Parker School

Parker School
Address 36 River St
Built 2012
Other Lot Structures Old Parker School (1953 - 2013)


The Parker School is the elementary school at 36 River Street in Billerica Centre, a three-story building of about 89,000 square feet for up to 500 pupils, opened in September 2012. It replaced the Old Parker School of 1953, which stood beside it on the same lot and was demolished once the new building was in use.

The school stands on land that was the Kidder and then the Parker homestead farm on the south side of River Street for nearly three centuries: James Kidder's house lot of the 1650s, sold by the Kidder heirs to Stephen Parker in 1791 and held by his son Gardner Parker and grandson J. Nelson Parker until J. Nelson Parker's heirs sold it between 1939 and 1945. The 19 1/2 acres between River Street and Parker Street passed through several owners to Luther W. Jacobs in 1944, who laid out house lots on River Street and Page Court, and the town bought the school site from the Jacobs family and two lot owners in March 1952, with the "Orchard Lot" behind the Parker house added that June. The town has owned the site since; the full history of the land and of the 1953 school is in the article on the Old Parker School.

By 2008 the 1953 building was more than fifty years old. The annual town meeting of 2008 voted $400,000 for a feasibility study, with the Massachusetts School Building Authority, of whether the Parker School "should be renovated or rebuilt", and a thirteen-member Parker School Building Committee was formed that summer. The committee hired Joslin, Lesser and Associates as owner's project manager and Symmes Maini and McKee as architect, and after weighing all options unanimously recommended a new school for at least 500 pupils, "constructed adjacent to the present Parker School", with the old school to be demolished afterward. Town meeting appropriated $33,607,436 for the project, and on November 21, 2009 the voters approved a debt exclusion to pay for it; the state building authority reimbursed about 56 percent of the eligible cost, and favorable bids brought the cost down by about $4 million.

C.T.A. Construction was the general contractor. Ground was broken in the fall of 2010, with pupils in plastic hard hats taking part, and in 2011 the town granted Massachusetts Electric Company an underground easement across the lot to serve the new building. The school opened to more than 400 pupils at the start of the 2012-2013 school year; the old building came down that summer, and the playground, fields and parking were finished on its site. A formal grand opening ceremony was held in May 2013, and the school was dedicated in June 2013. Its name carries on that of the 1953 school, which stood on the former Parker farm beside Parker Street.



Parker School
Plan of Land in Billerica, Mass. belonging to The Heirs of J. Nelson Parker, Plan 2 of 4 Plans, surveyed by E. P. Simpson, July 1939, 1939 (Plan 62/34)
Parker School
Subdivision of a Portion of Land in Billerica, Mass. belonging to Luther W. Jacobs, surveyed April 1946 by J. C. & W. T. Monahan, 1946 (Plan 68/76)
Parker School
Plan of Land in Billerica, Mass. belonging to Luther W. Jacobs, Nov. 12, 1947, John Thomas Brown, Surveyors, 1948 (Plan 72/16)
Parker School
Plan of Land in Billerica Drawn for Pauline A. Jacobs, June 4, 1962 (97-9B), 1962 (Plan 97/9)


References

  1. Town report 2010, town meeting: $33,607,436 for the Parker School Project; building committee report on a new school beside the old one
  2. Town report 2011, Parker School Building Committee: Joslin Lesser, Symmes Maini and McKee, C.T.A. Construction, groundbreaking fall 2010, 89,000 sq ft
  3. Town report 2013, Parker School: grand opening ceremony, May 2013
  4. Billerica assessor, parcel 60-1-0, 36 River St (Parker School)


