Spaulding Schoolhouse

The Spaulding Schoolhouse was the schoolhouse of Billerica's old School District No. 9, on the west side of Nashua Road (the old road from Chelmsford to Bedford) in West Billerica. It stood on a small lot about 56 feet on the road and 65 feet deep, taken from two neighbors in 1852, and it served as a district and then a town school until about 1910. The building was sold in 1929.

An older District No. 9 schoolhouse stood on land of George P. Elliot nearby. On December 28, 1852 two deeds gave the district a new lot. Caleb S. Brown of Billerica granted a strip forty feet on "the road leading from Chelmsford to Bedford", running back sixty-five feet, "subject to the express condition that said premises shall be used as a School House lot", the land to "revert to said Brown his heirs and assigns" if the district stopped using it so. George P. Elliot of Lowell granted the adjoining sixteen feet to the south, to be held "so long as they shall use the same as a part of the School house lot", on condition that the district "remove their old school house off of the land it now stands on" by May 1, 1853 and rebuild the roadside wall where it had stood. Both deeds were recorded February 28, 1853 (Middlesex South 646/229 and 645/600). Brown's part probably came from the three-quarter acre he bought for $70 in 1837 from David P. Winning, an innholder, on the west side of the road from Bedford to Chelmsford between the new road and the bed of "the Old road" (Middlesex South 363/460). Winning had bought, with John Winning, the equity in Samuel Brown 2nd's tavern and farm in the westerly part of town at a sheriff's sale in 1827 (Middlesex South 280/151), though the deeds do not prove that the pasture came from that farm.

The school committee's report for 1853-54 recorded that "the beautiful and commodious school-house erected by this District, was dedicated the 29th of May" 1853, and that "the location of this house produced a schism in the District." Earlier accounts gave 1845 as the date of construction. After the school districts were abolished in 1869 the building passed to the Town. By 1890 it was known as the Spaulding School, probably for the Spaulding families along the road toward the Chelmsford line, and it was grouped with the Crosby and Hill schools under one sub-committee. The town gave it a new floor and seats in 1895, painted it in 1903, shingled it and repaired the underpinning in 1904, and replastered it in 1905. The 1901 Lowell directory lists "Spaulding School, Nashua rd." with Ethel L. Buckley as teacher. Town meetings in 1910 and 1911 considered whether to reopen the Hill and Spaulding schools, and deeds of the Thomas Simonds land across the road in 1890 described it as "near the Spaulding school".

The 1925 county layout of Nashua Road (Plan 910-9, sheet 6) shows the small "Town of Billerica" lot with a building marked "School" on the west side of the road, between land of Frank E. McIntosh to the north and George R. and Ralph C. Dyer to the south, with Francis P. DeLorey across the road. In 1928 the town meeting voted that the School Committee "be authorized to sell the Hill and Spaulding School houses", and the 1929 town report records the Spaulding School sold to F. P. DeLorey and sons. No deed of that sale was recorded, which suggests that only the building was sold; under the 1852 conditions the land itself reverted to the successors of Brown and Elliot. A Spaulding School Fund was still carried in the town accounts in 1940. No record has been found of when the building was taken down, and the site has not been matched to a present-day parcel.

Deed References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted.