Meet the real Pinehurst, replete with pines
What do these places have in common?
- Canobie Lake Park
- Whalom Park
- Salem Willows
- Pinehurst, Billerica
They all began as amusement parks. More specifically, amusement parks built circa 1900 by electric trolley companies. Why would trolley companies build amusement parks? To sell you the trolley tickets to get there! In the euphoric early days of public transit, “trolley parks” popped up near every major city, about 1,000 across the country. They offered no-tech amusements like baseball, bowling, vaudeville shows, concerts, dances and merry-go-rounds. Plus one high-tech amusement — the trolley rides to and from.
The Hudson, Pelham & Salem Electric Railway built Canobie Lake Park:
The Fitchburg & Leominster Street Railway built Whalom Park:
The Boston & Northern Street Railway built Salem Willows:
And the Lowell to Boston Street Railway built Pinehurst Park in Billerica, at the junction of Boston Road and Cook Street. This marked the beginning of the name “Pinehurst” in Billerica:
Here’s a 1901 press release for the local trolley line, with the new Pinehurst Park as the main attraction:
Pinehurst Park quickly became a cultural convention center, an ideal venue for just about anything:
By 1903, Billerica real estate was becoming de rigueur.
So why didn’t Pinehurst Park grow up big and strong like Canobie Lake Park? Very few trolley parks could navigate these headwinds:
- The advent of the automobile. Suddenly you could find amusement anywhere.
- The Great Depression. Suddenly you couldn’t afford amusement.
- Prohibition of alcohol. Suddenly you had to be sober during amusement.
- The worst-ever hurricane of 1938. Suddenly your amusement was buried under logs, like the PInehurst dance pavilion:

And so for every Canobie Lake Park there are many defunct Pinehurst Parks. In fact, there was indeed another Pinehurst Park in Worcester, built by the Worcester and Southbridge Street Railway:
Some trolley parks were reincarnated as other forms of amusement. Wonderland Park in Revere became a greyhound racing park:
Part of Pinehurst Park in Billerica came back to life as a drive-in movie theater. See the screen on the right?
Other trolley parks left no trace of themselves at all. Here’s Lakeview Park in Dracut, then and now:
Luckily, a large-scale amusement park came to the rescue in 1959. Never mind little trolley parks. Here came Pleasure Island in Wakefield, dubbed the Disneyland of the Northeast. Click the image to watch a video:
Alas, it folded a decade later, a victim of New England winters. The amusement business is no walk in the park, even when it’s a walk in the park.
Nowadays, Pinehurst refers to the area in Billerica surrounding the former Pinehurst Park. Because of the area’s cultural significance and population density, it’s a “census-designated place.” That means the feds gather population data about Pinehurst even through it’s not a separate town.
One corner in Pinehurst seems to be permanently earmarked for a certain function. This little Pinehurst store grew up to become a very popular barroom. For some people, Ma Newman’s was the sole reason to board the trolley. Here’s that same corner today:
Here’s a gallery from Debbie Barnes, whose great-grandparents had a general store/gas station/post office in the early 1900s:





Editor’s note: If you’re reading this article on a cell phone, it might not display correctly. Scroll to the very bottom and tap “exit mobile version.”
Special thanks to Kevin Murphy for the colorized Pinehurst postcards and the old Ma Newman’s postcard.
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Seventy years after I moved to Burlington I learned about the origin of Pinehurst.
Thanks
I think it is a “census designated place” is also because it has its own Post Office like Nuttings Lake.
Here’s the official description of a census-designated place: https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/bas/information/cdp.html
And here’s a list of them in Massachusetts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_census-designated_places_in_Massachusetts
My paternal grandmother used to say “she would take the Trolley from Athol to Revere” (way back, perhaps in the early 1900s) ; my maternal grandmother used to take us to Salem Willows (more recently) …
I recently made a FB page about this park! Thanks so much for doing this! Incredible information and pictures!
Heck, I was born 70 years ago and never knew the history of Pinehurst. Interesting article….
Excellent article, thanks for sharing. My sister now lives on Cook St across from the pines.
Great write up. really enjoyed it . thank you.
As a resident of Pinehurst, I’m always delighted to read about my area’s place in history. Pinehurst is full of recreation, with kayaking and canoeing on the Shawsheen River and lovely walks in the woods and wooded neighborhoods. Thank you for writing.
Love this history lesson!
excellent article of history………..i often wondered why they were digging up streetcar tracks when repairing winn street in burlington…….carl johnson, bhs,54