Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 14-16 Rogers St
Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 14-16 Rogers St
This double house on the east side of Rogers Street in North Billerica stands on land that was part of the farm William Rogers bought from Dr. Roger Toothaker in 1782, on the road from the Canal Mills to Billerica Centre. William Rogers left the farm to his son Calvin Rogers, and in August 1859 Calvin and Ann Rogers sold the village end of it, a tract "with the buildings now standing thereon" at the junction of the roads to Billerica Centre and Tewksbury, to the woolen manufacturers James R. Faulkner and Charles Faulkner.
The Faulkners' lot of 6 acres 95 rods passed with the rest of their property to the Faulkner Manufacturing Company in November 1880, when Charles Faulkner, in his own right and as executor of his brother, deeded the mill and its lands to the corporation. The house was built in these years: the 1981 state inventory dates it "between 1875 & 1887" from the town maps. It was company housing, rented to families who worked in the Faulkner mill across the street.
In August 1911 the company had Smith and Brooks survey its 6.37 acres east of Rogers Street, and after the stockholders voted in 1914 to sell real estate "not needed for the business" it began selling the houses. Lot C, the old William Rogers House next door, went to Timothy John McCarthy Jr. and Mary Etta McCarthy in 1916. On January 24, 1917 the company sold Lot D, "the land ... with the buildings thereon, containing about 22,072 square feet", to Eugene and Mary Phair for $2,250. The plan recorded with that deed draws the house close to the street with a rear ell and a separate outbuilding behind.
The Phairs sold the house in July 1922 to Francis and Bronislawa Kawa, who a month earlier had bought the four and a half acres of former company land behind it, running back to the Boston and Maine Railroad. The two parcels then passed together: to Kastantas and Mary Lapinskas in 1933, to Kastantas Kelkus of Boston in 1941, to Ona Cibulski of Bedford in September 1944, and in November 1944 to Edward Cibulski. In 1956 Edward Cibulski sold the house lot and two acres behind it to a married couple who were still living there when the house was inventoried in 1981 and whose family kept it into the 2020s. Part of the back land was later divided into house lots on Sycamore Lane. The lot itself has the same bounds it was given in 1917.
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Title References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| March 17, 1783 | Deed | Roger Toothaker, yeoman, and Mary Toothaker | William Rogers, husbandman | 1782: Dr. Roger Toothaker sells the Toothaker farm on the road to Billerica Centre to William Rogers | 84/626 (South) |
For 200 pounds, two tracts in Billerica: the first beginning at the southwest corner at stake and stones, northerly as the road goes, easterly by the road and the heirs of Capt. William Stickney, by Samuel Rogers, southerly by the Stickney heirs to a ditch, northerly along the ditch, westerly and southeasterly to a pine tree and westerly to the first bound, "containing twenty seven acres ... with a Dwelling house & Barn standing thereon"; the second, three acres beginning at the southeast corner, northerly by the highway to a stone, westerly by Joseph Ruggles "to the mill pond," southerly by the pond to Jonathan Pollard and easterly by Pollard to the first bound. Mary Toothaker quits her right. Signed April 8, 1782, "in the sixth year of the Independency," before Robert Harris and David Morrill Jr.; acknowledged March 14, 1783. William Rogers was 23. Billerica town book 7, pages 399-400.
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| October 14, 1789 | Will | Samuel Rogers of Billerica, yeoman | His son William Rogers (and son Thomas) | 1789: Samuel Rogers wills the rest of the Toothaker farm to William Rogers | Probate #19484 |
Will dated March 25, 1789, signed by his mark, witnessed by Zebadiah Rogers, Joshua Abbot and Edward Farmer; presented by the executors William and Thomas Rogers and proved October 14, 1789 (Oliver Prescott, judge). "I bequeath to my son, William, the whole of my Toothaker-farm, in Billerica; also the first lot of my Parker-land in Chelmsford, and a lot in Tewksbury, called the Doctor-lot," with a third of his New Ipswich pasture, on condition that William deed the Washington, N.H., farm to his brother Ezra; the home farm went to son Thomas. With his own 1782 purchase, this made William Rogers owner of the Toothaker farm on the south side of the road to Tewksbury (Mt. Pleasant Street), where the town in 1791 voted to set the north ward school-house "in William Rogers' corner by John Rogers".
