Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 6-8 Letchworth Av
Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 6-8 Letchworth Av
This two-family house on Letchworth Avenue in North Billerica was built as a tenement for the workers of the Faulkner Mills. Its twin stands next door at the corner of Hampstead Avenue, at 10-12 Letchworth Avenue, and the two are among the few company houses left from the woolen mill of the Faulkner family. They are older than the street they face: the houses stood for more than thirty years in the mill yard before the Billerica Garden Suburb laid out Letchworth Avenue past them in 1914.
The land was part of the homestead farm of Thomas Rogers, whose will of 1784 left it to be sold. His executor sold the farm to Samuel Danforth in 1786, and Danforth sold it in 1788 to Thomas Richardson, who in 1822 gave twenty acres "formerly owned by Thomas Rogers" to his daughter Elizabeth. In 1831 she sold them to William E. Faulkner, brother of the mill owner James R. Faulkner. William kept the back land, running from the road toward the railroad, until his death in 1861, and his heirs conveyed it to James R. Faulkner in 1861 and 1862, next to the plain land behind the mill that James and his brother Charles had taken in the family division of 1854.
A group of houses for the mill hands was built on this back land in the last years of James R. Faulkner, who died in 1877, or by his estate. When the property passed to the newly formed Faulkner Manufacturing Company in November 1880, R. A. Hale's plan of the company's land showed six numbered company houses in a fenced yard between the James Faulkner homestead and the Boston and Lowell Railroad. Two of them, No. 4 and No. 5, are drawn alike, square houses with a small ell at the back and a shed behind each; by their position this house is No. 5, the nearer to the road, and its twin No. 4. The house was therefore standing by 1880. The 1983 district survey, working from the maps of 1875 and 1887, dated the two houses between those years, so the house dates from the later 1870s, not from the assessor's estimate of about 1910.
The company rented the houses to its workers for the next thirty-four years. On June 30, 1914 it sold 26 acres of its back land "with the buildings thereon" to Charles H. Williams, who registered the title in the Land Court and that September transferred it to the Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc., a planned housing development laid out by the city planner Arthur C. Comey with Warren H. Manning. On the Garden Suburb plan the old houses fell within Block 7, on Lots 11 to 15 at the Letchworth Avenue end, and the corporation never sold those lots. The City Institution for Savings of Lowell foreclosed its mortgage on the unsold Garden Suburb land in 1930, and in September 1939 it sold Lots 11 to 15 of Block 7, the corner block with the old company houses, to Thomas J. and Mary J. Murphy of Chelmsford.
Thomas J. Murphy, sole owner from 1940, had the block replotted in 1942 into Lots 12A to 15A so that each house had its own lot, and on May 2, 1946 he sold both twins on the same day. This house, Lot 13A, with 64 feet on Letchworth Avenue and "6-8 Letchworth Ave." as the owners' address, went to Fred T. Coffin Jr. and his wife Evelyn V. Coffin of Billerica, who financed it with a $5,200 mortgage from the Middlesex Co-operative Bank of Lowell; the corner house went to Robert K. McCauley. The Coffins owned the house until 1960.
Later owners bought it in 1960 and 1962, and in 1972 it was sold to a couple who kept it for fifty years, until both died in 2022. The lot is still Lot 13A of the 1942 plan. The house, now covered in vinyl siding and with a dormer added, keeps the field stone foundation under the back of the house and the ell that appears on the 1880 plan. With its twin at 10-12 it is one of the two original Faulkner company houses left on Letchworth Avenue, and a contributing building of the Billerica Mills Historic District, listed in the National Register in 1983.
References
- MACRIS BIL.279
- Billerica assessor, parcel 10-18-0 (6-8 Letchworth Ave): 0.166 acre, Garden Suburb Lot 13A, two-family house
Title References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| 1784 | Will | Estate of Thomas Rogers of Billerica, yeoman | Widow Martha Rogers for life; then Timothy Crosby, Abigail wife of Shemuel Griffin, and Cato | 1784: will of Thomas Rogers; his homestead farm included this land | Probate #19490 |
Will dated March 3, 1784: to "Martha my beloved wife the full use ... of all my Lands Buildings & Estate" for life; "my Negro boy Cato shall be a free man"; after the widow's death "my homestead farm laying in Billerica" and the rest of the estate to Timothy Crosby, Abigail wife of Shemuel Griffin, and Cato equally; the executors may sell "my Meadow of about four acres called Broad meadow" for debts. Proved June 2, 1784 (Shemuel Griffin executor). Inventory Sept. 8, 1784: "the Homestead and building thereon" 272 pounds 4s, a piece of land in Broad Meadow 36 pounds. The homestead was the land west of the corner lot Rogers had sold Isaac Kidder in January.
