Dr. Albert C. Lane House
Dr. Albert C. Lane House
| Address | 420 Boston Rd |
| Built | 1889 |
| Moved | 1926 |
| New Address | 3 Andover Rd |
| Demolished | 1970 |
| Other Lot Structures |
Fletcher Hotel (1795 -
1877)
Town House (1797 - 1877) Mitchell Boys' School (1879 - 1888) Billerica Center Shops (Built 1915) Billerica Center Shops (Built 1927) Billerica Center Shops (Built 1947) |
In 1888, the Mitchell Boys' School on the corner of Boston and Andover burned to the ground. Later that year, the Mitchells sold to Dr. Albert C. Lane, who owned the Jenkins House a little further down Andover Road. Dr. Lane only operated his practice out of here for a few years before selling to the Tyler family in 1892. Dr. John Bennett Tyler ran the office for several years, until his death in 1915.
Around 1926, under the ownership of E. E. Gray Co., a grocery chain, the garage and barn were razed. The house was moved back from Boston Road and rotated to face Andover Road. This allowed room for the commercial block to be built along the main road, while retaining this beautiful house. The large wooden house appears in many postcards and aerial photos of Billerica Center. In 1961, when Henry J. McCormack owned the lot, he subdivided the land into the three buildings: the corner shops, the Brainerd Insurance building, and this house. In 1963 photographs, the building is still visible, but by 1971 photos, it's gone, replaced with the rear exit and parking lot for the shops.
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| September 1, 1888 | Warranty Deed | Mary Hanson Mitchell and Moses Campbell Mitchell her husband, of Billerica | Dr. Albert C. Lane of Billerica | 1888: Dr. Lane buys the corner and builds his house | 199/442 |
Dated Aug. 28, 1888. For $3,000, "a certain parcel of land situate in said Billerica containing one and one half acres more or less located in the centre of said Billerica nearly opposite the Unitarian Church", bounded north by the Andover and Tewksbury road, east by land formerly of Lyman Haynes, later Matthew Carey "and now by said Moses C. Mitchell", south by land formerly of Samuel W. Baldwin "and at present by J. F. Bruce", and west by the Boston and Lowell road, the Blanchard and Bruce lots, "being the same premises conveyed to Mary Hanson Mitchell by Albert R. Richardson by his deed dated April 7th 1880". No buildings are mentioned: the school had burned earlier in 1888. Lane built his house and office here.
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| August 26, 1892 | Warranty Deed | Dr. Albert C. Lane of Billerica (Estella J. Lane releasing dower and homestead) | Eliphalet W. Tyler of New York City | 1892: Dr. Lane sells the house to the Tyler family | 235/499 |
Dated Aug. 11, 1892. For $8,000, "a certain parcel of land situate in said Billerica containing one and one half acres more or less, located in the centre of said Billerica, nearly opposite the Unitarian Church", bounded by the Andover and Tewksbury road, Moses C. Mitchell (formerly Lyman Haynes and Mathew Carey), J. F. Bruce (formerly Samuel W. Baldwin) and the Boston and Lowell road, with the adjoining Bruce lot, "being the same premises conveyed to said Albert C. Lane by deed from said Mary Hanson Mitchell and Moses C. Mitchell dated August twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and eighty-eight". The price, against $3,000 in 1888, reflects the house Lane had built. Mrs. Lane's release of dower was re-recorded as a correction in Book 240, page 545.
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| June 10, 1897 | Mortgage | Eliphalet W. Tyler of New York City | Lowell Institution for Savings | 1897: mortgage of the Lane house property | 287/106 |
Dated June 1897. For $5,000 in one year at five per cent, the one and a half acres "in the centre of said Billerica nearly opposite the Unitarian Church", bounded north by "Andover and Tewksbury Road, sometimes called Andover Street" and west by "the Boston and Lowell Road now called Main St.", with "a certain other lot of land adjoining ... containing sixteen hundred and eighty square feet" (the 42 by 40 foot former Town House lot), "Being the same premises conveyed to me by Albert C. Lane by his deed dated August 11 1892". Discharged in Book 670, page 491.
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| April 21, 1905 | Quitclaim | Eliphalet W. Tyler of New York City (Elizabeth P. Tyler releasing dower and homestead) | Dr. John Bennett Tyler of Billerica | 1905: Dr. John B. Tyler takes title to the house | 376/79 |
Dated April 8, 1905. For one dollar and other valuable consideration, a quitclaim with covenants of the one and a half acres "located in the centre of said Billerica nearly opposite the Unitarian Church" and the adjoining Bruce lot, conveyed to the grantor by Albert C. Lane in 1892 (Book 235, Folio 499), subject to "a certain mortgage for Five Thousand Dollars held by the Lowell Institution for Savings payment of which is hereby assumed by the said John B. Tyler". Dr. Tyler kept his medical office in the house.
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| April 5, 1907 | Quitclaim | Dr. John Bennett Tyler of Billerica | F. Ella Flemings of Lowell | 1907: the Tyler house passes through an intermediary | 401/596 |
Dated April 5, 1907. For one dollar and other valuable consideration, the one and a half acres "located in the centre of said Billerica nearly opposite the Unitarian Church" and the adjoining Bruce lot, "all and the same premises to me conveyed by Eliphalet W. Tyler by deed dated April 8, 1905", subject to the Lowell Institution for Savings mortgage. A conveyance through an intermediary to put the title in Mrs. Tyler's name; Flemings deeded it to her the same day.