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| February 3, 1832 | Deed | William Rogers of Billerica, gentleman (wife Hannah releasing dower) | His son Calvin Rogers of Billerica, yeoman | 1828: William Rogers to his son Calvin, undivided half of his real estate | 311/33 (South) |
Billerica town book 16, pages 24-25 (also copied in the Lowell, Chelmsford and Tewksbury books). For $1,200, "one undivided half of all my real estate situated in the Towns of Billerica, Tewksbury and Chelmsford ... & in New Ipswich, in the County of Hillsborough" in New Hampshire. Signed and acknowledged May 15, 1828 before Francis Faulkner, Calvin's father-in-law; recorded February 3, 1832. Calvin Rogers thus held half the farm, schoolhouse lot included, while the first District No. 6 schoolhouse stood in the middle of the road frontage.
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| June 23, 1855 | Quitclaim | Heirs of William Rogers: Jeremiah Rogers, Hannah Roundy, Rebecca F. Barton, Susan Rogers, Harriet Burbank, Louisa and Augustus Rogers, with spouses, and the widow Hannah Rogers | Calvin Rogers of Billerica, yeoman | 1839: heirs of William Rogers release the other half of the homestead to Calvin Rogers | 715/72 (South) |
Billerica town book 20, pages 596-599. Grantors: Jeremiah Rogers of Andover (wife Abigail C.), Charles and Hannah Roundy of Salem, Jabez W. and Rebecca F. Barton of Boston, Oliver C. and Susan Rogers of Woburn, Samuel and Harriet Burbank of Lowell, Louisa Rogers, Augustus Rogers and the widow Hannah Rogers of Billerica. For $4,000, all the real estate of which "William Rogers late of said Billerica Yeoman, deceased, died, seized and possessed," his undivided half of: "The Homestead of said deceased situate in said Billerica, containing one hundred and seventy acres more or less, with all the buildings thereon standing, bounded Westerly by the mill pond ... and the road across the Plain to the road leading from Billerica to Tewksbury, Northeasterly by said Tewksbury Road and land of Joseph Johnson, called the 'Ruggles' Place' to the northeasterly corner near the house of John Rogers, Northerly by said road leading from said corner to the 'Canal Mills'" and land of Francis Faulkner to the mill pond; with wood lots in Chelmsford and Tewksbury, the seven-acre "Mount John" swamp, Broad Meadow and 80 acres in New Ipswich. Signed January 31, 1839, recorded June 23, 1855. The road from John Rogers's corner to the Canal Mills, now Mt. Pleasant Street, was the north line of the farm, and both school sites lay on it. William Rogers left no probate; his heirs settled the estate by this deed.
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| August 12, 1859 | Deed | Calvin Rogers and Ann Rogers | James R. Faulkner, manufacturer, and Charles Faulkner of Boston, merchant | 1859: Calvin and Ann Rogers sell the village end of the farm, east of Rogers St, to James R. and Charles Faulkner | 20/390 |
For $3,500, "all that tract of land with the buildings now standing thereon" in the northerly part of Billerica, beginning at the northwesterly corner "at the junction of two roads leading from North Billerica so called, one to Billerica Centre and sometimes called Mill Street, and the other to Tewksbury and sometimes called North Street," southerly by Mill Street past "a barn or building on said premises" and by a curve to the Boston and Lowell Railroad, northwesterly by the railroad to North Street and by North Street back to the start, 6 acres 95 square rods; also a tract opposite on the westerly side of Mill Street, running to the Concord River, down the river to a willow tree "on what was formerly the Middlesex Canal," and by the canal back to Mill Street, 1 acre 130 square rods; with his right of way over the railroad. Both tracts are on a plan of the land of Calvin Rogers and Gov. Talbot by Samuel Sage Jr., 1858. Signed July 1, 1859; Ann, a daughter of Francis Faulkner, released dower. The MHC form puts the Faulkner takeover "between 1853 and 1875." The steps from the Faulkners to the Faulkner Manufacturing Co. have not been traced.
