Structure · Built 1860

Talbot Textile Mills Worker Housing at 27-29 Old Elm St

Talbot Textile Mills Worker Housing at 27-29 Old Elm St
Talbot Textile Mills Worker Housing at 27-29 Old Elm St
Circa 1973, Massachusetts Historical Commission
Address 27-29 Old Elm St
MACRIS ID BIL.254
Built 1860


The Talbot Textile Mills Worker Housing at 27-29 Old Elm Street is a company duplex at the corner of Old Elm Street and Lowell Street in North Billerica, built in the early 1860s by C. P. Talbot and Co. for workers at the Talbot Mills. It stands on the southeast point of the triangle the village called "the Common", and the mill historian Kohlrausch counted it among three houses the company built there in the early 1860s, with 2-4 Lowell Street and 8 Lowell Street.

The land was part of the mill grant the town made to Capt. Christopher Osgood in 1708. Thomas Richardson bought about forty acres of it from the Carleton heirs in 1783 and sold it with the mills to the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal in 1794. The canal laid out a private way (now Lowell Street) across its land, and in 1851 sold the triangle between that way, the county road and Colson Street, as parcel G of its eleven Billerica parcels, to Charles P. Talbot and Thomas Talbot. The parcel began on the county road "just fifty one feet westerly" of Israel Colson's lot, which is this corner.

The Talbots built the house soon after their mill opened in 1857, and in 1884 Thomas Talbot and the heirs of Charles P. Talbot conveyed it with the rest of the village to The Talbot Mills. On the Monahan plan of 1936 it became Lot 56 of Plan B, 5,780 square feet with 91.71 feet on Elm Street and 96.10 feet on Lowell Street. On September 30, 1936 The Talbot Mills sold it to Marie I. Nolin of Billerica, keeping the right to the common sewer under the lot.

Marie I. Nolin sold the house on May 18, 1942 to Frank and Maud R. St. John of Billerica. Maud R. St. John sold it in 1964, and it has belonged to private owners since. A dormer and porch were added in the 20th century. The house is a contributing building in the Billerica Mills National Register district (1983) and the local historic district (1992).



Talbot Textile Mills Worker Housing at 27-29 Old Elm St
Plan of a Portion of Property belonging to The Talbot Mills, North Billerica, Mass., showing division into lots, Plan B (J. C. & W. T. Monahan, surveyed 1926-27-36): Lowell and Elm Streets, Lots 55-71, 1936 (Plan 60/28)


References

  1. MACRIS BIL.254
  2. Billerica assessor, 27-29 Old Elm St (parcel 9-108-0): Lot 56, Plan Book 60 Plan 28, two-family


Deed References

Date Type Grantor Grantee Summary Recorded
March 31, 1794 Deed Solomon, Moses and Nathan Carleton, Jesse Manning, Thomas Todd, Thomas Laws and Thomas Mears, heirs of John Carleton, with their wives Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman 115/271 (South)
April 21, 1794 Deed Thomas Richardson of Billerica, gentleman (Judith Richardson releasing dower) Ebenezer Hall of Medford and Samuel Jaques of Wilmington, a committee for the Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal 115/259 (South)
October 23, 1851 Deed The Proprietors of the Middlesex Canal, by Ebenezer Chadwick, President Charles P. Talbot of Lowell and Thomas Talbot of Billerica, manufacturers and copartners 618/97 (South)
October 16, 1884 Guardian's Deed Harriet Talbot et al., by their guardian The Talbot Mills, Billerica 169/468
October 16, 1884 Deed Thomas Talbot et al. The Talbot Mills, Billerica 169/472
October 2, 1936 Quitclaim Talbot Mills, by Thomas T. Clark, Treasurer Marie I. Nolin of Billerica 888/65
May 19, 1942 Quitclaim Marie I. Nolin of Billerica, unmarried Frank St. John and Maud R. St. John, husband and wife, of Billerica 977/525
April 24, 1964 Deed Maud R. St. John of Billerica Private buyer 1645/62

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