Railroad House
Railroad House
| Also Known As | Alfred A. Franz House |
| Address | 69 Gray St |
| MACRIS ID | BIL.310 |
| Built | 1874 |
| Other Lot Structures | East Billerica Station (1836 - 1965) |
The Railroad House at 69 Gray Street is a small two-story house built by the Boston and Lowell Railroad in 1874 on the grounds of the East Billerica Station, between the station and Gray Street. It is the last building left from the station.
The land was part of the farm of Oliver Richardson and John Richardson 2nd, through which the railroad was laid out in 1834. After John Richardson 2nd's death in 1861, ten acres beside the railroad south of Gray Street passed to his son Alden B. Richardson, who sold them in 1863 to the station agent, Peter B. Bohonan. On September 14, 1868 Bohonan sold the Boston and Lowell, for $200, about 26,325 square feet on the highway beside the tracks for its station grounds, and the house was built on that lot six years later.
Although it is often called the station agent's house, the Billerica Historical Commission found that the agents of East Billerica (Bohonan and his successor George Moore) lived elsewhere; the house served as a temporary home for railroad men. Section hands of the Brabant family lived here from 1880 to 1890 and again from 1898 to 1918, and George Henry Brabant, a florist, from 1922 to 1927 with his mother-in-law Mary Curtis. The Boston and Maine Railroad, which leased the Boston and Lowell from 1887, kept the house through the 1920s; the town's 1928 valuation of railroad property lists it as "Rear of Station House on station lot." Alfred A. Franz became caretaker of the station in 1927 and lived here with his family.
On December 28, 1944, after the lot had been released from its 1919 mortgage, the Boston and Maine sold the house to Margaret Elizabeth Franz: 17,620 square feet "with the buildings thereon," bounded by Gray Street, other railroad land and "land now or formerly of Bohonan," as drawn by the railroad's engineer of design in October 1944. The railroad kept a right to use "the driveway as now located over the above described premises extending easterly from said Gray Street to the grantor's East Billerica Station grounds," and Mrs. Franz agreed to keep up the fences and gave up any claim for damage from rebuilding the Gray Street bridge. In 1949 the county took part of the lot for the new bridge approach "at the East Billerica Station." The Franz family sold the house in March 1952 to a private owner.
The lot was resurveyed in 1977 at 16,550 square feet, and the house has had several private owners since, with a one-room addition and a larger porch added about 1975 and later. It is in the Richardson's Mill local historic district (1994). It was held by Railroad House, LLC from 2018 until 2021, when it was sold to private owners. The assessor gives its land as 0.38 acres.
References
- MACRIS BIL.310
- Billerica annual report 1928: Boston and Maine property in East Billerica, "Station Lot" and "Rear of Station House on station lot"
- Billerica assessor, 69 Gray St (parcel 26-118-0): 0.38 acres; Plan 124-63A; sales history
Deed References
| Date | Type | Grantor | Grantee | Summary | Recorded |
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| 1834 | Deed | Oliver Richardson and John Richardson 2nd of Billerica, yeomen (Nancy, wife of John, releasing dower) | Boston and Lowell Railroad | 1834: railroad location beside the later Railroad House lot | 328/548 (South) |
The railroad location through the Richardson farm at the Andover road crossing, the site of the later East Billerica station. For $1,050, "a certain piece of land lying on the easterly side of the County road leading from Billerica to Andover near said Richardsons dwelling house being a strip just four rods in width that is two rods each way from the centre line of the said road," 63.29 rods, bounded by the county road, the grantors' land and land of John and William Bowers; also the strip on the northwest side of the county road, 4 acres 135 rods, "keeping always just two rods from the centre line of the rail road to the east shore of the mill pond" and on to the old road; and a third piece of 1 acre 69 rods by Bowers and the widow Sarah Kendall. The Richardsons kept the right, for "our mill and water privileges," to flow the mill pond on both sides of the railroad and to use the embankment as a dam, and the corporation was to keep up the culverts. Dated January 20, 1834; Billerica town book 16, pages 317-320.
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| December 10, 1863 | Deed | Alden B. Richardson of Lowell (Martha, his wife, releasing) | Peter B. Bohonan of Billerica | 1863: Bohonan buys the land the Railroad House lot was later cut from | 36/298 |
For $300, "a certain lot or parcel of land situate in the easterly part of said Billerica," beginning at its northeast corner "on the road leading from Billerica to Tewksbury and on the westerly side of the Boston and Lowell Rail-road," southwest along the road about 53 rods to Samuel Brown, then by Brown, Henry Allen and a dry ditch back to the railroad and northwest "by and with said rail-road" about 28 rods to the start; "being the same conveyed to me by deeds of John O. Richardson and others dated Oct 1861 ... Book 29 Page 371," and of Priscilla Brown and others (1862) and Samuel Brown (1862), "being ten acres more or less." Dated September 22, 1863; recorded December 10, 1863. The station agent's land beside the depot, from which he sold the station grounds to the railroad in 1868.