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| December 2, 1880 | Deed | Charles Faulkner of Boston (wife Annie S. Faulkner releasing dower) | The Faulkner Manufacturing Company | 1880: Charles Faulkner to the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, one third of the lots | 143/22 |
For $25,000, "one undivided third part of the lot of land with the buildings thereon", lot 1 on R. A. Hall's October 1880 "plan of the property of the Faulkner Manufacturing Company", with "all the water rights, water privileges, rights of flowage", especially the rights in the 1857 Talbot deed (Book 9 Page 378), and "all the machinery, tools and fixtures in the buildings", plus one third of lots 2 and 3 and of three other lots on the roads to Billerica Centre and Tewksbury. Charles Faulkner's own third, conveyed the same day as the executor's deed for the other two thirds.
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| December 2, 1880 | Executor's Deed | Charles Faulkner of Boston, executor of and trustee under the will of James R. Faulkner | The Faulkner Manufacturing Company | 1880: executor of James R. Faulkner to the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, two thirds | 143/23 |
For $50,000, "two undivided third parts of all that lot of land with the buildings thereon": lot 1 of 29.55 acres from "the stone pier of the bridge across Concord River" across "the little basin, so-called", along the river about 1,540 ft to Jones and Foster, by the Boston and Lowell Rail Road and the schoolhouse lot back to the road to Billerica Centre, with the water rights, flowage, the 1857 Talbot rights (Book 9 Page 378) and "all the machinery, tools and fixtures in the buildings"; lot 2 "with the building thereon ... on the east end of the dam south of the County road", bounded 10 ft from the canal wall; and two thirds of five more lots, including land "on what was formerly the Middlesex Canal" (Sage plan 1838, Book 18 Page 374; Calvin Rogers to James R. and Charles Faulkner, 1859, Book 20 Page 390) and an acre by the old William Rogers house on "the road ... to the Canal Mills".
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| February 8, 1917 | Quitclaim | The Faulkner Manufacturing Company, by George M. Preston, Treasurer | Eugene Phair and Mary Phair, his wife, of Billerica, as joint tenants | 1917: the Faulkner Manufacturing Company sells Lot D "with the buildings thereon" to Eugene and Mary Phair for $2,250 | 567/67 |
Deed dated January 24, 1917 (recorded February 8, 1917), on pages 67-69 after the company's votes: the stockholders on February 3, 1914 let the directors sell real estate "not needed for the business", and the directors, meeting on January 24, 1917 "at the residence of Mr. George M. Preston, North Billerica", authorized a quitclaim to the Phairs "for the consideration of Twenty-two hundred and fifty dollars ($2250), a certain lot of land with the buildings thereon situate on the easterly side of Rogers Street". The deed conveys "the land in that part of said Billerica known as North Billerica, with the buildings thereon, containing about 22,072 square feet", "Lot D" on the "Plan of Land in North Billerica, Mass. belonging to the Faulkner Manufacturing Co." surveyed August 1911 by Smith and Brooks (Plan Book 34 Plan 22, as added to January 19, 1917): from a stone bound in the easterly line of Rogers Street, easterly on other company land about 139.80 feet, southeasterly about 152.54 feet "to a stone bound at land now or late of Timothy John McCarthy, Junior, and Mary Etta McCarthy" (Lot C, the William Rogers House), westerly about 164.83 feet to Rogers Street, and northerly by Rogers Street 33.72 and 103.64 feet. The first sale of the house by the company that had rented it to its workers.
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| July 24, 1922 | Warranty Deed | Eugene Phair and Mary Phair, husband and wife, of Billerica | Francis Kawa and Bronislawa Kawa, husband and wife, of Billerica, as joint tenants | 1922: the Phairs sell Lot D with the buildings to Francis and Bronislawa Kawa | 664/380 |
Dated and acknowledged at Lowell July 22, 1922 ($4.00 in revenue stamps), recorded about July 24, 1922. With warranty covenants, "the land in that part of said Billerica known as North Billerica with the buildings thereon, containing about twenty-two thousand seventy-two (22,072) square feet of land", Lot D on Plan Book 34 Plan 22, bounded easterly 139.80 feet "on other land of grantees" (the four and a half acres behind it, which the Kawas had bought of James F. Delmege by deed of June 24, 1922, Book 664 Page 201), southeasterly 152.54 feet by the McCarthys, westerly 164.83 feet, and northerly by Rogers Street. "Being the same premises to us conveyed by the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, by deed dated January 24, 1917, and recorded with said Registry, Book 567, Page 67." Subject to the 1922 taxes.
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| July 3, 1933 | Quitclaim | Francis Kawa and Bronislawa Kawa, husband and wife, of Boston | Kastantas Lapinskas and Mary Lapinskas, husband and wife, of Boston, tenants by the entirety | 1933: the Kawas sell the house lot and the land behind it to Kastantas and Mary Lapinskas | 826/57 |
Dated and acknowledged in Suffolk County July 1, 1933, recorded July 3, 1933 at 10:25 a.m. ($2.00 in stamps). Two parcels: about four and one-half acres behind the house, part of the land on Plan Book 34 Plan 22, from a culvert under the Boston and Maine Railroad by land of Conrad M. Hubert to a culvert under Rogers Street, along Rogers Street about 280.95 feet to Lot D, around Lots D and C, then by "land supposed to be of Talbot Mills" and a stone wall to the railroad and by the railroad about 931 feet ("Being the same premises conveyed to us by deed of James F. Delmege, dated June 24, 1922", Book 664 Page 201, with rights under a deed of November 2, 1922, Book 671 Page 199, less a strip the Kawas sold to the Boston and Maine Railroad November 1, 1922, Book 671 Page 36; "For title see Book 20 Page 390"); and Lot D "with the buildings thereon", 22,072 square feet, "Being the same premises conveyed to us by deed of Eugene Phair and Mary Phair dated July 22, 1922 ... Book 664, Page 380." Subject to the 1933 taxes.
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| September 8, 1941 | Quitclaim | Kastantas Lapinskas and Mary Lapinskas (her mark), husband and wife, of North Billerica | Kastantas Kelkus of Boston | 1941: the Lapinskases sell to Kastantas Kelkus of Boston | 967/309 |
Dated and acknowledged in Suffolk County September 6, 1941, recorded September 8, 1941 ($3.30 in stamps). The same two parcels: the four and one-half acres on Plan Book 34 Plan 22 behind the house (with the 1922 rights, Book 671 Page 199, less the railroad strip, Book 671 Page 36, "For title see Book 20, Page 390") and Lot D "with the buildings thereon", 22,072 square feet, bounded on Rogers Street 33.72 and 103.64 feet. "Being the said two (2) parcels of land conveyed to us by deed of Francis Kawa and Bronislawa Kawa ... Book 826, Page 57."
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| 1944 | Quitclaim | Kastantas Kelkus of Boston, unmarried | Ona Cibulski of Bedford | 1944: Kastantas Kelkus sells to Ona Cibulski | 1012/572 |
Dated and acknowledged in Suffolk County September 19, 1944 ($6.60 in stamps), recorded in September 1944. The four and one-half acres behind the house on Plan Book 34 Plan 22 (bounds as in 1933, with the 1922 rights and less the railroad strip) and "another parcel of land ... with the buildings thereon, containing about twenty-two thousand seventy-two (22,072) square feet", Lot D, "Being all and the same premises conveyed to me by Kastantas Lapinskas et ux. by deed dated September 6, 1941 ... Book 967, Page 309."
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| December 2, 1944 | Quitclaim | Ona Cibulski of Billerica, formerly of Bedford (her husband Ignas Cibulski releasing curtesy) | Edward Cibulski of Billerica | 1944: Ona Cibulski to Edward Cibulski; in 1956 the house passed to a family couple who held it into the 21st century | 1017/126 |
Dated and acknowledged at Boston November 29, 1944, recorded December 2, 1944 at 8:30 a.m. ($4.40 in stamps). The four and one-half acres on Plan Book 34 Plan 22 and Lot D "with the buildings thereon", 22,072 square feet, "Being the same premises conveyed to me by Kastantas Kelkus, by deed dated September 19, 1944 ... Book 1012, Page 572", subject to a $2,000 mortgage to Stanley A. Cibulski and Walter J. Cibulski which the grantee assumed. Edward Cibulski kept the family property for twelve years. In 1956 he divided it: in April he sold Lot D, "A certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon", bounded westerly by Rogers Street 33.72 and 103.64 feet and northerly and easterly by his own land, to a married couple, and in July he and his wife sold them the two acres behind it, "the southerly portion" of the company land, reaching east 165 feet to the Boston and Maine Railroad. The couple still owned the house when it was inventoried in 1981; after the husband's death the widow held it, and the assessor still listed her as owner in 2026. Part of the back land was later cut off as house lots on Sycamore Lane.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted; Probate # is a Middlesex probate case, Ctf a Land Court certificate of title.