Structure · Built 1852 · Demolished 1968
Joseph White House
The Joseph White House stood on the north side of Webb Brook Road, the old road "leading from the Boston Road to the Cider Mill of the late John Allen", in the southeastern part of Billerica. The 1853 map marks it "J. White". The land is now the lodge grounds of the Billerica Lodge of Elks No. 2071 at 14 Webb Brook Road.
The house is older than the map. On March 12, 1812, Silas Fuller sold Walter Carr Jr. "about forty one poles of land with a dwelling house thereon situated in the southerly part of said Billerica easterly of Webbs brook", bounded south on the town road and north on Josiah Crosby and Josiah Richardson, together with two acres and a barn across the road. Walter Carr Jr. enlarged the place and in 1822 sold it to Joseph Carr for $1,400: the house lot "with the buildings thereon", thirteen acres "with the buildings thereon standing on the opposite side of said road", along the road "to Webbs brook so called", and a fourteen acre back lot reaching the lands of Benjamin Bowers, Harvey Crosby and Zadock Allen. The same three lots passed from Joseph Carr, then of Boston, to Joseph Goodridge, a carpenter, in 1830, and from Goodridge to William Blanchard, a trader, in 1831.
On January 20, 1834, Blanchard sold all three lots for $1,200 to Joseph White Jr., a laborer from Bedford. White soon added to the farm: ten acres of walled pasture from Oliver Crosby in March 1834, bounded by "the road leading from Webbs Brook so called to said Whites house", and in April 1835 five more acres bought at a guardian's auction of the land of Isaac Pollard, running east to "the Winning thirds". In 1850 he and his wife Martha W. White sold five and a half acres off the far end of the back lot to their neighbor William P. P. Pollard. Joseph White kept the homestead for almost forty years. His will, approved at Cambridge on October 22, 1872, left it to his widow.
On April 7, 1873, Martha W. White sold "the homestead of the late Joseph White", "with a dwelling house thereon", and the thirteen acres across the road "with the barn standing thereon" to George Pasho for $1,625. The Pasho family farmed on both sides of Webb Brook Road for most of the next century. After George Pasho's death his children divided the land on February 19, 1910: William I. Pasho took the White homestead, still "with a Dwelling house thereon", and Chester A. Pasho took the farm across the road, where he built the house and market farm at 15 Webb Brook Road in 1916.
In 1923 William I. Pasho sold Chester a four acre strip, 370 feet wide, off the west side of the homestead, with no buildings named. That strip passed through the family and two private owners in 1952 and 1955, and on December 20, 1960 it was bought by trustees for the Billerica Lodge of Elks. The lodge mortgaged it in 1970 for $120,000, still describing it as "part of the homestead of the late Joseph White", and built its lodge here at the end of the 1960s. William I. Pasho's daughters sold other parts of the homestead east of the strip in the 1940s and 1950s; in 1995 the Elks bought two of those parcels, at 24 Webb Brook Road, at a foreclosure auction, so that the lodge now holds much of the old White farm.
The deeds put the house earlier than the 1852 date sometimes given for it: a dwelling house stood on the lot by 1812, and buildings are named in every conveyance of the homestead through 1910. The strip the Elks first bought never had buildings in its deeds, so the farmhouse stood east of it on the land William I. Pasho kept; its removal is placed in 1968, just before the lodge was built, but the deeds read so far do not record it.
References
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| January 7, 1813 | Deed | Silas Fuller of Billerica, yeoman, and his wife Mary | Walter Carr Jr. of Billerica, yeoman | 41 poles with a dwelling house, earliest record of the house | 203/135 (South) |
Billerica town book 11, pages 212-213. For $530, "about forty one poles of land with a dwelling house thereon situated in the southerly part of said Billerica easterly of Webbs brook, so called", bounded south on a town road and north partly on Josiah Crosby and partly on Josiah Richardson; "also about two acres of land on the opposite side of said town road with a barn thereon", bounded by the road and by Josiah Richardson "as the fences now stand". Signed March 12, 1812, witnesses Zadock Allen and Josiah Crosby Jr. No title recital. The earliest record of the house.
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| August 30, 1822 | Deed | Walter Carr Jr. of Billerica, yeoman, and his wife Charlotte | Joseph Carr of Billerica, yeoman | house lot with buildings, Walter Carr Jr. to Joseph Carr | 242/500 (South) |
Billerica town book 12, pages 282-283. For $1,400, lots in the southeasterly part of Billerica: "about forty one poles with the buildings thereon" bounded south on a town road and north on the heirs of Josiah Crosby and Isaac Pollard; "one other lot of land with the buildings thereon standing on the opposite side of said road containing thirteen acres", from Pollard westerly by a town road "to Webbs brook so called" and southwesterly by the road to Josiah Crosby; and a 14 acre tract bounded by the heirs of Joseph Danforth, Isaac Pollard, the widow Crosby, Benjamin Bowers, Harvey Crosby and Zadock Allen. Signed August 2, 1822, acknowledged before Blaney Abbot. No title recital.
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| 1830 | Deed | Joseph Carr of Boston, yeoman, and his wife Martha | Joseph Goodridge of Boston, carpenter | house lot, Joseph Carr to Joseph Goodridge | 296/214 (South) |
Billerica town book 14, pages 272-273. For $1,300, the same three lots: 41 poles "with the buildings thereon" bounded south on a town road and north on the heirs of Josiah Crosby (now Sarah Hill) and Isaac Pollard; 13 acres with buildings on the opposite side, on the town road to Webbs brook; and 14 acres (Danforth heirs, Pollard, widow Crosby, Benjamin Bowers, Harvey Crosby, Zadock Allen). Signed April 13, 1830.
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| March 9, 1831 | Deed | Joseph Goodridge of Billerica, carpenter, and his wife Abby | William Blanchard of Billerica, trader | house lot, Goodridge to William Blanchard | 302/521 (South) |
Billerica town book 14, pages 377-378. For $1,200, "the following lots of land situated in the Southeasterly part of said Billerica, viz. about forty one poles with the buildings thereon, bounded Southerly on a Town road and Northerly on land of the Heirs formerly of Josiah Crosby but now Sarah Hill and land of Isaac Pollard"; the 13 acres "with the buildings thereon standing on the opposite side of said road" (Pollard, the town road to Webb's brook, Josiah Crosby); and the 14 acre tract. Signed February 19, 1831, witnesses Oliver Prescott and Andrew B. Pollard, acknowledged before Marshall Preston. Blanchard mortgaged it back the same year (Book 303 Page 178).
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| January 21, 1834 | Deed | William Blanchard of Billerica, cordwainer, and his wife Lydia Ann | Joseph White Jr. of Bedford, laborer | purchase by Joseph White Jr. | 328/351 (South) |
Billerica town book 16, pages 311-313. For $1,200, the same three lots in the southeasterly part of Billerica: "about forty one poles with the buildings thereon" bounded south on a town road and north on Sarah Hill and Isaac Pollard; "one other lot of land with the buildings thereon standing on the opposite side of said road containing thirteen acres", along the town road "to Webbs Brook so called"; and 14 acres bounded by the Danforth heirs, Pollard, the widow Crosby, Benjamin Bowers, Harvey Crosby and Zadock Allen. Signed January 20, 1834, acknowledged before John Baldwin. No title recital. The purchase of the White homestead.
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| March 28, 1834 | Deed | Oliver Crosby of Billerica, gentleman, and his wife Hannah M. | Joseph White Jr. of Bedford, yeoman | 10 acre pasture added to the White homestead | 330/390 (South) |
Billerica town book 13, pages 528-529. For $150, "a certain piece or parcel of pasture land situate in said Billerica containing ten acres more or less", from the southwest corner "at the road leading from Webbs Brook so called to said Whites house", easterly by the road to White's land, by White and Isaac Pollard, to the wall at Crosby's mowing lot, "the same being surrounded by a stone wall". Signed March 25, 1834, witnesses Marshall Preston and Joseph Farmer. Added pasture to the homestead.
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| 1835 | Guardian's Deed | Marshall Preston of Billerica, guardian of Isaac Pollard, a spendthrift | Joseph White of Lexington, yeoman | 5 acres added (Isaac Pollard guardian sale) | 343/438 (South) |
Billerica town book 15, pages 148-149. Under license of the Supreme Judicial Court at Cambridge, after thirty days' notice posted in Billerica, Wilmington and Tewksbury, Preston sold at public vendue on the premises, April 1, 1835, "the whole of the real estate of the said Isaac Pollard" to Joseph White, the highest bidder, for $366: five acres in the southeasterly part of Billerica, bounded south by "the road leading from Webbs Brook so called to the Winning thirds", east by the Winning thirds, north and west by White's land "which he purchased of Oliver Crosby". White mortgaged it to Preston (Book 343 Page 437), discharged January 25, 1837.
