Observation Post No. 268
Observation Post No. 268 was the Aircraft Warning Service lookout tower at Nuttings Lake during the Second World War, one of the volunteer posts of the Ground Observer Corps that reported every airplane passing overhead to the Army. It stood in a field on the farm of the late Francis J. Dolan, beside the Dolan home on the west side of the Middlesex Turnpike near Canterbury Street. The Lowell Sun placed the post on Canterbury Street in October 1941, and in January 1943 reported that the Army had chosen the site, within six miles of the nearest other tower, and that the estate of Frank J. Dolan had leased it to the town for the duration of the war.
A special town meeting on December 22, 1941, two weeks after Pearl Harbor, voted $150 from the Outside Relief appropriation "toward the erection of an Observation Post." The tower was built under the supervision of Fred L. Smith with materials given by the Johns-Manville Company, J. Martin, Innis and McLennan, Kitchiner Farms, the Grossman Lumber Company and Saul, and with labor given by Messrs. Shaw, Dolan, Lyons, Gaudett, Durgin, Dormir, Dignan, Burris and Dixon. The American Legion post sponsored it. From January 8, 1942 it was manned around the clock by volunteers under Chief Observer George M. Dixon, who lived nearby on Canterbury Street, and in its first year it made about 160 telephone calls a month to the Army Report Center, reporting some 225 aircraft a month within four or five miles. Major H. M. Baldridge of the First Fighter Command called it a very important location in the air defense system. Twenty-four Howe High School pupils stood watches there.
The tower was heated, lighted and connected by telephone, and the town paid for oil, light and telephone each year: $40.50 for a heater in 1941, $149.03 in 1942 and $94.46 in 1943. The annual town meetings of 1942 and 1943 voted $150 and that of February 12, 1944 voted $100 for the upkeep of "Observation Tower No. 268," but only $21.89 of the last appropriation was spent, as the Army wound down the observer posts. The post does not appear in the town reports after 1944.
References
- Billerica Town Report 1941 (in the 1940-1944 volume), special town meeting of December 22, 1941: $150 voted toward the erection of an Observation Post.
- Billerica Town Report 1942, Report of the Aircraft Warning Service, Observation Post No. 268 at Nuttings Lake, by Chief Observer George M. Dixon.
- Billerica Town Report 1943, high school report: twenty-four pupils were volunteers while Observation Post 268 was in operation.
- Billerica Town Report 1944, annual town meeting of February 12, 1944, Article 17: $100 for the upkeep of Observation Tower No. 268.
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| July 18, 1910 | Quitclaim | Florence E. Grant of Chelmsford | Johanna Dolan (widow of Peter) and Francis J. Dolan of Billerica | Peter Dolan homestead to Johanna and Francis J. Dolan, 1910; the post stood on this farm | 454/216 |
Recorded July 18, 1910. For $1, the same 40-acre homestead "with all the buildings thereon formerly known as the homestead of Charles Stearns, deceased, and more recently known as the homestead of Peter Dolan, deceased" and the Crosby lot, to Peter's widow and their son Francis "as joint tenants and not as tenants in common"; "Being all and the same premises to me conveyed by William J. Lyons et als, by deed of even date".
Title from:
Title passed to:
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| January 12, 1945 | Quitclaim | Francis A. Dolan, Rita C. Dolan, Mary E. Dolan, John W. Dolan and Alice E. Hughes, heirs of Francis J. Dolan | Alice M. Dolan of Billerica, widow of Francis J. Dolan | Heirs of Francis J. Dolan to his widow Alice M. Dolan, 1944; the estate leased the post site to the town for the war | 1018/252 |
Dated Dec. 23, 1944, recorded Jan. 12, 1945. All the real estate of Francis J. Dolan (died intestate Jan. 20, 1942, probate 232734), including the forty-acre "homestead of Peter Dolan" beginning "at the southeasterly corner of the premises at Nuttings Pond at the Middlesex Turnpike", the eight-acre "Crosby Lot" and a 12 1/2-acre wood lot east of the Turnpike, excepting earlier conveyances (Johanna Dolan 1911, the Indian Knoll Terrace lots, George M. Dixon 1923 and 1936, Henry B. Dolan and Blanche S. Dolan 1941).
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.