Peter P. Burns House

The house at 306 Andover Road stands on a small three-cornered lot, "one acre and one eighth, more or less, being a heater piece," in the angle where Andover Road crosses the old Boston and Lowell Railroad. The deeds bound it the same way for almost 150 years: from the corner of land of Henry Allen and the railroad, about 23 rods south along Allen's land to "the road leading from said Allen's to Patten's Mills," about 15 rods east along the road, and back about 24 rods along the railroad. The road led to the Patten mills at Pattenville; a deed of 1954 calls it "now known as Andover Road."

The triangle was part of the farm of Samuel Brown, who in 1833 sold the Boston and Lowell Rail Road Corporation its route across his land and agreed to keep the fence along the tracks. Brown died in 1835, and in 1836 his other heirs released the farm to his son Samuel Brown 2d. On February 10, 1846 the son sold the bare heater piece to Peter P. Burns of Billerica, yeoman, for forty dollars, Burns taking over "the obligation heretofore made by the said Brown's father with the said Rail Road Corporation to maintain and support the fence." When Burns sold the lot in April 1853 to Leonard Stratton of Wilmington, the price was seven hundred dollars. Stratton was married to Mary Brown, one of the elder Samuel Brown's daughters. The deeds of these years still describe the lot as bare land, but the jump in price points to a house built by Burns between 1846 and 1853, earlier than the assessor's estimate of 1864.

The Strattons kept the place for 24 years. In 1858 Leonard Stratton conveyed it to Willard P. Stratton of Manchester, New Hampshire, who released it in 1860 to Mary B. Stratton, and in 1862 Leonard also bought sixteen acres across the tracks on "Patten's road." By 1877 the couple had moved to Goffstown, New Hampshire, and on April 13 of that year they sold the heater piece to Peter B. Bohonan of Billerica for five hundred dollars. In January 1881 Bohonan traded it to Ann Boyd of Lowell for her house on Fayette Street in Lowell; his deed is the first to name "the buildings thereon." Ann Boyd passed it at once to George A. Elliott of Lowell, who mortgaged it in April 1881 to Clara A. Clark for $500.

Two foreclosures followed. The Elliott mortgage passed through several hands to George B. Walton, who sold the house at auction on October 30, 1891 to Harry C. Greene for $800. Greene sold it to John A. Porter of Lowell, who mortgaged it to Susan E. Dawson for $550; in 1898 she foreclosed and bought it at her own sale for $500. On April 1, 1905 she sold it to John W. Dignon of Boston. The Dignon family lived here for more than forty years: a fire department report of the 1910s records a chimney fire "in house occupied by J. W. Dignon." John W. Dignon died in January at the age of 83 (town report of 1941), and the house passed through his estate to Marie C. Dignon, who sold it in May 1949.

The buyers of 1949 sold in 1950, and in November 1951 the next owners deeded the house back to the Lexington Savings Bank, which held the mortgage. The bank conveyed it in February 1952 to the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, and the Veterans Administration sold it a month later to private owners. It has changed hands privately since, in 1954, 1993 and 2023; in 1985 a neighboring lot in Block 3B of a recorded subdivision plan was added, and the assessor now lists the combined parcel at 1.082 acres.

References

1. Billerica assessor, parcel 26-53-1 (306 Andover Rd): 1.082 acres, sales history 1954-2023

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.