C. P. Talbot Mill Worker Housing at 19 21 Old Elm St
C. P. Talbot Mill Worker Housing at 19 21 Old Elm St
The C. P. Talbot Mill Worker Housing at 19-21 Old Elm Street is a two-family company house on the north side of Old Elm Street in North Billerica, built by C. P. Talbot and Co. for workers at the Talbot Mills. It stands a few doors west of the mill, between the corner of Lowell Street and the old John Mixer House lot, and it appears on the map of 1875.
The land was part of the mill grant the town made to Capt. Christopher Osgood in 1708, which Thomas Richardson sold with the mills to the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal in 1794. The canal had Samuel Whiting lay out house lots along the road below its locks in 1816, and on June 1, 1833 it sold lots 17 and 18, west of John Mixer's lots, to Israel A. Colson, whose family gave its name to Colson Street. On March 30, 1857, the year the Talbots began their mill, Colson sold the two lots to Charles P. Talbot and Thomas Talbot for $487.50: eight rods "on the Northerly side of the road leading from the dwelling house of the late Oliver Farmer deceased to the Canal Mills", running back to the canal's towing path.
The Talbots built company housing on the lots, and in 1884 Thomas Talbot and the heirs of Charles P. Talbot conveyed it to The Talbot Mills. On the Monahan plan of 1936 this house became Lot 67 of Plan B, 5,958 square feet with 76.55 feet on Elm Street and a right of way along its side to the lots behind. On June 25, 1937 the company sold it to Alfred and Marie M. Christianson of Lowell, who mortgaged it several times to Lowell banks over the next thirteen years.
The house later belonged to private owners, and in 1978, after their mortgage went into default, the bank sold it at auction for $16,300 to CRT Development Corporation, the company that then owned the old Talbot mill. It stayed with the mill property through the 1980 reorganization of CRT Development, the 1998 sale to Cambridge Tool and Manufacturing (Leggett and Platt) and the 2008 transfer to L&P Aluminum Holdings, which sold it to a private owner in 2023. The house is a contributing building in the Billerica Mills National Register district (1983) and the local historic district (1992).
References
- MACRIS BIL.88
- Billerica assessor, 19-21 Old Elm St (parcel 9-101-0): Lot 67, Plan Book 60 Plan 28, two-family
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| March 31, 1794 | Deed | Solomon, Moses and Nathan Carleton, Jesse Manning, Thomas Todd, Thomas Laws and Thomas Mears, heirs of John Carleton, with their wives | Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman | 1783 the Carleton heirs sell the Osgood mill land west of the river to Thomas Richardson | 115/271 (South) |
Billerica town book 9, pages 87-91. Dated April 17, 1783, recorded March 31, 1794. For 818 pounds "lawful Silver money", "about forty Acres of Land ... on the West side of Concord River ... Easterly on said River, Westerly on the highway it being about two thirds of the land which was granted by the Town of Billerica unto Capt. Christopher Osgood", two thirds "of the Mills commonly known by the name of Osgoods or Carletons Mills" and two thirds of the dam and stream with the buildings, "as the same was set off by the Committee for the Widows Thirds", "meaning to convey two thirds of the Homested and Mills and Buildings thereon standing and the Shop is wholley conveyed". Richardson takes on two thirds of the 1708 town conditions, the Ruggles agreement and the repair of "the Bridge or Road" below the dam. Richardson later bought the widow's dower interest (S.115/274 and others) and in 1794 sold the whole as Richardson's Mills to the Middlesex Canal.
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| April 21, 1794 | Deed | Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman (Judith Richardson releasing dower) | Ebenezer Hall of Medford and Samuel Jaques of Wilmington, a committee for the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal | 1794 Richardson sells about forty acres at the mills to the Middlesex Canal, which laid out house lots on the road | 115/259 (South) |
For 1350 pounds, "about forty acres of Land" bounded easterly by Concord River, westerly by the highway and northerly and southerly by the road; the reversion of half the dower of the widow Hannah Carlton, conveyed to him by Solomon, Moses and Nathan Carlton; five sixths of a small piece at the northeast end of the mill dam, bounded easterly "by Timothy Sprague's Ditch that conveys Water to the Fulling mill"; "together with all the Buildings ... including the Mills Mill priviledges ... commonly known by the name of Richardson's Mills being the same which was formerly granted by the Town of Billerica to Christopher Osgood together with the Mill Dam and Stream", on the conditions of the town's vote of October 4, 1708, a passage for fish, and his 1791 agreement with Timothy Sprague. Dated March 25, 1794; recorded April 21, 1794. Billerica town book 9, pages 81-82. The Canal Mills land from which the proprietors sold their small house lots.
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| April 8, 1857 | Warranty Deed | Israel A. Colson of Billerica (Rachel Colson releasing dower) | Charles P. Talbot of Lowell and Thomas Talbot of Billerica, manufacturers | 1857 Israel A. Colson sells canal lots 17-18, the Elm Street frontage between Mixer's land and Lowell Street, to the Talbots | 9/145 |
Dated March 30, 1857. For $487.50, "a tract of land situate in said Billerica on the Northerly side of the road leading from the dwelling house of the late Oliver Farmer deceased to the Canal Mills": by John Mixer's land 10 1/2 rods back toward the canal, 8 rods on the road "to a stone post", by land formerly of the canal 14 1/2 rods, and by the towing path, lots 17 and 18 on Samuel Whiting's plan of May 27, 1816, which the Middlesex Canal had sold Colson on June 1, 1833.
