Structure · Built 1848
Aaron Choate House
The Aaron Choate House at 154 High Street in North Billerica was built about 1848 by Aaron Choate, a carpenter from New Hampshire, on a lot cut from the farm of Calvin Rogers. On January 17, 1848 Rogers sold Choate "one lot of land containing one acre and three fourths" for $275, twelve rods along the road from North Billerica to Billerica Centre and bounded on the other three sides by Rogers's own land. Choate was to build a fence on the south side and keep up the walls on the west and north. The deed names no buildings.
Choate, described as a joiner, mortgaged the lot for $150 to Thomas J. Jenkins in April 1848 and paid it off in June 1849; a second $150 loan from Constantine Choate of Barrington, New Hampshire followed in 1849. The 1850 census lists Aaron Choat, 37, a mechanic born in New Hampshire, with real estate worth $1,000, his wife Ruth and their children Martin and Martha. H. F. Walling's 1853 map of the county marks the house "A. Choate" on the west side of the road south of C. French. On September 22, 1855 Choate sold Calvin Rogers "my Homestead ... with the buildings thereon standing" for $1,075.
Rogers added the surrounding land to the homestead, and the sixteen acres became known as the "Choat Place". On December 8, 1858 he sold it, "with the buildings thereon", to Lyman Haynes and Dudley Foster for $1,550. The deed bounds it on Russell Street, as this stretch of High Street was then called, by land of J. Kitchen on the south, Rogers on the north and Thomas Talbot on the west. On August 15, 1861 Haynes and Foster sold "our Choat Place" to Bernard Kearney for $1,600, reserving the season's pasture already leased to John Kitchen.
Bernard Kearney farmed the place for the rest of his life. The 1870 agricultural census credits him with 14 acres of improved land and 3 unimproved, and the 1875 Beers atlas marks the house "B. Carney" beside J. Rowell. After his death his heirs, Bernard W. Kearney and Edward H. Kearney, conveyed the farm in 1930 to John B. Kearney of Boston, who sold the sixteen acres "with the buildings thereon" to William M. and Sofia H. Davies in 1943.
In 1949 the surveyor E. P. Simpson drew a "Sketch of the Kearney Farm" dividing it into a 10-acre northerly parcel and a 7-acre southerly one. The plan notes that High Street had been "the road leading to Gov. Winthrop's widow's farm" in 1700, the road to Belvidere in 1800 and the East Lowell Road before taking its present name. The Davieses sold the northerly ten acres with the house to Joseph L. and Sadie E. Broussard of Waverly in May 1949. After both Broussards died, a commissioner appointed by the Probate Court sold the property in 1955 for $8,000 to private owners, who had the land divided into three lots in 1982 and kept the house on the middle lot of about 1.2 acres.
References
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| April 12, 1848 | Mortgage | Aaron Choate of Billerica, joiner, Ruth Choate his wife releasing dower | Thomas J. Jenkins of Billerica, victualler | Aaron Choate mortgages the lot to Thomas J. Jenkins, probably to build | 534/97 (South) |
Billerica town book 20, pages 56-57. April 8, 1848, for $150 payable in one year with interest, the same 1 3/4 acres beginning at the northeast corner "at the road and land of Calvin Rogers". Acknowledged before Marshall Preston, Justice of the Peace. Jenkins acknowledged "full satisfaction" from Choate on June 14, 1849 before Dudley Foster (recorded July 26, 1849). A loan taken three months after the purchase, most likely to build the house.
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| April 12, 1848 | Warranty Deed | Calvin Rogers of Billerica, Ann Rogers his wife releasing dower | Aaron Choat (Choate) of Billerica | Calvin Rogers sells Aaron Choate the bare 1 3/4-acre house lot | 534/98 (South) |
Billerica town book 20, pages 58-59. Jan. 17, 1848, for $275, "one lot of land containing one acre and three fourths more or less": beginning at the northeast corner at a stake and stones by the road, south 12 rods on the street, westerly 24 rods 13 1/2 feet by land of Calvin Rogers, northerly 12 rods and easterly 21 rods by Rogers to the start. Choat was to build a sufficient fence on the south side and "have the wall on the west and north sides and keep the same in good repair". No buildings are named: the lot was cut from Rogers's farm on the road from North Billerica to Billerica Centre (High Street). Acknowledged April 7, 1848 before Saml. Rogers, Justice of the Peace.
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| 1849 | Mortgage | Aaron Choate of Billerica, carpenter | Constantine Choate of Barrington, N.H. | Aaron Choate mortgages the lot to Constantine Choate | 565/273 (South) |
Billerica town book 20, pages 307-308. For $150 payable in two years with interest, "a certain tract of land situated in the Northerly part of said Billerica and containing one and three quarters acres", same bounds, "it being the same land conveyed to me by Calvin Rogers deed dated January 17, 1848 ... Book 534 page 98". Constantine Choate assigned the mortgage to John H. Winkley on Sept. 28, 1855 (Middlesex North Book 2, Page 230), the day the sale to Calvin Rogers was recorded.
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| September 28, 1855 | Warranty Deed | Aaron Choat of Billerica, carpenter, Ruth Choat his wife releasing dower | Calvin Rogers of Billerica, yeoman | Aaron Choate sells "my Homestead ... with the buildings" to Calvin Rogers | 2/231 |
Pages 231-232. Sept. 22, 1855, for $1,075, "my Homestead containing one acre and three fourths, more or less, situate in North Billerica", same bounds (12 rods on the street, 24 rods 13 1/2 feet, 12 rods and 21 rods by land of Calvin Rogers), "with the buildings thereon standing, it being land conveyed to me by said Calvin Rogers, deed dated Jan'y 17th 1848 ... Book 534 Page 98". The price had risen from $275 to $1,075 with the house. Witnesses Dudley Foster and Charles Shirley; acknowledged before Dudley Foster, Justice of the Peace.
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| January 3, 1859 | Warranty Deed | Calvin Rogers of Billerica, yeoman, Ann Rogers his wife releasing dower | Lyman Haynes and Dudley Foster of Billerica | Calvin Rogers sells the 16-acre "Choat Place" to Haynes and Foster | 17/433 |
Pages 433-434. Dec. 8, 1858, for $1,550, "my Choat Place so called, situate in North Billerica containing sixteen acres more or less": beginning at the southeasterly corner on Russell Street so called at land of J. Kitchen, north 17 degrees west on the street 40 3/5 rods to stake and stones at Rogers's own land, westerly by his land 58 4/5 rods to land of Thomas Talbot, southerly by Talbot 57 4/5 rods, easterly by Talbot 14 rods 4 links to Kitchen, northerly by Kitchen 10 2/5 rods, north 58 1/2 degrees east by Kitchen 35 1/2 rods to the beginning, "with the buildings thereon". Rogers had added the land around Choate's homestead; the division fence against Talbot on the west was to be built by Talbot. Witnesses Elvira Rogers and Harriet B. Rogers; acknowledged Dec. 11, 1858 before Amos Spalding. Haynes and Foster gave Rogers an $800 mortgage the same day.
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| April 16, 1864 | Warranty Deed | Lyman Haynes and Dudley Foster of Billerica, Caroline Haynes and Louisa P. Foster their wives releasing dower and homestead | Bernard Kearney of Billerica | Haynes and Foster sell the Choat Place to Bernard Kearney | 37/412 |
Pages 412-413. Aug. 15, 1861, for $1,600, "our Choat Place so called, situate in North Billerica, containing sixteen acres more or less", same bounds (Russell Street, J. Kitchen, Calvin Rogers, Thomas Talbot), "with all the buildings thereon"; "Reserving the use of the pasture the present season as leased to John Kitchen", and subject to the $800 mortgage to Calvin Rogers of Dec. 8, 1858, which Kearney was to pay. Witnesses Charles R. Haynes and M. A. Haynes; acknowledged before Thos. H. Parker; not recorded until April 16, 1864.
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| May 23, 1930 | Quitclaim | Bernard W. Kearney of Billerica (Katherine A. Kearney his wife) and Edward H. Kearney of Boston (Mary Louise Kearney his wife), heirs of Bernard Kearney | John B. Kearney of Boston | Bernard Kearney's heirs to John B. Kearney | 790/36 |
May 20, 1930, "as heirs of Bernard Kearney, late of Billerica", "the land in Billerica ... with buildings thereon", with the same 16-acre bounds "on the street now or formerly known as Russell Street", by land now or formerly of J. Kitchen, Calvin Rogers and Thomas Talbot; "being the same premises conveyed to Bernard Kearney by deed dated August 15, 1861" (the deed cites Book 37, Page 412 as in the Middlesex South registry; it is Middlesex North). Acknowledged before John P. McBride, Justice of the Peace.
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| August 25, 1943 | Quitclaim | John B. Kearney of Boston, Kathleen M. Kearney his wife releasing dower and homestead | William M. Davies and Sofia H. Davies of Billerica, tenants by the entirety | John B. Kearney sells the 16-acre farm to the Davieses | 995/524 |
Pages 524-525. Aug. 23, 1943, "the land in Billerica ... with the buildings thereon", the same 16 acres on "the street now or formerly known as Russell Street", "being the same premises conveyed to the grantor by deed dated May 20, 1930 ... Book 790, Page 36". The Davieses gave back a $2,200 mortgage to Kearney (page 525).
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| May 6, 1949 | Quitclaim | William M. Davies and Sofia H. Davies of Billerica | Joseph L. Broussard and Sadie E. Broussard of Waverly, tenants by the entirety | the 10-acre northerly parcel with the house to the Broussards; later sales | 1114/521 |
May 6, 1949, "the land in North Billerica ... with the buildings thereon, situated on the southwesterly side of High Street, containing ten acres, being shown as the northerly parcel on a plan entitled Sketch of the Kearney Farm by E. P. Simpson, Surveyor, dated May 1, 1949" (Plan Book 75, Plan 38A): northeasterly on High Street 493 feet, northwesterly by land of Richard J. Conway, Fred W. Martin, Myles Finnegan, Robert G. Damon and one Sokol 970.20 feet, southwesterly by the same and land of one Talbot 493 feet, southeasterly by the Davieses' remaining 7 acres 970 feet, all bounded by stone walls; "part of the premises to us conveyed by John B. Kearney" (Book 995, Page 524; the deed misdates it 1948). The Broussards mortgaged it to the City Institution for Savings, Lowell, for $4,500 (page 522). After the deaths of Joseph and Sadie Broussard their heirs held it until a commissioner appointed by the Probate Court to make partition sold the ten acres "with the buildings thereon" for $8,000 to private owners on Aug. 25, 1955 (Book 1305, Page 498). Those owners had the land divided in 1982 into Lots A, B and C (Plan Book 138, Plan 41) and kept the house on Lot B, 51,102 square feet, which passed to a family trust in 2011 (Book 25299, Page 227).
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.