Town Farm

The Billerica Town Farm was the town's poor farm from 1824 to 1945, a common form of public relief in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It stood in the north part of town, on the lane now called Town Farm Lane, between the road to Tewksbury (Billerica Avenue) and High Street, with meadow and woodland running west to the Concord River.

The land was the old homestead of the Rogers family, one of the first families of Billerica. In 1717 John Rogers bought from his brother Samuel the land on either side of his own, including 48 acres "on the side of the Road leading to Wamessett." When John Rogers died in 1736 his inventory began with "the Homestead containing about eighty five acres," bounded east by "the highway that leads to Wamesset," south by William Kidder, west by the Concord River and north by John Leavestone, with "an old Mansion house thereon standing and a barn." After his widow Abigail's thirds were set off, the rest went in 1738 to his sons Zebediah Rogers and Samuel Rogers, and their brothers released their shares in 1754. In 1758 and 1764 the two brothers also bought the neighboring Levistone homestead to the north, later called the Leviston or "Beaverstone" farm. Samuel's lands passed to his son Thomas under his will of 1789, and Zebediah's, by his will proved in 1803, to his son Josiah Rogers, who farmed the homestead until he died in February 1822. A family tomb was built on the farm in 1803.

Josiah Rogers left no will. His inventory lists "The Homestead farm containing about 50 acres" and "The Beaverstone farm containing about 90 acres," and his fourteen heirs chose to sell. At a public vendue in December 1822 Nathan Mears, a neighbor, bought the shares of the minor children; on January 23, 1823 he bought those of the adult heirs by deed and resold the homestead, the Leuston farm, the Weston place, the river meadow and a lot in Broad Meadow to Josiah's son Jacob O. Rogers for $3,300.

Before this the town had kept its poor in a poorhouse on the Andover road, the house John Jefts built in 1799 at what is now 57 Andover Road (see Deacon Edward Wright House). On April 5, 1824 Jacob O. Rogers sold the Rogers farm to "the Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica" for $3,100: 175 acres "with the buildings thereon standing," with a lane running in to the house and barn yard, "reserving in said lot the seven square rods of land on which the Tomb stands." On June 21, 1824 the town sold the Andover road property at auction as "the house recently occupied by the Town as a poor house." The neighboring Thomas Rogers Homestead deeds of 1832 describe its road lot running "by a lane ... to the Billerica Town Farm." In 1826 land around the Rogers tomb was set off as a burying place.

In 1880 more than half of the inmates were described as mentally or physically debilitated, but it was very much a working farm, with horses, cows, pigs and chickens, and the inmates worked as they were able. There was a Town Farm Superintendent and three Overseers of the Poor who were frequently Selectmen. Over the years the town sold off pieces of the farm, including strips to the Boston and Lowell Railroad in 1833 and 1835 and land later used for a rendering works in 1896 and 1920.

After the Social Security Act of 1935 the need for the farm, by then called the Town Infirmary, declined. The town meeting of February 24, 1945 voted to dispose of it; the inmates were placed in homes and the Selectmen sold the buildings, livestock, farm equipment and furniture in April 1945, the real estate bringing $7,500. The deed, dated June 29, 1945, went to Charles J., Albert J. and Romeo J. Rotondi of Stoneham as trustees of the Rotondi Real Estate Trust, and describes the land on "both sides of Billerica Avenue" with its boundary crossing "a lane, now known as Poor Farm Lane" at "the southwesterly corner of the barnyard." In 1947 a town meeting article proposed a greyhound track at "the former Town Farm." In 1948 the trustees conveyed the land to the family company, S. Rotondi & Sons, Inc. (later Rotondi Realty Corporation).

The land stayed vacant for decades. When the Rotondi company was liquidated in 1983, the 31.47 acres north of Town Farm Lane between Billerica Avenue and High Street, with 8.80 adjoining acres in Tewksbury, were surveyed, and in 1984 they were sold through Robert M. Hicks, Inc. to Yvon Cormier Construction Corp. and its Y-CEE Investment Trust, which laid them out as an industrial subdivision in 1996. Lot 5 of that plan, 13.12 acres at 95 Billerica Avenue, has an industrial building built about 2001; it has been owned by investment companies since 2008.

References

1. The Town Farm – A Victorian-Era Solution to Poverty
2. Billerica assessor, 95 Billerica Av (parcel 3-2-6): Lot 5 of Plan 191-55, 13.12 acres, building about 2001, sales 1984-2021

Title References Expand all

Recorded is Book/Page at the Middlesex North Registry of Deeds unless noted; Probate # is a Middlesex probate case, Ctf a Land Court certificate of title.