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| August 26, 1786 | Executor's Deed | Shemuel Griffin of Andover, executor of the will of Thomas Rogers late of Billerica | Samuel Danforth of Billerica, yeoman | 1786: Rogers executor sells the homestead farm to Samuel Danforth | 94/202 (South) |
Billerica town book 8, pages 69-70. Dated April 26, 1786, under an order of the Court of Common Pleas (March 1785) to sell for debts and legacies. For 174 pounds 10s 8d, "a certain Tract or parcel of land situate in the Northerly part of said Town of Billerica containing chief of the Homestead farm of said Thomas Rogers deceased with all the Buildings thereon by Estimation fifty acres", bounded north and west by Isaac Kidder's land and south by "the Road leading from Tewksbury through said Billerica to Chelmsford" (about 120 poles). The western 24 acres by the fulling mill had gone to Timothy Sprague (Book 108 Page 210).
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| March 31, 1794 | Deed | Samuel Danforth of Billerica, yeoman (wife Mary releasing dower) | Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman | 1788: Danforth to Thomas Richardson | 115/276 (South) |
Billerica town book 9, pages 94-95. Dated April 21, 1788, "in the twelfth year of America Independency" (the acknowledgment is copied as May 1, 1783). For 153 pounds 7s, "A Farm linge in the Northly parte of Billerica containing about fifty acres", bounded east by "the Roade leeding to Isaac Kidder's", north and west by Isaac Kidder's land and south on Timothy Sprague's land, "together with the House and Barn and Shope thereon standing": the Thomas Rogers homestead.
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| September 18, 1826 | Deed | Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman | His daughter Elizabeth Richardson of Billerica, singlewoman | 1822: Thomas Richardson to his daughter Elizabeth, 20 acres | 269/449 (South) |
Billerica town book 13, pages 445-446. Dated March 12, 1822. For $800, "a certain farm formerly owned by Thomas Rogers with the buildings thereon containing twenty acres be it more or less", from the southwest corner by the road leading to John Rogers's, east by that road, north and west by land of Rogers "to land of Francis Faulkner Esqr. as the fence now stands", south by Faulkner to "the road leading from the Canal Mills to Billerica Meeting house" and by that road to the corner. The old Rogers farm east of the Canal Mills land, later William E. Faulkner's back land.
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| March 25, 1831 | Deed | Elizabeth Richardson of Boston, singlewoman | William E. Faulkner (William Emerson Faulkner) of Billerica | 1831: Elizabeth Richardson to William E. Faulkner, the back land | 303/157 (South) |
Billerica town book 11, pages 543-544. Dated March 24, 1831. For $350, "a certain lot of land formerly owned by Thomas Rogers containing twenty acres be it more or less", bounded by the road leading to John Rogers's, by land of Rogers, west by land of Francis Faulkner, Esquire, "as the fence now stands", by land of John and Henry Baldwin and the heirs of Nathan Mears, and south by "the road which leads from the Canal Mills to Billerica Meeting house". The land her father had deeded her in 1822; William E. Faulkner's farm behind the road east of his father's mill land.
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| February 14, 1854 | Quitclaim Deed | The other heirs at law of Francis Faulkner (Dwight F., George, Winthrop, Luther W., Lois R., Lydia H. and William E. Faulkner, Calvin and Ann F. Rogers, and the Keene heirs) | James R. Faulkner of Billerica, manufacturer (two thirds), and Charles Faulkner of Boston, merchant (one third) | 1854: James R. and Charles Faulkner take the adjoining plain land (joined in 1880 lot 1) | 668/424 (South) |
Billerica town book 21, pages 191-193. For $600, land "at the canal mills so called" bounded by land of James R. and Charles Faulkner and of William E. Faulkner, by Herman Rogers, by Concord River on two sides, and by "land of said James R. Faulkner where he now lives, consisting of plain land and containing about fifteen acres": the rest of the 21 acres of the 1825 canal purchase, behind the mill. Dated Jan 2, 1854. With it James R. and Charles Faulkner held the whole mill property, two thirds and one third, the shares of the later 1857 and 1880 deeds.
