Talk:Billerica, Massachusetts

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Pronunciation[edit]

I have lived in Massachusetts for 15 years and have never heard someone pronounce Billerica as "bill-uh-RICK-a".

Perhaps this should be removed? 24.151.131.3 06:26, 3 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed, Bill-er-ic-a is correct for the place in England I guess (Bill-er-ic-ay actually I think) but not here. How about we replace it with the occasionally heard "Bricka" or "Somerville with Trees" as Howie Carr called it? CSZero 18:20, 12 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Hmmm, this is interesting. I came to Wikipedia hoping for some insight on the pronunciation of Billerica.
I grew up in North Billerica near the Manning State forest in the 60's and 70's and only ever heard two pronunciations: Bil le RICK a (say that with a short e) and B'Ricka. In fact, I had a friend, Bill Ricca, as in Ricca Egg Farms, and no one I knew confused him with town's name :-) That is, until the late 70's after a Channel 5 reporter did a story and pronounced it Bil RICK a. Unfortunately for us old-timers the power of the media spread this corruption and now most people think it was always like this. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.211.29.130 (talk) 14:25, 5 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Awwright, some anonymous IP address (71.184.10.129) has just removed the human-accessible pronunciation of this difficult town, leaving only the IPA pronunciation. "Redundant" and "inaccurate" said IP claims. Geez, the extra info is needed; nobody except linguistics nuts can parse IPA. Look, we're talking about Massachusetts here, where the towns' spoken names are only vaguely related to their spelling. And in the case of Billerica, the only two interesting things in the town are the prison (Billerica House of Correction) and the non-native visitors trying to pronounce it. The article doesn't mention the former at all, and now some do-gooder has removed our help for the latter.
We've *got* to show Bil-RICK-uh (or something like it) in order to reveal the usual pronunciation to the unwashed. (Those who say Bill-a-RICK-uh are on their own. They also add extra syllables to ath-a-let-ic and Arthur-itis, and probably can't get Haverhill correct, either.)
I'll re-insert some Pronunciation for the Common Man in due course, but I thought I'd hash it out here first, rather than starting an edit war. Snezzy (talk) 12:14, 9 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I grew up in Billerica, and only heard "Bill-a-rick-uh" said by confused non-natives. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, in Billerica and neighboring towns pronounces the name as "Bill-rick-uh", or, as was already said, the "nickname" "B'ricka". --Ericdn (talk) 16:48, 7 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I have lived in Massachusetts for over 50 years, including 45 in Middlesex county, 5 in Billerica, and more then 20 within 20 miles of Billerica. "bill-uh-RICK-a" is an extremely common pronuncication, especially in the Town of Billerica. As for the whining about "human-accessible" pronunciation, IPA is the Wikipedia standard, and for good reason. The "ad-hoc" pronunciation usually says more about the accent of the writer than the pronunciation of the word. 139.68.134.1 (talk) 17:59, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm afraid I have to disagree; I've never once heard anyone who's lived in Billerica for any appreciable amount of time pronounce the name with four syllables. --Ericdn (talk) 18:21, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm. Are we prescriptive, descriptive, or attempting to capture all viewpoints? My encounters with the four-syllable version of the name have, as I mentioned above, been with "outsiders" whose pronunciation came from attempting to read the written word, rather than hearing what was spoken. If we are doing all-viewpoints-descriptive, I suggest we also add extra pronunciations to some other towns (and I'm not troubling to IPA-ify my satire here!): Reeding, Salis-berry, Conn-cord, Stone-ham, Saw-merr-ville, Farmingham (as well as Farmington), Leo-minister, Dooster, War-chester, Lye-chester, and Glau-chester. I've heard most of those, just as I've occasionally heard someone trip over Spanish-named towns such as San Jose. Should we modify that one to include San Joe's and San Joe-see, just in case?

