Structure · Built 1901 · Demolished 1946
Frank W. Crosby Ice House
Frank W. Crosby Ice House
| Address | 16 Austin Rd |
| Built | 1901 |
| Demolished | 1946 |
The Frank W. Crosby Ice House stood on the east shore of Nuttings Lake, on land that is now the south side of Sunset Road. It was a long, narrow storehouse for ice cut from the pond, built on the Crosby farm that Leander Crosby had received from his father, Jeremiah Crosby, in 1842 and left by will to his son Frank W. Crosby. By 1901 Frank W. Crosby was listed in the Lowell directory as "farmer, ice and fertilizer dealer" on Lexington Road near School Lane, and he was still listed among Billerica's ice dealers in 1912.
When Edgar P. Sellew surveyed the farm for Crosby on April 26, 1907 (Plan Book 31, Plan 46), he drew the "Ice House", about 116 by 41 feet, with a small shed beside it, on a pond-shore corner marked "Lot 2, 12,500 Sq. Ft." between Lot 3 and the farmhouse lot, Lot 4. A chute ran from the building down to the water, where blocks of ice were hauled up from the pond in winter.
On May 2, 1912 Crosby sold the ice house to Bertram S. Ward of Lexington: "a certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon, situated on the easterly side of Nutting's Pond", 37,360 square feet with 190 feet of shore, taking in the 1907 Lot 2, together with a right of way 16 1/2 feet wide across the farm to Lexington Road. The plan drawn for the sale by Wm. Butler Jones (Plan Book 29, Plan 89) shows the "Ice-houses" with a rear ell, the "Runway" to the pond and a small stable. Ward borrowed $3,000 from Warren M. Batcheller and $200 from Crosby, and promised to keep the buildings insured for at least $4,000. Ward moved to Billerica and advertised as "B. S. Ward, Nuttings Pond Ice, Wholesale and Retail Dealer", with an office on Boston Road opposite Charnstaffe Lane; his 1917 advertisement shows a two-horse covered ice wagon lettered "B. S. Ward Ice". When the rest of the farm was sold in 1914, the farmhouse lot was bounded "by Ward 119 feet to Nutting's Pond".
Ward died on September 8, 1919, aged 48. Under a probate decree of March 5, 1920, his widow, Susie L. Ward, as administratrix, sold the ice house lot "with the buildings thereon" for $3,500 to Robert L. Innis and Dougal McLennan of Billerica, who carried on the business as the Nutting Pond Ice Company (later Innis & McLennan) from Innis's place on Boston Road. Around the ice house the shore was soon divided into summer cottage lots: the Lakeside plan of September 1915 (Plan Book 33, Plan 52) laid out its lots right up to "Ward", and the 1930 town report put fire alarm box 76 on Maple Road at Nuttings Lake "nr. Ice House". The 1931 directory still described the Lakeside section as off Lexington Road "near ice houses".
The ice house was gone by the end of 1946. On December 27, 1946 Innis and McLennan sold the 37,360 square feet to Ruth Roberta Vinal, who already owned the Lakeside lots next to it, and this time the deed named no buildings. A month later Neil J. Kennedy sold her the adjoining strip of the old Crosby farm, described as "Beginning at drill hole on Easterly side of Nuttings Pond at former site of Ice House". She put the pieces together into one 79,382-square-foot lot on Sunset Road, which she sold in 1950. Private owners have held it since; in 1965 the old ice house land was resurveyed as Lots 1 and 2 (Plan Book 108, Plan 46A), the property was later known as 16 Maple Road and then 16 Austin Road, and after the parcel was divided in 2021-2023 a new house was built at 4 Sunset Road on the site.
References
- Lowell Suburban Directory 1917, p. 625: B. S. Ward, Nuttings Pond Ice, wholesale and retail, Boston Road opp. Charnstaffe Lane
- Billerica assessor, 4 Sunset Rd (parcel 88-283-3-1): Lakeside lots 69-76 (Plan 33-52) and Plan 108-46A lots 1 and 2; split from 88-283-1 and 88-283-3 (Plans 250-19, 250-32)
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| November 11, 1851 | Deed | Jeremiah Crosby of Billerica, yeoman | Leander Crosby of Billerica, yeoman | 1842: Jeremiah Crosby to his son Leander Crosby, half the farm on Nutting's Pond | 619/61 (South) |
Signed January 24, 1842 before Marshall Preston, recorded November 11, 1851 (Billerica town book 19, pages 153-155). For $2,000, "the one undivided half of my farm situate in said Billerica": from the Lexington road by Wm. Mann's land "to Nutting's pond so called," by the pond to Elijah B. Hill, southerly "to the end of the wall by land of Josiah Hill now deceased," easterly "to land of Seth Crosby called the Willoughby orchard," by Seth's land and "Seth's swamp" to the Middlesex Turnpike, "thence crossing the Turnpike," by Seth's land to "the lane leading to said Seth Crosby's" and the Lexington road; also halves of a piece south of that lane, a piece east of the Lexington road, the Blanchard meadow at Wyman bridge, the Wheeler meadow and the Crosby plain of 48 acres. No title recital (Jeremiah held under his father's will, probate 5345).