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| April 5, 1907 | Quitclaim | F. Ella Flemings of Lowell, unmarried | Jennie S. Tyler of Billerica, wife of Dr. John Bennett Tyler | 1907: Jennie S. Tyler takes title to the house | 401/597 |
Dated April 5, 1907. For one dollar and other valuable consideration, the same one and a half acres nearly opposite the Unitarian Church and the Bruce lot, "Being all and the same premises to me conveyed by John B. Tyler, husband of said Jennie S. Tyler by deed of even date", subject to the Lowell Institution for Savings mortgage.
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| December 21, 1916 | Warranty Deed | Jennie S. Tyler of Billerica, widow of Dr. John Bennett Tyler | J. Edward Allen of Billerica | 1916: the Tyler house is sold to J. Edward Allen | 565/189 |
Dated December 1916, a year after Dr. Tyler's death. For one dollar and other valuable considerations, "a certain tract or parcel of land situated in said Billerica containing an acre of land, more or less, located in the centre of said Billerica nearly opposite the Unitarian Church", bounded by the Andover and Tewksbury Road, "land formerly of Lyman Haynes, but now by land supposed to be of the Estate of Warren Evans, now deceased", J. F. Bruce and the Boston and Lowell Road, reciting the whole chain back to Mary Hanson Mitchell's deed to Albert C. Lane in 1888, subject to the $5,000 Lowell Institution for Savings mortgage, which Allen assumed. Allen gave Mrs. Tyler a mortgage back (Book 565, page 191), discharged in 1922.
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| October 8, 1924 | Quitclaim | E. Viola Allen (Emily V. Allen) of Billerica, widow | Gray Realty Company, Inc., of Boston | 1924: the house is sold with the corner and moved back to Andover Road | 713/401 |
Dated Oct. 7, 1924. "The land in said Billerica with the buildings thereon", 170.92 feet on Andover Road, a 34.04-foot curve at the corner, and 74.25 feet on Boston Road to Mabel O. McQuade, then behind the McQuade lot "to an elm tree at land now or formerly of J. F. Bruce", east "along a stone wall" 135.42 feet and back by Mitchell land to Andover Road, 30,507 square feet, "shown on a plan by Whitman and Howard, Civil Engineers, dated September 1924" (Plan Book 45, Plan 40), part subject to a $4,500 mortgage to the Central Savings Bank of Lowell. Gray Realty, the property arm of the E. E. Gray grocery chain, moved the Lane house back to face Andover Road and built the north section of the shops on the corner.
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| November 18, 1946 | Quitclaim | Gray Realty Company, Inc., of Boston, by Alton F. Tupper, treasurer | Frank Cohen of Billerica | 1946: the moved Lane house passes with the corner | 1057/170 |
Dated Nov. 15, 1946, recorded Nov. 18, 1946 (Book 1057, pages 170-172). "The land in Billerica ... with the buildings thereon, being the same premises shown on a plan by Whitman and Howard, Civil Engineers, dated September 1924 ... Plan Book 45, Plan 40", 30,507 square feet with the same metes as the 1924 deed, "Being the same premises conveyed to the grantor by deed of E. Viola Allen ... Book 713, Page 401". The $44 in revenue stamps implies a price of about $40,000. With the Norton heirs' south lot, this reunited the old hotel lot under one owner for the first time since 1922.
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| January 10, 1947 | Quitclaim | Frank Cohen of Billerica | Billerica Associates, Inc., of Billerica | 1947: the moved Lane house passes with the corner | 1060/395 |
Signed in December 1946, recorded Jan. 10, 1947. "The land in said Billerica, with the buildings thereon, situated on the easterly side of Boston Road and the southerly side of Andover Road", 130.25 feet on Boston Road, a 34.04-foot curve at the corner and 170.92 feet on Andover Road, east by Moses C. Mitchell 195.40 feet and south by Jasper F. Bruce 228.42 feet, 35,715 square feet, shown on the 1922 Norton plan (Plan Book 41, Plan 78) and the 1924 Whitman and Howard plan (Plan Book 45, Plan 40), "conveyed to me by two deeds, one from Grace N. King and others dated March 7, 1946 ... Book 1040 page 341, and the other from Gray Realty Company, Inc., dated November 15, 1946". Cohen's company joined the two stores into one block; it also took lots in Pinehurst Manor.
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| November 10, 1961 | Deed | Billerica Associates, Inc., by Mary Cohen, treasurer | Henry J. McCormack of Winchester | 1961: the moved Lane house is sold with the block; gone by 1971 | 1536/256 |
The stockholders' vote of Nov. 9, 1961 (recorded Nov. 10) and the deed after it. For $80,000, by assuming the Central Savings Bank mortgage of Oct. 3, 1958 ($55,104.35 still due) and the balance in cash, "the land in said Billerica, with the buildings thereon, situated on the easterly side of Boston Road and the southerly side of Andover Road", 35,715 square feet on Plan Book 41, Plan 78 and Plan Book 45, Plan 40. McCormack, the druggist who had leased the corner store since 1947, divided it in December 1961 into Lots A and B ("Subdivision plan of land in Billerica, owned by Henry J. McCormack", Emmons and Fleming, Plan Book 97, Plan 42), put it in a family trust in 1962, and in March 1975 sold Lots A and B (20,758 and 10,584 square feet) for $135,000 to a private owner. After a family transfer in 1987 the property was sold in 1998 for $310,000 to MAD Realty Trust, which holds it today.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.