The County Road of 1641
Amoung the first inter-city roads built in Massachusetts was the County Road instituted by the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in October of 1641. It ran from the ferry landing near what is now Admiral's Hill to Salem, wigglling like a snake over Broadway, Park and Hawthorne Streets, up Washington Avenue to the Garfield Avenue car tracks. From Garfield Avenue, the road proceeded up Fenno Street straight over the hill into Revere, down the east side of Woodlawn Cemetary, and then following the boundary line between Everett and Revere. The County Road continued in a northeasterly direction toward Lynn, making a loop eastward through Saugus, Lynn and terminating in Salem. In the days in which this road was in heavy use, anyone wishing to go to Boston from the North Shore would use this road, taking the ferry at Chelsea for Boston. Another County Road and one which was more popular, wound its way to Medford, where it divided with one section going to Boston and the other going to Reading. The road started from the present County Road in Chelsea, continued along Ferry Street, Everett, to Belmont Street in Malden and from there to Medford. The road followed a trail made by Lt. Francis Smith in travelling between the ferry and his inn in Reading. In May of 1647 He and Lt. Sprague were appointed by the General Court to lay out the highway from Winnisimmet to Reading.