Oh, and for the particular case of Billerica, only the "accent of the writer" can capture the word. If your accent is from elsewhere (even if you happen to be misplaced in Billerica), you're wrong. Somerville with trees, got it? Somerville with trees. Snezzy (talk) 02:32, 9 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I too have lived in Billerica all my life. The pronounciation is BILL-RICK-AH (short A at the end). BILL-AH-RICK-AH is the old english pronouciation based on our namesake town in England (Billericay). Billericay was mentioned on the British sitcom "Are You Being Served?". Actor John Inman, as Mr Humphries, pronounced it as BILL-AH-RICKY, in a 1978 episode. When someone outside New England tries to pronounce it, I tell them it's BILL-RICK-AH, but will put on my regional accent afterwards and pronounce it BAH-RICKA and really confuse them. Hey at least I don't pronounce Chelmsford as Chemsfid, like they did back in the 1970s. Jph0917 (talk) 01:49, 2 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Are you talking about Chelmsfud? And anyway, you can just about tell how long a person has been here by counting the syllables they utter. There's out-of-towners, (Bill-er-ick-a, 4), local residents (Bill-rick-a, 3), and kids who've never lived anywhere else (Brick-a, 2). There are also the idiots (Bill-er-ick-er), who think we're applying a Boston accent when we tell them where we're from. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.7.38.63 (talk) 00:18, 9 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The contribution near the beginning of this section, the one that mentions Ricca Egg Farms, is mine. The original submission regarding the claim that Bill Rika is the correct pronunciation was offered by someone who admitted they had only lived in the town since the 80s. A corruption is a corruption. Whether with the pronunciation of a proper name or a simple vocabulary word. I offer for example the word affluent. How many of you of any age (I am 48 as of this writing, 5 October 2009) pronounced this word as AF flu ent and not the very recent corruption af FLU ent. I had never heard the latter form until only a few years ago and, like the corruption of the pronunciation of Billerica, it was committed by someone with a very big microphone. Maybe I will take a poll of some frequents of the Billerica Senior Center and report the results here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.217.39.252 (talk) 00:16, 6 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Improvements needed[edit]

The list of Notable Residents could be expanded to include the Mannings and probably several others. References to various towns, people and places could be made Wiki links. (Careful--Wikipedia already has an entry for William Manning, but it's a guy who lived in England at about the same time. Disambiguation would be needed.)

There is no mention of the famous residence dedicated to correcting the morally impaired.

I would do all this work myself, but tempus fugit, and besides, the margins of the page are too small.

As for pronunciation, I've heard Bill-RICK-uhh, Bill-RICK-er, Bill-a-RICK-a, and (from people who say Woe-burn, Have-er-hill and Wors-sh-chester) Bil-LER-ih-cah. Only Bill-RICK-uhh sounds right to my Wilmingtonian ears. Snezzy 04:05, 5 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that the article needs further improvement - we should be as proud of the article as we are of our town. I've been meaning to make some improvements for some time using literature and other information I have at hand. (Maybe even illustrate it with some of my photos?) When I get some time, I'll start working on it. Maybe others have some concrete ideas of what they'd like to contribute, too? --Ericdn (talk) 18:23, 8 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

History[edit]

This page currently states that Billerica was settled in 1638. There is no evidence that the area was settled that early, I am guessing that the date instead refers to the granting of land to Winthrop and Dudley. The first indication of settlement is about 1652. Rogbarn 19:19, 13 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Quoting from Henry Hazen's book "History of Billerica" (1883, reprinted 2005):
Regarding the first land grants in Billerica:

"...2 November [1637], the Court makes a large grant of land which fell within the bounds and bore important relations to the settlement of Shawshin. [...] This grant was enlarged and located 1638, May 2nd, as follows: - 'It was ordered by this prsent Coart that John Winthrope, Esqr, the prsent Governor, shall have 1200 acres of land whereof 1000 was formerly granted him, & Thomas Dudley, Esqr, the Deputy Governor, his 1000 acres granted to him by a former Courte'..."

(Hazen, 3-4)
Regarding the actual settlement of Billerica, including the mysterious "Shawsheen House", which apparently was occupied before the actual settlement of Billerica began:

"This brings us to the settlement of the Shawshin wilderness, unless the Shawshin House, already mentioned, but of which we know so little, constituted an exception. In what year, at what place, or by whom the settlement was begun, is not known. It is probable that Henry Jefts was here in 1652, for his infant daughter, Hannah, died in the town 'ye first weeke' of May, 1653; the earliest event noted in the Town Records. [...] And in October, 1654, a petition to the General Court bears fourteen signatures, and 'the most of' the 'petitioners are already seated' here."