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| October 8, 1861 | Administration | Estate of William E. Faulkner of Billerica, trader (died September 1, 1861, intestate) | His brother James R. Faulkner, administrator | 1861: administration of William E. Faulkner | Probate #31573 |
Petition of October 1, 1861 by James R. Faulkner, eldest brother: William E. Faulkner of Billerica, trader, "died on the first day of September" 1861 intestate, leaving no widow; next of kin his brothers James R., Dwight F., Charles, Winthrop, George and Luther W. Faulkner and his sisters Lois R., Lydia H. and Ann F. (wife of Calvin Rogers). Decree of October 8, 1861 appointing James R. Faulkner administrator, bond $20,000 with Calvin Rogers and Luther W. Faulkner as sureties; notice in the Boston Daily Advertiser. No inventory is in the file; his land passed to the heirs, who released it to James R. Faulkner (Book 30 Page 386).
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| March 25, 1862 | Quitclaim Deed | The heirs at law of William E. Faulkner (Dwight F., Lois R., Lydia H., Charles, George, Winthrop and Luther W. Faulkner, Calvin and Ann F. Rogers, and the Keene and Sioux City heirs) | James R. Faulkner of Billerica, "the only other heir at law" | 1861/62: his heirs to James R. Faulkner, incl. the six acres of back land | 30/386 |
Dated December 24, 1861. For $1,800, the land of "William E. Faulkner, late of said Billerica, deceased, intestate": (1) about half an acre "with the dwelling house thereon" on "the road leading from North Billerica Mills to the centre of the town", 343 ft deep between land of James Faulkner and "other land formerly of said William E. when living" (W. E.'s interest "was one undivided half part only"); (2) "six acres, more or less" running back from the road along J. R. Faulkner and Company's land to the Jones, Haynes and Foster line, east 423 ft on that line, south 791 ft on the Boston and Lowell Railroad and by C. P. Talbot and Company to "the road leading to the depot"; (3) about two acres at the corner of the depot road and the road to Tewksbury. Piece (2) is the back land where the house now at 3 Mason Avenue stands.
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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 (lot 1) | 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; company houses No. 1-6 on lot 1 | 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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| September 8, 1914 | Certificate of Title | Land Court decree, case 4992 (petition of Charles H. Williams) | Charles H. Williams of Billerica | 1914: Land Court registration of the Williams tract (case 4992) | Ctf 558 |
Original certificate on the Land Court decree of September 4, 1914, received for transcription September 8, 1914: the 26-acre tract bought from the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, bounded by Carleton Street 65.13 ft, the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, the Concord River, Williams's other land "on the upland about 1704 ft" and the Boston and Lowell Railroad 788.85 ft (Smith and Brooks plan, June 1914; Land Court plan 4992-A). "Subject to and has the benefit of the easements set forth in a deed given by the Faulkner Manufacturing Company to Charles H. Williams, dated June 30, 1914" (Book 523 Page 301), and to three mortgages of that date: to the company (Book 523 Page 304, not registered), to William T. Sheppard ($3,000, document 814) and to Grace L. Backer et al. ($7,000, document 815).
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| September 28, 1914 | Certificate of Title | Charles H. Williams (Original Certificates 520 and 558) | The Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. | 1914: Williams to the Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. | Ctf 568 |
Partial transfer certificate entered September 28, 1914: the Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. owner of Lot A on Land Court subdivision plan 4720/4992-B (C. B. Humphrey, September 19, 1914), the land of both of Williams's registrations between Carleton Street, the Faulkner Manufacturing Company, the Concord River, Charles P. Smith and the Boston and Lowell Railroad. With the railroad rights of way of 1879 (Book 183 Page 454), subject to Hermon Rogers's 1848 flowage deed to Oliver M. Whipple and his 1856 lease of a 3-ft strip to the railroad, the easements of the 1914 Faulkner deed, and the unregistered mortgage to the Faulkner Manufacturing Company. Cancelled the same day for Certificate 733, which was itself replaced by Certificate 1520.
