Town Farm
The Billerica Town Farm was a poorhouse, which was a common form of welfare in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The early known reference to Billerica's was 1824. Abigail Toppan, died there in 1874 aged 98, having been an inmate for over fifty years. The inmates generally had mental ailments and were closely supervised, but it was very much a working farm. The goods it sold partially funded its continued existence, with the town managing its finances. There was a Town Farm Superintendent and three Overseers of the Poor who were frequently Selectmen. After the Social Security Act of 1935, the need for the Town Farm declined. In 1945, the town sold off all the livestock, farm equipment, and furniture. The buildings slowly decayed and became overgrown, but the lot was otherwise empty until the early 2000s.
