Sellew Park
Sellew Park was a strip of land on the Shawsheen River at Riverdale, in the Pinehurst precinct (Precinct Three), which the town accepted in 1945 as a gift of Mrs. Lois K. Sellew. It was named for her husband, the surveyor and developer Edgar P. Sellew, who had laid out the Riverdale house lots along Allen Road and Wyman Road, near the river, on land he began buying in the 1890s. The town meant to make a playground of it, then argued for five years about whether it was the right place, and the playground was finally built elsewhere, at Pinehurst, as the John A. Akeson Playground (Akeson Field). No later record shows the park in use, and the town reports after 1955 do not mention it.
The first proposal came in the warrant for the annual town meeting of February 1942, which asked whether the town would "accept from Mrs. Sellew a parcel of land bordering the Shawsheen River; or acquire the land in any way; and appropriate the sum of $100.00 to clarify the title." The next year's warrant asked for $100 "to purchase a strip of land bordering the Shawsheen River at Riverdale in the Pinehurst precinct," and the 1943 meeting referred it to the following annual meeting. Edgar P. Sellew had by then let some of his Riverdale land go for taxes: the collector took several of his parcels for the taxes of 1933 to 1935, among them a two-acre "Crosby Meadow" and Riverdale lots 301 and 302, and in 1942 the Commissioner of Corporations and Taxation certified that those tax titles were worth less than the taxes owed. Under Article 29 of the annual meeting of 1945 the town voted to "accept a gift of a certain parcel of land bordering the Shawsheen River from Mrs. Lois K. Sellew, and appropriate the sum of $100.00 to clear the title." The selectmen's accounts for 1945 show $100 spent for "Clearing Title to Sellew Land" and $4.25 for "Recording Deed, Sellew Land."
At the annual meeting of 1946, Article 54 asked for $5,000 "for the development of a playground on the site of Sellew Park in Precinct Three," to be spent by a representative committee. Two amendments were ruled out of order by the moderator: one to spend the money on a proper site for a playground at Pinehurst, and another that the town "sell the land that was taken over for $1.00 plus the wood lot in back and then look for a good playground." The original motion carried on a rising vote, 144 to 110, the money to be spent under the direction of the selectmen. Pinehurst residents kept pressing for a site in their own village. A later warrant in 1946 asked to transfer the $5,000 to buying "a suitable site for a playground in the Pinehurst Area"; the meeting postponed it to the next annual meeting and had the moderator appoint a committee, one member from each precinct, to find a site in Pinehurst. The 1947 warrant again proposed moving the money "from the Sellew Park appropriation to the Pinehurst playground appropriation." The "Sellew Park Playground" account of $5,000 stayed unspent on the town's books from 1946 through 1950.
In 1950 Article 42 asked the meeting to authorize the selectmen "to sell the tract of land known as Sellew Park in Precinct Three." "A point of order was raised that this land is part of the Town Forest," and the article was dismissed. Edgar P. Sellew had himself given the town some twenty acres of meadow on the Shawsheen River between the Boston Road and Webb Brook, accepted by the town meeting of 1925 as Town Forest Area No. 25 (see Shaloo Meadow Town Forest), and the strip his widow gave in 1945 at Riverdale probably lay with or beside it; but the Town Forest Committee's reports of the 1940s never name Sellew Park, and the two gifts have not been tied together by a deed. In 1951 the town accepted John A. Akeson's gift of 200,000 square feet on the Shawsheen River in Pinehurst for one dollar, on condition that any playground there be called the John A. Akeson Playground, and voted that whatever remained of the $5,000 raised under Article 54 of 1946 be spent by the Pinehurst Playground Committee on it. The warrant for the annual meeting of 1956 asked once more whether the selectmen should "dispose of the land known as Sellew Park, and tell by what means this should be done"; the vote on it has not been found.
