John H. Parker Store

The John H. Parker Store stood on the east side of Boston Road, south of the Common, on a one-acre lot cut from the old Bowers lot. A store or shop was standing there by 1845, and the lot was known for decades afterward as "the Store lot formerly owned by John H. Parker deceased". It was taken down in the 1960s, and a bank branch built in 1965 now stands on the site.

The land was part of a lot of about 24 acres on "the great road leading from Amherst to Boston", bounded south by Blaney Abbot and north by George Bruce. In April 1810 Alexander Bowers of Charlestown and his mother Dorcas, widow of Capt. Jonathan Bowers, sold it for $1,050 to John Parker of Billerica, "reserving to said Dorcas and Alexander the tomb in which the body of Capt. Jona. Bowers late husband of the said Dorcas now lies". John Parker kept it until his death, and since his will did not devise it, his executor Marshall Preston sold the "Alexander Bowers lot" at auction in October 1834 to his son David Parker for $600, reserving "the shop thereon belonging to one Timothy M. Minot" and David's own dwelling house.

David Parker sold the Bowers lot to his son John H. Parker in 1840 and took it back in 1843. In May 1845 he sold one acre at the north end, next to the land of Fitch Tufts and "nearly opposite my dwelling house", "with the buildings thereon standing", to another son, Charles E. Parker, a trader. John H. Parker, also called a trader, kept the store there until his death in 1849, unmarried; his brother William C. Parker of Lowell administered his estate, and the lot returned to David Parker. (The two acres David sold to John H. Parker in 1846 were at the south end of the Bowers lot, next to Blaney Abbot; John sold them bare in 1849 to William G. Alley, who built his blacksmith shop there.)

In February 1859 David Parker, then living in New York, sold "the Store lot formerly owned by John H. Parker deceased" for $1,250 to Bernard McCann, who also signed as Bernard M. Cann. He mortgaged it with his land on the Salem road to the Lowell Five Cent Savings Bank and became the Central postmaster in 1866. After his death his son Stephen E. Cann released his interest in 1890 to the widow, Hepzibah E. Cann, and his will gave their daughters Emma and Angeline a right to a home on the lot. Mrs. Cann mortgaged the store lot in 1894 to Hiram Whitney of Westford, who foreclosed and had it sold at auction in May 1896.

Whitney sold the lot in 1897 to Samuel N. Harris of Lowell, subject to a lease to J. W. Dane, and Harris sold it the same year to Anna G. Norris of Lowell. In August 1899 Joseph and Anna G. Norris sold it, "with the buildings thereon" and subject to a lease to James A. Hamilton, to George P. Greenwood of Billerica. His widow Alice H. Greenwood held a life estate until her death in 1945. In June 1963 Oliver P. and Laurence J. Greenwood sold the store lot, with the Greenwood land to the north, to the Middlesex County National Bank. The bank built its branch here in 1965 and sold the north part of the site that year; the branch passed through later bank mergers to Bank of America.

References

1. Billerica assessor, 464 Boston Rd (parcel 51-88-1): bank built 1965, deed Book 1604, Page 164, Plan 160-120 Parcel A.

Title References Expand all

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.