Talk:Billerica, Massachusetts

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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)

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)

[edit] Pronunciation

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.

[edit] Improvements needed

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)

[edit] History

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)