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| May 3, 1912 | Mortgage | Bertram S. Ward of Lexington | Frank W. Crosby of Billerica | 1912: Ward mortgage back to Crosby, $200 | 486/215 |
For $200, a mortgage back to the seller of "a certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon, situated on the easterly side of Nuttings Pond", the same 37,360 square feet and right of way. Recorded with the deed on May 3, 1912; margin "See Discharge B.622 P.521".
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| May 3, 1912 | Warranty Deed | Frank W. Crosby of Billerica (Henrietta E. Crosby releasing dower and homestead) | Bertram S. Ward of Lexington | 1912: Frank W. Crosby to Bertram S. Ward, the ice house lot "with the buildings thereon" | 486/219 |
For "One Dollar and other valuable consideration", "a certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon, situated on the easterly side of Nutting's Pond": from a stone bound on the shore at other land of the grantor N 75-30 E 222.7 feet to a stone bound, S 23-2 E 165.5 feet to a drill hole in a large boulder, S 80-56 W 89.2 feet and S 65-51 W 119 feet to a drill hole on the shore, then along the shore about 190 feet, 37,360 square feet, with a right of way 16 1/2 feet wide over the grantor's land to the westerly side of Lexington Road, 267 feet from the wall dividing his land from the Knowles heirs. Shown on a plan by Wm. Butler Jones, C.E., April 29, 1912 (Plan Book 29, Plan 89), which draws the "Ice-houses", a runway to the pond and a stable. "Being a part of the premises devised to me by will of Leander Crosby." Dated May 2, 1912, recorded May 3, 1912. The lot takes in Lot 2 (12,500 square feet) of the 1907 Crosby plan.
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| May 3, 1912 | Mortgage | Bertram S. Ward of Lexington (Susie L. Ward releasing dower) | Warren M. Batcheller of Lexington | 1912: Ward mortgage to Warren M. Batcheller, $3,000, buildings insured for $4,000 | 486/220 |
For $3,000, payable in sixteen semi-annual installments of $187.50 with interest at six per cent, the same parcel "with the buildings thereon" on the easterly side of Nuttings Pond, "Being the same premises conveyed to me by Frank W. Crosby by deed of even date"; Ward was to keep "the buildings on said premises insured against fire, in a sum not less than four thousand dollars". Dated May 2, 1912, recorded May 3, 1912; margin "See B.622 P.66".
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| February 28, 1914 | Warranty Deed | Frank W. Crosby of Billerica, unmarried | Mary A. Wallace of Boston | 1914: Crosby farm Lot 4, bounded "by Ward 119 feet to Nutting's Pond" (the ice house lot) | 517/493 |
Two parcels on Lexington Road, being "a part of the premises devised to me by my father, Leander Crosby, late of said Billerica, deceased, under the name of Frank William Crosby": the first from the junction of Manning Road and Lexington Road 1,897.40 feet up Lexington Road, by his other land to "a drill hole in a stone bound at Nutting's Pond; thence by said Nuttings Pond along the shore line fourteen hundred fifty (1450) feet to the Middlesex Turnpike", 1,446 feet down the Turnpike to Merton L. Fisk and back to Manning Road, 51.25 acres; the second, 30.09 acres, on Lexington Road and School Lane: Lots 4 and 6 on his plan by Edgar P. Sellew, April 26, 1907 (Plan Book 31, Plan 46). Dated Feb. 28, 1914. Wallace mortgaged it back for $7,000 the same day (Book 517, Page 495).
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| March 22, 1920 | Discharge | Warren M. Batcheller, mortgagee | Estate of Bertram S. Ward | 1920: discharge of the Batcheller mortgage | 622/66 |
Warren M. Batcheller, holder of the mortgage from Bertram S. Ward (Book 486, Page 220; the discharge misdates it May 2, 1920), acknowledges satisfaction. Dated March 17, 1920, recorded March 22, 1920.
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| March 18, 1920 | Discharge | Frank W. Crosby of Billerica, mortgagee | Estate of Bertram S. Ward | 1920: discharge of the Crosby mortgage | 622/521 |
Frank W. Crosby acknowledges "full payment and satisfaction" of the mortgage given by Bertram S. Ward dated May 2, 1912 (Book 486, Page 215) and discharges it. Dated and recorded March 18, 1920, just before the administratrix's sale on the same page.
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| March 18, 1920 | Administratrix's Deed | Susie L. Ward of Billerica, administratrix of the estate of Bertram S. Ward, late of Billerica | Robert L. Innis and Dougal McLennan of Billerica | 1920: Ward estate to Robert L. Innis and Dougal McLennan (Nutting Pond Ice Co.) | 622/521 |
"By power conferred by decree of Probate Court of Middlesex County, dated March 5, 1920", for $3,500, "a certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon, situated on the easterly side of Nuttings Pond, containing 37,360 sq. ft.", the same bounds, with the rights of way in the 1912 deed (Book 486, Page 219), "Being all the same premises conveyed to said Bertram S. Ward by said deed from said Frank W. Crosby". Ward, the Nuttings Pond ice dealer, had died on September 8, 1919. Dated and recorded March 18, 1920 (pages 521-522). The buyers ran the Nutting Pond Ice Company.