Title References

Date Type Grantor Grantee Summary Recorded
1677 Inventory Estate of Ensign James Kidder of Billerica (died April 10, 1676) His widow Anna (Moore) Kidder and children Probate #13232
June 16, 1743 Gift Enoch Kidder of Billerica, yeoman (son of James Kidder) His son Enoch Kidder Jr. of Billerica 43/458 (South)
1774 Deed Capt. Enoch Kidder of Billerica, gentleman His son Solomon Kidder of Billerica, gentleman 77/137 (South)
1776 Administration Estate of Capt. Solomon Kidder of Billerica, gentleman (intestate; died at White Plains, November 20, 1776) His widow Lydia Kidder, administratrix, and his children Lydia, Samuel Phillips and Dorothy Kidder Probate #13258
August 19, 1812 Deed Samuel Phillips Kidder of Haverhill, trader, Lydia Kidder of Haverhill and Dorothy Kidder of Billerica, single women, children of Lt. Solomon Kidder Their cousin Stephen Parker of Billerica, yeoman 199/359 (South)
1830 Administration Estate of Capt. Stephen Parker of Billerica, gentleman (intestate) His widow Sybil Parker, administratrix Probate #16808
1831 Dower and Partition Estate of Stephen Parker of Billerica Widow Sybil Parker (dower) and the six heirs: Eliza P. Annable, Stephen, Mary P. Dennis, Gardner, Clarissa and Daniel Parker Probate #16808
1831 Deed Eliza Annable of Boston, widow, daughter of Stephen Parker Her brother Gardner Parker of Billerica, yeoman 304/436 (South)
1842 Deed Rev. Rodney G. Dennis of Somers, Connecticut, clerk, and his wife Mary Dennis in her right Her brother Gardner Parker of Billerica, yeoman 412/226 (South)
1848 Quitclaim Deed Daniel Parker of Bedford, yeoman, son of Stephen Parker His brother Gardner Parker of Billerica, yeoman 545/262 (South)
January 7, 1864 Mortgage Gardner Parker of Billerica, yeoman (wife Adeline releasing dower) Dudley Foster of Billerica, yeoman 37/44
July 29, 1884 Deed Adeline M. Parker of Billerica, widow of Gardner Parker Her son J. Nelson Parker of Billerica 168/215
1939 Quitclaim Deed George N. Parker of Billerica (Muriel S. Parker releasing dower and homestead) His sister Frances P. Farquhar of Billerica 933/195
September 12, 1941 Quitclaim Deed Frances P. Farquhar of Billerica (Frederick G. Farquhar releasing curtesy) James Everett Farmer and Phyllis Caroline Farmer, husband and wife, of Billerica 967/367
September 12, 1941 Mortgage James Everett Farmer and Phyllis Caroline Farmer, husband and wife, of Billerica Frances P. Farquhar of Billerica 967/368
June 8, 1942 Quitclaim Deed James Everett Farmer and Phyllis Caroline Farmer, husband and wife, of Billerica Donald Leonard Jacobs and Pauline Angeline Jacobs, husband and wife, of Billerica 978/150
October 5, 1943 Quitclaim Deed Donald Leonard Jacobs and Pauline Angeline Jacobs, husband and wife, of Billerica Raymond J. Blondin and Doris Blondin, husband and wife, of Watertown 998/263
May 23, 1944 Warranty Deed Raymond J. Blondin and Doris Blondin, husband and wife, of Billerica Luther W. Jacobs and Cornelia Jacobs, husband and wife, of Richford, Vermont 1006/587
1944 Discharge Frances P. Farquhar of Billerica James Everett Farmer and Phyllis Caroline Farmer (and their successors in title) 1006/588
June 8, 1945 Quitclaim Deed George N. Parker and Frances P. Farquhar of Billerica (with spouses Muriel S. Parker and Frederick G. Farquhar) John D. Cooke and Margaret R. Cooke of Wilmington 1024/251
March 13, 1946 Quitclaim Deed John D. Cooke and Margaret R. Cooke of Wilmington Matthew J. Brown and Claudia M. Brown of Brookline 1038/270
February 25, 1947 Quitclaim Deed Luther W. Jacobs and Cornelia Jacobs, husband and wife, of Richford, Vermont Frank F. Frost and Rilla R. Frost, husband and wife, of Billerica 1062/459
May 10, 1949 Quitclaim Deed Luther W. Jacobs and Cornelia Jacobs, husband and wife, of Richford, Vermont Hubert D. Sewell and Alice M. Sewell, husband and wife, of Billerica 1114/481
1951 Deed Luther W. Jacobs and Cornelia Jacobs, husband and wife Donald L. Jacobs (with Pauline A. Jacobs) 1162/351
March 14, 1952 Quitclaim Deed Hubert D. Sewell and Alice M. Sewell, husband and wife, of Billerica The Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica 1191/110
March 14, 1952 Quitclaim Deed Frank F. Frost and Rilla R. Frost, husband and wife, of Billerica The Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica 1191/111
March 14, 1952 Quitclaim Deed Donald L. Jacobs and Pauline A. Jacobs, husband and wife, of Billerica The Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica 1191/112
December 31, 1952 Quitclaim Deed Matthew J. Brown and Claudia M. Brown of Billerica Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica 1200/3
September 21, 2011 Easement The Inhabitants of the Town of Billerica Massachusetts Electric Company (National Grid) 25266/184

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.