John Knowles House
This was an old Crosby site, first granted to Joseph Walker and then sold to Nathan Crosby in 1699.
John Knowles was a farmer, born in Centre Harbor, NH, and moved to Billerica in 1858. He had four daughters: Annie, Mary, Caroline, and Grace. Mary was a teacher at the Crosby, Hill and Centre Primary Schools, then moved to the Pollard School once it was built to become the principal there. In 1897, she resigned her position. Her sister Grace (b. 1868), started her teaching career at the Spaulding School, and eventually she too became the principal at the Pollard School. In 1940, she was recognized as having 47 consecutive years as a teacher in town, by far the longest-tenured teacher Billerica had ever had. Neither of these women married, and were living in the house together as recently as 1940.