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| September 28, 1914 | Certificate of Title | Original Certificates 520 and 558 (Transfer Certificate 733 cancelled) | The Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. | 1914-1930: Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. (Lot 13, Block 7) | Ctf 1520 |
Partial transfer certificate dated September 28, 1914, issued "to take its place" when Transfer Certificate 733 was cancelled: the Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc. owner of Lot A on plan 4720/4992-B, with the same bounds and appurtenances as Certificate 568, followed by a 17-page lot schedule as the Garden Suburb lots of Block 7 and the other blocks (plans 4992-C and 4992-E, after Arthur C. Comey's plan of October 9, 1914) were sold. Memoranda: Lowell Electric Light Corporation pole rights 1914, 1915 and 1917; the Town's easement in the streets (document 1308, May 24, 1916); mortgages to the Lowell Institution for Savings (1917, $20,000) and to Grace L. Backer et al.; and on June 22, 1922 a $15,000 mortgage to the City Institution for Savings of Lowell (document 3963), "See Mtgee's Deed Document 8813"; a 999-year right of way lease to Talbot Mills across lots 10, 11, 12 and 17 of Block 7 (document 4221, December 14, 1922).
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| July 7, 1914 | Quitclaim Deed | The Faulkner Manufacturing Company, by George M. Preston, president and treasurer | Charles H. Williams of Billerica | 1914: the company sells lot 1 "with the buildings thereon" to Charles H. Williams | 523/301 |
Dated June 30, 1914. "The land in that part of said Billerica known as North Billerica, with the buildings thereon, containing twenty-six and 5/100 acres", lot 1 on the Smith and Brooks plan of June 1914 (Plan Book 31 Plan 82): the back land of the mill between the Boston and Lowell Railroad (635 ft), Carleton Street (65.13 ft), the mill lot, the Concord River (about 1,323 ft) and Williams's own land (1,704 ft by a stone wall). The company kept a 20-ft "Private Right of Way" to Carleton Street and its water rights; "a certain dwelling house shown on said plan and located within the space covered by the aforesaid Private Right of Way shall be wholly removed from such space at the expense of the grantee within sixty days". "A portion of the same conveyed to said Faulkner Manufacturing Company by Charles Faulkner as Trustee and in his own right in two deeds both dated Nov. 22, 1880", Book 143 Pages 22 and 23. Williams laid out the Billerica Garden Suburb on it.
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| July 7, 1914 | Mortgage | Charles H. Williams of Billerica | The Faulkner Manufacturing Company | 1914: Williams purchase-money mortgage to the company | 523/304 |
Purchase-money mortgage given with the deed at Book 523 Page 301: "to secure the payment of Eleven Thousand Dollars in six months with five per centum interest", the same 26.05-acre lot 1 "with the buildings thereon" on the Smith and Brooks plan of June 1914, same bounds. Margins note the Land Court registration ("See Certificate 558"), an assignment to William T. Sheppard (Book 536 Page 25, 1915) and partial releases as Garden Suburb lots were sold.
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| January 24, 1930 | Certificate of Title | The Billerica Garden Suburb, Inc., by mortgagee's deed (document 8813) under its 1922 mortgage | The City Institution for Savings, Lowell | 1930-1939: City Institution for Savings, by foreclosure | Ctf 3927 |
Partial transfer certificate entered January 24, 1930 (from Certificates 1520 and 3779): the City Institution for Savings, "body corporate at Lowell", owner in fee simple of the unsold remainder of Lot A on plan 4992-B, with the same bounds and appurtenances, after foreclosing the Garden Suburb's mortgage of June 22, 1922 (document 3963) by mortgagee's deed, document 8813. Memoranda include the Talbot Mills right of way lease of 1922 and a tax deed of the Town of Billerica for 1929 taxes (1931). Its lot schedule records the sale of "Block 7 lots 11, 12, 13, 14, 15" to Thomas J. Murphy et al. by document 13703 on September 16, 1939 (new Certificate 5491).
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| September 19, 1939 | Certificate of Title | The City Institution for Savings, Lowell (deed document 13703, September 16, 1939) | Thomas J. Murphy and Mary J. Murphy of Chelmsford, an undivided half each | 1939: the bank sells Lots 11-15, Block 7 to Thomas J. and Mary J. Murphy | Ctf 5491 |
Partial transfer certificate entered September 19, 1939 from Certificate 3927: Thomas J. Murphy (married to Grace L. Murphy) and Mary J. Murphy, single, of Chelmsford, owners of Lots 11 to 15 inclusive in Block 7 on Land Court plan 4992-E (C. B. Humphrey, November 25, 1914), the corner block bounded by Hampstead Avenue, Letchworth Avenue and Mason Avenue, subject to the provisions of the bank's deed, document 13703. Memoranda: Lowell Electric Light pole rights, the Town's street easement of 1916, the Talbot Mills right of way across Lots 11, 12 and 17, and a $5,500 mortgage to the City Institution for Savings of September 16, 1939 (document 13704). Cancelled in December 1940, when Mary J. Murphy's half passed to Thomas.
