. From the 1890s the Parker family acquired most of the land, holding more than 350 acres by 1911. They ran a dairy herd, greenhouses and a stable of champion trotters, with a half-mile racetrack just north of the district. Their land sales and estates later turned working farmland into house lots. Of the 51 resources counted, 34 contribute to the district's historic character, while newer houses and a church annex do not.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Colonial: Georgian; Early Republic: Federal; Mid-19th Century; Late Victorian; Late 19th & Early 20th Century: Colonial Revival; Modern: International","criteria":[],"status_note":"Houses along the road remain in residential use, and a former house serves as a church. Many have been updated and remodeled, and some modern infill houses are noncontributing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:13:04.884324-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/54/7957/63795754/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_MA/07000681.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000681/8b13aaf0de-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/07000681/8b13aaf0de-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"John Phelan","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capt_Jonathan_Wilson_House,_Bedford_MA.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">John Phelan</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Capt_Jonathan_Wilson_House,_Bedford_MA.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/63795754","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Billerica_Road_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14715793"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/massachusetts/middlesex-county/old-billerica-road-historic-district-07000681/"}