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| March 18, 1920 | Mortgage | Robert L. Innis and Dougal McLennan of Billerica | Charles W. Pencille of Cambridge | 1920: Innis and McLennan mortgage to Charles W. Pencille | 622/522 |
Recorded right after the administratrix's deed: a mortgage with mortgage covenants to secure $2,500, $500 on July 1, 1920 and the balance in one year, financing the purchase of the ice house lot. Margin "See B.622 P.524" and "See Discharge B.655 P.116".
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| September 5, 1929 | Quitclaim Deed | Isedor A. Johnson and Hilda M. Johnson of Billerica | Neil J. Kennedy of Billerica | 1929: Johnsons to Neil J. Kennedy, Lot 4 including the strip by the ice house | 781/73 |
The same two parcels on Lexington Road, Manning Road, "Nutting's Pond" and the Middlesex Turnpike (51.25 and 30.09 acres, Lots 4 and 6 on the Crosby plan), "being the same premises to us conveyed by Mary A. Crowe ... Book 633, Page 326"; "conveys the manure now on said premises". Dated Sept. 4, 1929.
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| February 4, 1947 | Quitclaim Deed | Robert L. Innis and Dougal McLennan of Billerica (Gertrude S. Innis and Maude M. McLennan releasing) | Ruth Roberta Vinal of Billerica | 1946: Innis and McLennan to Ruth Roberta Vinal, the lot without buildings | 1061/467 |
"A certain parcel of land situated on the Easterly side of Nuttings Pond containing 37,360 square feet", the same bounds and rights of way as the 1912 deed, "Being all and the same premises conveyed to Robert L. Innis and Dougal McLennan by said deed from Bertram S. Ward" (Book 622, Page 521). Unlike the 1912 and 1920 deeds it conveys no buildings: the ice house was gone. Dated December 27, 1946, recorded February 4, 1947. The same day they sold her Lakeside lots 73 and 74 (Book 1061, Page 466).
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| February 3, 1947 | Partial Release | Robert L. Innis of Billerica, holder of the Kennedy mortgage | Neil J. Kennedy of Billerica | 1947: release of the Lakeside parcel "at former site of Ice House" | 1061/134 |
Dated January 21, 1947, recorded February 3, 1947. Robert L. Innis, "mortgagee named in and the present holder of a mortgage by Neil J. Kennedy to me dated September 4, 1929" (Book 781, Page 74), releases the parcel "known as Lakeside", the former ice house site on the easterly side of Nuttings Pond, bounded by Vinal, Power and Sullivan, by land formerly of F. W. Crosby and by Robert L. Innis, 34,470 square feet. Not the school lot; one of several releases from the 1929 mortgage that still covered Lot 1 when it was taken in 1955.
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| February 4, 1947 | Quitclaim Deed | Neil J. Kennedy of Cambridge (Mary M. Kennedy releasing dower) | Ruth Roberta Vinal of Billerica | 1947: Kennedy to Vinal, the parcel "at formerly site of Ice House" | 1061/465 |
The 34,470-square-foot parcel "known as Lakeside", beginning "at drill hole on Easterly side of Nuttings Pond at formerly site of [Ice House]" and running easterly 210, 189.4 and 25 feet, southerly 120 feet, westerly 160 feet and northwesterly 293 feet, part of the Crosby farm Lot 4 that Kennedy bought in 1929 (Book 781, Page 73). Dated January 28, 1947, recorded February 4, 1947. With the ice house lot it became one house lot on Sunset Road.
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| June 13, 1950 | Quitclaim Deed | Ruth Roberta Vinal of Billerica | Private owners (husband and wife) | 1950: Vinal sale of the combined Sunset Road lot; later owners summarized | 1142/484 |
"The land in said Billerica, with the buildings thereon, situated on the southerly side of Sunset Road", 79,382 square feet, bounded by Sunset Road, Lakeside Lots 67, 68, 75 and 76, land formerly of Frank W. Crosby and of Robert L. Innis, "the easterly shore of Nuttings Pond, 190 feet" and an unnamed street 222.7 feet; Lakeside Lots 69-74 (Plan Book 33, Plan 52) and the Crosby-Ward lot (Plan Book 29, Plan 89), assembled by five deeds of 1933-1947 (Book 822, Page 261; Book 1061, Pages 464-467). Recorded June 13, 1950. Later private transfers of the same 79,382 square feet: 1951 (Book 1176, Page 122), 1958 (Book 1408, Page 308), 1964 (Book 1635, Page 173), 1970 for $13,990 (Book 1945, Page 184) with a 1972 confirmatory deed of Lots 1 and 2 on the 1965 plan (Plan Book 108, Plan 46A), 1982 (Book 2546, Page 519, then "16 Maple Road"), 2011 for $245,000, 2015 and 2022; in 2021-2023 the parcel was split (Plans 250-19 and 250-32) and the house at 4 Sunset Rd was built in 2023.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.