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| 1850 | Deed | Joseph White of Billerica, yeoman, and his wife Martha W. White | William P. P. Pollard of Boston, yeoman | part of the 14 acres sold to W. P. P. Pollard | 593/81 (South) |
Billerica town book 18, pages 441-442. For $285, 5 1/2 acres in the southeasterly part of Billerica, from the northeasterly corner by the road southerly 4 rods to Pollard's land, then by Pollard about 8 and 27 rods, westerly by "my own land" about 31 rods, northerly by White and Harvey Crosby about 29 rods, easterly by the heirs of Zadock Allen about 30 rods, "as the wall now stands around said lot". The northeast part of the 14 acre lot bought in 1834, sold to the neighbor; the homestead stayed with White.
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| May 6, 1873 | Warranty Deed | Martha W. White of Billerica, widow, devisee of Joseph White | George Pasho of Billerica | widow Martha W. White to George Pasho, homestead with dwelling house | 93/94 |
For $1,625, "a certain parcel of land situate in the Southeasterly part of said Billerica and known as the homestead of the late Joseph White", beginning on the road leading from the Boston road to the late John Allen's Cider Mill at land of J. W. Essex, north by Essex and one Mosman to land formerly of Harvey Crosby, west by Crosby to land formerly of Joseph Noyes, south "as the wall now stands" by Noyes and Benjamin Weed to the road, "with a dwelling house thereon"; and a lot "situate on the opposite side of the street with the barn standing thereon containing thirteen acres", from Abby G. West westerly by the cross road to Webb's Brook and by the road to Haslet Mackay. "Being premises conveyed to Joseph White in three deeds, and by said Joseph White conveyed to me by his last will, approved at Cambridge October 22, 1872." Signed April 7, 1873.
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| March 4, 1910 | Quitclaim | Burton C. Pasho, Walter L. Gardner and Mina L. Gardner, Harry J. Pasho and Chester A. Pasho, all of Billerica | William I. Pasho of Billerica | Pasho heirs to William I. Pasho, homestead with dwelling house | 446/477 |
For $1 and other consideration, "part of the Homestead of the late Joseph White", beginning on the road from the Boston road to the late John Allen's Cider Mill at land of the late J. W. Essex, north by Essex and one Mosman to land formerly of Harvey Crosby, west by Crosby to land formerly of Joseph Noyes, south "as the wall now stands" by Noyes and land formerly of Benjamin Weed to the road, east by the road, "With a Dwelling house thereon". "It being the first lot mentioned in a deed from Martha W. White to George Pasho dated April 7, 1873." Signed February 19, 1910 by George Pasho's heirs; the same day they gave the 13 acre lot across the road to Chester A. Pasho (Book 445 Page 599). A 1945 affidavit (Book 1022 Page 387) adds that the three brothers were then unmarried.
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| May 5, 1923 | Quitclaim | William I. Pasho of Billerica | Chester A. Pasho of Billerica | west 4 acre strip to Chester A. Pasho | 679/369 |
For consideration paid, "the westerly part of a part of the homestead of the late Joseph White", from the southwest corner at the wall on the north line of the road leading from the Boston Road to the cider mill of the late John Allen, easterly 370 feet to a stone bound at the grantor's other land, northerly parallel with the wall 700 feet to land of Joseph Noyes now or formerly, westerly by Noyes to the wall and southerly by the wall; 4 acres, "being a strip 370 feet in width off the westerly side" of the 1910 deed, Book 446 Page 477. No buildings named. Signed May 4, 1923, with a release by the mortgagee Mina S. Gardner and a new $800 mortgage from Chester A. and Frances M. Pasho to her.
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| January 25, 1952 | Quitclaim | Chester A. Pasho and Julia Frances Pasho of Billerica | Mary Walsh Brennan of Lowell | straw deed of the strip | 1187/235 |
No money consideration (a conveyance to a straw): Parcel 1, 13 acres on the south side of Webb Brook Road "formerly called the road leading from the Boston Road to the late John Allen's Cider Mill" (Abby G. West, Webb's Brook, Haslet Mackay), from Burton C. Pasho et al., February 19, 1910, Book 445 Page 599; Parcel 2, the 4 acre strip, "the westerly part of a part of the Homestead of the late Joseph White", from William I. Pasho, May 4, 1923, Book 679 Page 369. Signed January 22, 1952.
