Andover By-Pass
Massachusetts Route 125, known locally as the Andover Bypass or Andover By-pass was constructed to reduce traffic on the Phillips Academy campus and in downdown Andover. The Trustees of Phillips Academy, under the leadership of Alumni Thomas Cochran, who was also the benefactor for the Cochran Wild Life Sanctuary. Phillips Academy bought the land and the state constructed the road, which officially opened in 1931. [1] The plans for the original 5-mile stretch from South Main Street in Andover to Massachusetts Route 114, The Salem Turnpike were made public in the spring of 1930. [2] [3] [4]
Construction of the Andover By-pass was part of a significant road building plan managed by the Commonwealth aiming to improve travel, commerce and unemployment. [5]
Land acquisitions for completion of the project were listed in the Andover Townsman on April 11, 1930. [6] Fifty six private land deeds were managed by Phillips Academy Comptroller Henry Hopper under the direction of Cochran in order to secure the land necessary to build the road. [7]
The Andover By-Pass opened for travel in August of 1931 with two ten-foot concrete lanes and a ten foot macadam center. [8] [9] The first state highway road signs on the new by-pass caused controversy in Andover when it was observed that they listed the number of miles to Haverhill, Lawrence and North Andover but not Andover. Andover business owners complained that the Town of Andover had been slighted. [10]
In late September of 1964, Irvin Hilton, the operator of a Texaco filling station at the corner of Salem Street on the bypass was stabbed and shot to death by previously convicted killer George Nassar of Mattapan. [11] [12] For some time, Nassar was considered to be a possible suspect in the Boston Strangler killings of the early 1960s. At one time, Nassar was a cellmate of the accused Boston Strangler, Albert DeSalvo.
REFERENCES
- ↑ Andover's New Roads, The Andover Townsman, June 13, 1930, p.1.
- ↑ Memorial Highway in Andover Planned Private Capital Mostly Used to Purchase Land, The Boston Globe, March 14, 1930.
- ↑ The new cut off, The Andover Townsman, March 28, 1930, p.4.
- ↑ Andover to have by-pass, The Andover Townsman, March 14, 1930.
- ↑ Record Road Building Project Well Launched by State, Boston Evening Transcript, April 11, 1931.
- ↑ Real Estate Transactions, The Andover Townsman, April 11, 1930, p. 2.
- ↑ Feuss, Claude, Independent Schoolmaster, Little, Brown Publishers, Boston, 1952.
- ↑ New cut-off opened early last month, The Phillipian, September 19, 1931.
- ↑ $800,000 in two new important Massachusetts Highways, The Boston Transcript, August 13, 1931, p.2
- ↑ Motorists say by-pass signs misleads them, The Andover Townsman, August 21, 1931, p. 1
- ↑ Brutality of Slaying Stuns All Andover, The Andover Townsman, October 1, 1964.
- ↑ Cooper, Doug. A Gas Station Holdup in Andover and its Connection to the Boston Strangler, History Buzz (substack blog) Andover Center for History and Culture, February 22, 2023.
See
- "History of the Andover By-Pass (Route 125)"The Andover Townsman, September 17, 2015, page 11
--Stephanie (talk) 11:14, 15 May 2024 (EDT)
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