Sarah Stearns House
Sarah Stearns House
There was a story-and-a-half gambrel across Treble Cove Road from this one. Preston, as administrator to the late Nathaniel Stearns, cleared that with 4.5A to his widow in 1846, and she promptly transferred to her son-in-law Jones.
The 1831 map does not show a house of the south side of the road, but the 1853 map show widow N. Stearns. It seems reasonably clear that the widow Sarah disposed of her old house and built this one for her own occupancy.
It is a small house, and Billerica is surprisingly short of the old small houses. There is a casual resemblance to the Bussey House in North Billerica, which Sarah would have been familiar, for her husband was active in the Billerica Mills and guardian of the Mears children.
On February 1, 2018, two years after the delay hearing, the Sarah Stearns House at 186 Boston Road (BIL.131) was demolished to make room for a Panera Bread strip mall. There was no media coverage of the event.