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| September 7, 1910 | Warranty Deed | Frank W. Crosby of Billerica (Henrietta E. Crosby releasing dower and homestead) | Edgar P. Sellew of Billerica | Edgar P. Sellew buys the two-acre Crosby meadow, later taken for his taxes; whether it is part of the park is unproved | 457/168 |
Signed September 7, 1910, "in consideration of One Dollar and other valuable considerations." "A certain tract of meadow land in the southeasterly part of said Billerica, containing two acres more or less," bounded from the northwest corner at the upland easterly by land formerly of the heirs of John Skilton and now or late of Baker to land formerly of James Bennett and more recently of George H. Bennett, southeasterly by Bennett to land formerly of Skilton and more recently of Baker, westerly by that land to the upland, and northerly by the upland. "Being the same premises conveyed to Jeremiah Crosby by Abner Wheeler by deed dated March 14, 1823. For my title see probate of Leander Crosby." The 1823 deed, Abner Wheeler (Mary releasing dower) to Jeremiah Crosby, was recorded just before it, October 7, 1913, on the same page. This is the "Crosby Meadow" the town took for Sellew's unpaid taxes in 1936.
Title passed to:
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| October 16, 1936 | Collector's Deed (tax title) | Edgar P. Sellew, by Patrick J. Mahoney, Collector of Taxes | Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica | The collector takes Sellew's Crosby Meadow for the taxes of 1933-1935 | 889/471 |
Signed October 5, 1936, recorded October 16, 1936. For the taxes of 1933, 1934 and 1935 assessed to Edgar P. Sellew, $4.32, demanded September 16, 1936; no one bid at the auction of October 2 or the adjournment of October 5, and the collector bought it for the town for $10.30: "2 Acres of land more or less, known as Crosby Meadow. For further description see deed recorded in Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds Book 457 Page 168," subject to the right of redemption. One of nine tax deeds of Sellew land (Book 889 Pages 471 to 494).
Title from:
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| October 16, 1936 | Collector's Deed (tax title) | Edgar P. Sellew, by Patrick J. Mahoney, Collector of Taxes | Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica | The collector takes Sellew's Riverdale Lots 301 (part) and 302 for taxes | 889/473 |
Signed October 5, 1936, recorded October 16, 1936. For the taxes of 1933 to 1935 assessed to Edgar P. Sellew, $16.20, bought in for the town at the adjourned auction for $23.40: "21,990 square feet of land, more or less, being lot numbered 302 and part of lot numbered 301 on a plan of land entitled Riverdale and recorded in Middlesex North District Registry of Deeds Plan Book 28, Plan 91," subject to the right of redemption.
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| March 13, 1942 | Affidavit | Henry F. Long, Commissioner of Corporations and Taxation | Lawrence E. Desmond, Treasurer of the Town of Billerica | The Commissioner certifies the Sellew tax titles worth less than the taxes, 1942 | 975/1 |
Recorded March 13, 1942. Affidavit under General Laws chapter 60, section 79, "that in my opinion the value of each parcel of land held by The Town of Billerica under a tax title deed or instrument of Taking as hereinafter listed ... is insufficient to meet the taxes, interest and charges" and the cost of foreclosure, listing many owners; the grantor index lists it under Edgar P. Sellew for his tax deeds 889-471, 473, 477, 480, 484, 486, 488, 490 and 494. It let the treasurer sell the tax titles or take the land for the town; the town meeting article to accept land on the Shawsheen from Mrs. Sellew "or acquire the land in any way" and "clarify the title" followed.
Related:
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.
References
- Billerica town reports 1940-1944: 1942 warrant Article 34 (land from Mrs. Sellew on the Shawsheen River); 1943 Article 13 (strip at Riverdale) referred
- Billerica town reports 1945-1949: 1945 Article 29 (gift of Lois K. Sellew accepted), 1946 Article 54 (Sellew Park playground, 144 to 110), Pinehurst playground articles
- Billerica town reports 1950-1954: 1950 Article 42 (sale of Sellew Park dismissed, part of the Town Forest); 1951 Article 24 (funds to the Akeson Playground)
- Billerica town reports 1955-1959: warrant article to dispose of the land known as Sellew Park