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| January 25, 1952 | Quitclaim | Mary Walsh Brennan of Lowell, unmarried | Chester A. Pasho and Julia Frances Pasho, tenants by the entirety | straw reconveyance | 1187/236 |
No money consideration: the same two parcels, the 13 acres south of Webb Brook Road and the 4 acre strip of the Joseph White homestead, "the same conveyed to me by the said Chester A. Pasho and Julia Frances Pasho by their deed of even date". Signed January 22, 1952, before James H. Riley. Completes the straw transfer that put the land in husband and wife as tenants by the entirety.
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| 1952 | Quitclaim | Chester A. Pasho and Julia Frances Pasho of Billerica | Private owners (a married couple of the Pasho family) | strip to private owners | 1191/214 |
No money consideration: the 4 acre strip, "the westerly part of a part of the Homestead of the late Joseph White", on the north line of Webb Brook Road, 370 feet wide and about 700 feet deep, bounded east by William I. Pasho and north by land of Joseph Noyes now or formerly; "all and the same premises set forth as Parcel #2" in the deed from Mary Walsh Brennan, Book 1187 Page 236. Dated March 14, 1952. No buildings named.
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| May 16, 1955 | Quitclaim | Private owners (the 1952 grantees) | Private owners of Reading (husband and wife) | strip to private owners | 1293/493 |
Consideration paid: the same 4 acre strip, "the westerly part of a part of the Homestead of the late Joseph White", on the north line of Webb Brook Road, formerly the road from the Boston Road to the cider mill of the late John Allen; "the same premises conveyed to us by Chester A. Pasho et ux" March 14, 1952, Book 1191 Page 214. Subject to the 1955 taxes. Signed May 16, 1955. No buildings named.
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| December 22, 1960 | Quitclaim | Private owners of Billerica (the 1955 grantees) | Raymond F. McColough, John A. Rivet and Charles F. Swan Jr., trustees of the Billerica Lodge of Elks Realty Trust | strip to the Elks trustees | 1500/486 |
For consideration paid, "a certain piece or parcel of land situated in the Southerly part of said Billerica and being the Westerly part of a part of the Homestead of the late Joseph White", on the north line of Webb Brook Road, 370 feet to land of William Pasho, north to the Pasho line at land of Joseph Noyes, 4 acres, the strip off the west side of the 1910 deed, Book 446 Page 477; the same conveyed to the grantors May 16, 1955, Book 1293 Page 493. Subject to the Declaration of Trust of December 20, 1960 recorded herewith; purchase-money mortgage back, Book 1500 Page 487. Dated December 20, 1960.
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| December 30, 1970 | Mortgage | Billerica Lodge of Elks No. 2071, Inc. | Union National Bank of Lowell | Elks mortgage, part of the White homestead | 1945/592 |
Mortgage for $120,000 at 8 percent, authorized by the lodge's vote, on "a certain piece or parcel of land situated in the southerly part of Billerica, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and being the westerly part of a part of the homestead of the late Joseph White", the 4 acre strip on Webb Brook Road (Book 446 Page 477), "being the same premises conveyed to Raymond F. McColough et als, Trustees" December 20, 1960, Book 1500 Page 486, subject to the 1960 mortgage (Book 1500 Page 487). Financing for the lodge building completed in 1969-70. Discharged 1986 (Book 3678 Page 318).
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| July 20, 1995 | Foreclosure Deed | FGB Realty Advisors, Inc., mortgagee | Billerica Lodge of Elks BPOE No. 2071 | adjoining White homestead land to the Elks | 7563/101 |
Under the power of sale in a 1988 mortgage from John G. Talutis and S. Robert Talutis, trustees of Day by Day Trust (Book 4440 Page 4), the premises at 24 Webb Brook Road were sold at auction on June 21, 1995 to the Elks for $110,000: Parcel One, 0.76 acre "together with the buildings thereon" on the north side of Webb Brook Road (Plan of land surveyed for Dorothy L. Pasho, 1955, Plan Book 85 Plan 1228), and Parcel Two, Lot A, 1.32 acres (Plan Book 92 Plan 73), bounded west "by land owned now or formerly of one McAdam", the 1960 Elks strip. These are further parts of the Joseph White homestead, east of the strip. Later Elks mortgages (1971, 1977, 2003) and 2021-2022 lot line deeds and an easement (Plan 249-88) adjust the lodge land.
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.