Olga L. Greenwood

Olga L. Greenwood was a Boston woman who bought land in the new Riverdale development in Billerica before the First World War and came to live there. Between 1908 and 1911 she bought three parcels from the surveyor and developer Edgar P. Sellew, all of them carved from the land he had bought from the East Bridgewater Savings Bank in 1893: in April 1908 a camp lot of about 21,400 square feet, Lot A on his plan of "Camp Lots at Riverdale"; in January 1909 Lots 79 and 80 at the corner of Hillside and Allen Roads; and in February 1911 Lot 171, a tract of nearly fourteen acres bounded by stone walls along the lands of the Moore, Bartlett, Pasho and Mason families. Each deed called her "of Boston" and carried Sellew's usual restrictions: no house costing less than $250, nothing within twenty feet of the road, and no slaughterhouse, piggery or other offensive trade.

Her house on Boston Road dates from about 1915, and she was soon caught up in the county's widening of that road. The warrant for the town meeting of February 1917 asked for $50 to pay for damage to property of O. L. Greenwood caused by widening Boston Road, and under the decree of the Middlesex County Commissioners dated January 4, 1916, she was to receive $25 of the money the town was asked to distribute to abutters, along with her neighbor Harry J. Pasho and others along the road.

She was married to Albert E. Greenwood, a baker. On February 6, 1911, Sellew sold her Lot 280 of his new Land Court subdivision, 140 feet on Boston Road near the corner of Shawsheen Road, and her certificate of title names her as "Olga L. Greenwood of Boston, married to Albert E. Greenwood," with an address at 46 Eutaw Street, East Boston. There she had a house, the Olga L. Greenwood House, and at the road front stood the small shop of The Branch Bakery. Albert E. Greenwood is the only baker listed in Billerica in the 1917 and 1921 directories, and the 1919 directory lists "Greenwood Albert E (Olga L) baker Boston rd opp Allen rd h Arcadia rd".

Olga L. Greenwood died in Billerica on November 9, 1919, aged 41 years and 5 months. In 1920 her Boston Road lot passed through Sellew to her widower, who sold it in 1926 to the Riverdale Improvement Association. The town records do not connect her or her husband with the Greenwood family of Billerica Centre.

References

1. 1916 Billerica Town Report: warrant article, damage to property of O. L. Greenwood from widening Boston Road.
2. 1916 Billerica Town Report: county decree of January 4, 1916, $25 to Olga L. Greenwood.
3. 1919 Billerica Town Report: death of Olga L. Greenwood, November 1919, aged 41 years 5 months.

Deed References Expand all

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