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| September 21, 1868 | Deed | Peter B. Bohonan of Billerica (Susan E., his wife, releasing dower and homestead) | Boston and Lowell Railroad | 1868: the railroad buys the land the Railroad House was built on in 1874 | 64/41 |
The station grounds. For $200 the station agent sold the railroad "a certain tract of land, situate in the easterly part of said Billerica containing about 26,325 square feet," beginning at a stake and stones in the westerly line of the corporation's land "about 238 feet from the southerly line of the highway running from Billerica Centre to Tewksbury" (Gray Street), southwest 186 feet, northwest about 113 feet to the highway, 152 3/4 feet along the highway to the railroad line and back by the railroad about 238 feet; "Said Corporation hereby agree to build and forever maintain all fences around said premises." Dated September 14, 1868, acknowledged before Dudley Foster. The 1944 deed of the Railroad House lot is bounded on two sides by "land now or formerly of Bohonan," so the house was built on this purchase.
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| December 29, 1944 | Partial Release of Mortgage | Old Colony Trust Company, trustee under the Boston and Maine Railroad mortgage of December 1, 1919 | Boston and Maine Railroad | 1944: lot released from the B&M 1919 mortgage before sale | 1017/75 |
Before selling the station-agent house lot, the railroad had it released from its 1919 general mortgage (Book 618, Page 201): the trustee quitclaimed "that portion of the premises therein conveyed" described as "a certain piece or parcel of land with the building thereon" on Gray Street, bounded by "land now or formerly of Bohonan," Gray Street and other railroad land, about 17,620 square feet. Signed December 20, 1944 by J. Coulson, vice-president; recorded December 29, 1944.
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| December 29, 1944 | Deed | Boston and Maine Railroad (by Arthur B. Nichols, vice president) | Margaret Elizabeth Franz of Billerica | 1944: the railroad sells the Railroad House to Margaret E. Franz | 1017/76 |
For one dollar and other valuable considerations, "a certain piece or parcel of land with the buildings thereon" on the east side of Gray Street, beginning on railroad land 123.52 feet from Station 1016+11.1 of the main line, then "by land now or formerly of Bohonan" 123.48 and 134.51 feet to Gray Street, 100.47 feet by the street and 218.19 feet by other railroad land, "about seventeen thousand six hundred twenty (17,620) square feet," as on a plan by J. P. Cronin, engineer of design, October 1944 (Plan Book 66, Plan 60). The railroad kept a right to use "the driveway as now located over the above described premises extending easterly from said Gray Street to the grantor's East Billerica Station grounds"; the buyer took the fences and released any claim from rebuilding the Gray Street bridge. Mrs. Franz's husband Alfred A. Franz was the station caretaker. Dated December 28, 1944.
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| June 13, 1949 | Taking | Middlesex County Commissioners, for the Town of Billerica | Town of Billerica (highway and slope easements) | 1949: part of the Franz lot taken for the Gray Street bridge approach | 1117/161 |
On the selectmen's 1947 petition that "the bridge and approaches thereto, carrying Gray Street, in Billerica, over the tracks of the Boston and Maine Railroad, at the East Billerica Station, should be altered," the commissioners laid out the altered road and took easements for highway and sloping purposes, among them Parcel 2 from "Leopold C. and Phyllis B. Tappey about 800 square feet" and Slope Parcel 3 from the Tappeys about 1,700 square feet, with "Trees, walls, and fences" within the limits, and ordered a new five-span timber bridge with a 24-foot roadway and a four-foot walk. Dated April 29, 1949; recorded June 13, 1949. Middlesex North Book 1117, pages 161-164.
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| March 14, 1952 | Quitclaim Deed | Margaret Elizabeth Franz of Billerica (Alfred A. Franz, her husband, releasing) | Private owners (a married couple; not named) | 1952: the Franz family sells the Railroad House | 1191/97 |
"The land with the buildings thereon situated on Gray Street, Billerica," with the same bounds as the 1944 deed from the railroad and the October 1944 Cronin plan (Plan Book 66, Plan 60); "The Commonwealth of Massachusetts by right of eminent domain for purposes of a public highway having taken a portion of said premises it is my intention to convey all of the above described premises as now remains in my name" (the 1949 Gray Street bridge taking). Title, Book 1017, Page 76. Recorded March 14, 1952. The Franz family had lived in the house since 1927, when Alfred Franz became caretaker of the station.
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| November 16, 2018 | Quitclaim Deed | The owners of 1996 to 2018 (private; not named) | Railroad House, LLC, of Northfield, Massachusetts | 2018: to Railroad House, LLC (later private sales summarized) | 32574/128 |
For $1, an estate-planning transfer of "a certain parcel of land with the buildings thereon situated in Billerica ... known as and numbered 69 Gray Street," shown on the 1977 "Plan of Land in Billerica, Mass., owned by Esther McElhinney" (Plan Book 124, Plan 63A): 100.45 feet on Gray Street, 207.30 feet by the Boston & Maine Corporation, 123.48 and 123.94 feet by "land of owner unknown," 16,550 square feet, subject to a slope easement and right of way; title, Book 7881, Page 203. Later and earlier private transfers: the house passed in 1977 (Book 2245, Page 178) from the 1952 buyers' estate, then by private sales in 1979, 1983, 1986 (Book 3342, Page 216) and a 1996 joint-tenancy deed (Book 7881, Page 203); Railroad House, LLC sold it to private owners on April 1, 2021 for $350,000 (Book 35564, Page 48).
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Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.