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| December 9, 1940 | Certificate of Title | Mary J. Murphy and Thomas J. Murphy (Certificate 5491) | Thomas J. Murphy of Chelmsford | 1940-1946: Thomas J. Murphy, who replots the block in 1942 (Lot 13A) | Ctf 5774 |
Transfer certificate entered December 9, 1940: Thomas J. Murphy of Chelmsford (24 North Road), married to Grace L. Murphy, sole owner of Lots 11 to 15 in Block 7, bounded "Northwesterly by Hampstead Avenue 99.78 feet; Northeasterly by Letchworth Avenue 211.06 feet; Southeasterly by Mason Avenue 120.13 feet" and southwesterly by Lots 16 and 10, 207.85 feet. Memoranda include a $6,300 mortgage to the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank (February 15, 1941) and the deeds that broke up the block in 1942 and 1946: Lot 14A to Thomas H. Conway (document 15499), Lot 15A to Harry E. Merriman and his wife (document 15532, September 5, 1942), Lot 13A and Lot 12A in 1946, on the replotting filed as plan 4992-P.
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| May 2, 1946 | Certificate of Title | Thomas J. Murphy of Chelmsford (Certificate 5774; deed document 17736, May 2, 1946) | Fred T. Coffin Jr. and Evelyn V. Coffin of Billerica, married to each other | 1946: Thomas J. Murphy sells Lot 13A, the house, to Fred T. Coffin Jr. and Evelyn V. Coffin; later private owners summarized | Ctf 6956 |
Partial transfer certificate entered May 2, 1946 at 1:16 pm from Certificate 5774: the Coffins as tenants by the entirety of Lot 13A on Land Court plan 4992-P (Brooks, Jordan and Graves, August 13, 1942), "Northeasterly by Letchworth Avenue, sixty-four (64) feet; Southeasterly by Lots 14 A and 15 A, one hundred fifteen and 81/100 (115.81) feet; Southwesterly and Westerly by Lots 16 and 10, sixty-four and 35/100 (64.35) feet; and Northwesterly by Lot 12 A, one hundred nine and 87/100 (109.87) feet", "subject to any and all provisions set forth in Document thirteen thousand seven hundred three (13703)". Owners' address "6-8 Letchworth Ave." Memoranda: a $5,200 mortgage to the Middlesex Co-operative Bank of Lowell, 20 years at 4%, $31.50 monthly (document 17737, May 2, 1946), refinanced in 1957 with the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Lowell ($5,300). The twin house next door (Lot 12A) was sold by Murphy the same day (Certificate 6957). The Coffins sold in November 1960 (Certificate 11622, Registration Book 61 Page 45) to a Billerica couple, who sold in September 1962 (Certificate 12663, Book 66 Page 129); the next owners, a married couple, bought it by deed of October 6, 1972 (document 60801, Certificate 19137, Book 98 Page 273, still the current certificate) and kept it until both died in 2022. The lot has not changed since 1942.
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| March 27, 2024 | Tax Taking | Elaine M. Russo, Collector of Taxes for the Town of Billerica (land assessed to the late owners) | The Town of Billerica | 2024: Town of Billerica takes the lot for unpaid fiscal 2023 taxes | Ctf 19137 |
Instrument of Taking under G.L. c. 60, ss. 53-54, executed February 9, 2024 and registered March 27, 2024 on Certificate 19137 (document 322642): "LAND & BUILDING, CONTAINING: 0.17 AC (more or less), LOCATION: 6 LETCHWORTH AV, PARCEL ID: 0010-000018", taken for fiscal 2023 taxes of $6,151.52 unpaid after demand of May 31, 2023, with interest of $974.34 and costs of $217.54, total $7,343.40. Both owners on the certificate had died in 2022 (death certificates registered July 25, 2023). An earlier taking for 2021 taxes (document 315723, March 25, 2022) was redeemed on July 18, 2022 (document 317171); no redemption of this taking is registered.
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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.