(Hazen, 15)
So, you're exactly right about the dates. I'll make the necessary changes on the article page. I'm not at all a fan of the "history" section - it looks like it was just copied out of a textbook. --Ericdn (talk) 17:11, 7 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Couple of other interesting facts should denote some of the older buildings and schools. The former Thomas Ditson Schoool on 3A, former Bennet Public Libary in the center and the former Pollard School (grade 5 only) that was torn down in the early 80's and is now a public park. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Tree1985 (talk • contribs) 14:35, 21 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

WikiProject Cities assessor[edit]

Hey all, I'm the WikiProject Cities assessor of this article. If feedback is what you want and need, come to my talk page and give me a holler! --Starstriker7(Dime algoor see my works) 01:56, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Added photo: library[edit]

In my ongoing (but, unfortunately, very infrequent) effort to improve the quality of the article, I added a photo of the present library (my own photograph) to the beginning of the article above the infobox. I was torn between a photo of this building and the Unitarian Church (which I also have a very good photo of), but I ultimately decided on this one, as the building was also the town hall for roughly a century. If, however, the article ever gets a good religion section, I am more than willing to share this photo, located here, for the article, too. --Ericdn (talk) 03:30, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Education[edit]

I added a cleanup tag to the Education section. It needs some substantial rewriting to bring it up to the level of an encyclopedia article. Any help to improve the article is very welcome; otherwise, it will get added to my to-do list. --Ericdn (talk) 03:51, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

My first major cleanup of this section is completed. I added several sources from the web, as well as cleaned up the table and the various texts. Certainly, this section needs a more thorough history... still on my to-do list. --Ericdn (talk) 07:43, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Transportation[edit]

I moved two paragraphs from History (Middlesex Canal and Boston & Lowell Railroad → MBTA), as well as Narrow Gauge, to Transportation. Narrow Gauge still needs to be substantially rewritten. --Ericdn (talk) 07:53, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

hills in Billerica[edit]

The remaining reference seems to be a typo in the transcription. If you click on the Page images link, it refers to Billerica Mills, not "Billerica Hills". See [1] Faolin42 (talk) 00:55, 9 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

drugs/crime[edit]

these two areas play a significant role in billerica whether people want to realize it or not. just take a look at the billerica police departments website. i feel at least a small section should be added — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.20.18.139 (talk) 19:15, 3 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

A police blotter is not a newspaper and does not reflect the actual crime rate. Crimes happen in every town.--24.147.75.237 (talk) 16:39, 9 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Environment[edit]

Where have all the references to pollution gone (the town having to pay for their illicit dumping in our rivers, et al)? Furthermore, our superfund site, Iron Horse park had a page in the not too distant past if I remember, and now hasn't even a mention. As one of the most polluted pieces of real estate in the United States, and one of the last that is completely accessible to humans and wildlife, I find this rather off-putting. Could anyone share some insight? Thanks. 71.234.39.35 (talk) 05:11, 19 August 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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Location of border withTewksbury[edit]

The border between Billerica and Tewksbury is a single point, where the Towns of Billerica, Chelmsford, and Tewksbury, and the City of Lowell meet. The Wikipedia articles claim that the boundary is "in the middle of the Concord River," while the official zoning and assessment maps of the municipalities, as well as USGS topographical maps, all locate the point on the east bank of the river. I corrected the article, and my edits were promptly reverted. So I added a "[citation needed]" tag instead, and that was also immediately reverted. I challenged the unsupported claim with a tag, and being unable to provide evidence, the reverting editor simply deleted the tag. If I add the "[citation needed]" tag again, I ask that the reverting editor to engage in this discussion before reverting. My sources for the east bank location are official maps of municipal agencies and the US federal government. What are your sources for the "middle of the river" location?

Clarification: The border between Billerica and Lowell is a single point. The border between Chelmsford and Tewksbury is also at that same point. The section title is incorrect, but I am retaining it because it is mentioned in a relevant edit summary. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1000:B070:C50F:D1C7:4B7A:F6B2:F673 (talk) 15:02, 6 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

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