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| October 16, 1884 | Guardian's Deed | Harriet Talbot et al., by their guardian | The Talbot Mills, Billerica | 1884 Talbot heirs (by guardian) to The Talbot Mills, the fifth parcel, which included Lot 67 | 169/468 |
Known from the grantee index 1881-1900 (Talbot Mills-Billerica, index page 82): received October 16, 1884, "N Billerica. Several parcels, water rts, mill privileges &c, see record", recorded with the deed of Thomas Talbot et al. (Book 169 Page 472). Book 169 images are unavailable at the registry; not read.
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| October 16, 1884 | Deed | Thomas Talbot et al. | The Talbot Mills, Billerica | 1884 Thomas Talbot and others to The Talbot Mills, the fifth parcel, which included Lot 67 | 169/472 |
Known from the grantee index 1881-1900 (Talbot Mills-Billerica, index page 82): received October 16, 1884, "N Billerica. Several parcels, water rts, mill privileges &c, see record." Later Talbot Mills deeds cite it with Book 169 Page 468 as the deeds "from the Talbot heirs" to the new corporation (one recites a deed of Thomas Talbot et als. dated Oct. 15, 1884). The registry shows "Image is Unavailable" for Book 169, so the deed itself was not read; that it covered the land of the future Oval, part of the C. P. Talbot and Company property west of Wilson Street on the 1881 plan, is inferred.
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| June 28, 1937 | Quitclaim | Talbot Mills, by Thomas T. Clark, Treasurer | Alfred Christianson and Marie M. Christianson, husband and wife, of Lowell | 1937 The Talbot Mills sells the house as Lot 67 to the Christiansons | 900/141 |
Dated June 25, 1937 ($1.50 in stamps). "The land in said Billerica with the buildings thereon situated on the northwesterly side of Elm Street": SE by Elm Street 76.55 feet, W by Lot 66 118.51 feet, N and NE by other land of the grantor along a right of way, 5,958 square feet, Lot 67 on Plan "B" (Plan Book 60 Plan 28). "Being a part of the fifth parcel of land described in two deeds to the grantor" of Oct. 15, 1884 (Book 169 Pages 468 and 472). The right of way along Lot 67 to the lots behind is "forever kept open for the common use"; the mill kept the common sewer.
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| June 28, 1937 | Mortgage | Alfred Christianson and Marie M. Christianson, husband and wife, of Lowell | Union Old Lowell National Bank | 1937 Christianson purchase mortgage | 900/142 |
Recorded June 28, 1937 with the deed. The Christiansons mortgage Lot 67 on the northwesterly side of Elm Street for $1,200 at five percent, payable $9.49 a month from Aug. 1, 1937. The grantor index shows later Christianson mortgages of Lot 67 to the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank in 1941, 1944, 1947 and 1950 (Books 956/469, 1011/467, 1068/112, 1135/531).
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| June 20, 1978 | Foreclosure Deed | Commonwealth Federal Savings and Loan Association (formerly First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lowell), mortgagee | C R T Development Corporation of Faulkner Street, North Billerica | 1978 foreclosure sale of Lot 67 to CRT Development Corporation | 2309/102 |
Dated May 23, 1978. Under the power of sale in a 1970 mortgage from the private owners of the house (Book 1918 Page 516), the bank sold Lot 67 at auction in May 1978 to CRT Development Corporation, the owner of the old Talbot mill, for $16,300: 5,958 square feet on the northwesterly side of Elm Street, "Being part of the 5th parcel" of the 1884 Talbot Mills deeds. The owners had bought it on April 17, 1970; earlier owners after the Christiansons were private.
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| July 25, 1980 | Deed | The stockholders of C R T Development Corporation | CRT Development, a limited partnership | 1980 Lot 67 passes to the partnership CRT Development | 2429/701 |
Recorded July 25, 1980, for $1. In the liquidation of CRT Development Corporation the stockholders, who had received Lot 67 from the corporation by deed of July 9, 1980 recorded the same day, convey "a certain parcel of land with all the buildings standing or placed thereon" on Elm Street, Lot 67 on Plan Book 60 Plan 28, to the partnership CRT Development.
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| February 19, 1998 | Quitclaim Deed | CRT Development, a Massachusetts limited partnership, by Dieter B. Morlock, general partner | Cambridge Tool & Mfg. Co., Inc. (of Leggett & Platt, Carthage, Missouri) | 1998 CRT Development sells Lot 67 with the Mears Tavern lots to Cambridge Tool and Mfg. Co. | 9068/30 |
For $137,500, three parcels "with the buildings and improvements thereon": Lot 3 on Plan 60/25 (4-6 Wilson Street), Lot 2 on Plan 60/25, "the land in Billerica with the buildings thereon situated on the Southerly side of Elm Street and the Easterly side of Wilson Street," 6,950 square feet (the Mears Tavern), and Lot 67 on Plan 60/28 across Elm Street. Signed February 11, 1998; recorded February 19, 1998, with a municipal lien certificate for 12 Old Elm Street.
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| April 4, 2008 | Warranty Deed | Leggett & Platt, Incorporated, a Missouri corporation, successor in interest to Cambridge Tool & Mfg. Co., Inc. | L&P Aluminum Holdings, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company (c/o Pace Industries, Fayetteville, Arkansas) | 2008 Leggett and Platt to L&P Aluminum Holdings, LLC, which sold Lot 67 to a private owner in 2023 | 22079/41 |
Dated March 27, 2008, consideration $0: the same parcels, including the FIFTH PARCEL, Lots 70 and 71 on Plan Book 60, Plan 28 (17,391 square feet). Recorded April 4, 2008. The site of the Mixer house is part of assessor parcel 9-94-0, 1 Old Elm Street (9.3 acres, the old Talbot mill), owned to date by L&P Aluminum Holdings LLC.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.