Josiah Crosby House

The Josiah Crosby House was a small farmhouse on the east side of the Middlesex Turnpike at the north shore of Nutting's Pond, now Nuttings Lake, near the corner where Lake Street leaves the turnpike. It stood on a lot of about two acres at the southwest corner of a pasture of some twenty-five acres known as the Pond pasture. H. F. Walling's town map of 1853 labels it "Merriam", for John Merriam of Bedford, who owned it from 1837, and the county atlas of 1875 shows "Wm. Merriam" there, with a peach orchard on the land behind it toward the Lexington Road.

The house was standing by 1829. On April 8 of that year Josiah Crosby, Esq., sold Ichabod Fiske of Lexington, yeoman, for $230, about two acres "with all the buildings thereon Except a coopers shop", which Crosby reserved the right to remove. The lot was bounded west by the Middlesex Turnpike, south by Nutting's pond and on the other two sides by Crosby's own land, and was "inclosed with a fence." Fiske died unmarried in 1836. His inventory listed only "A Dwelling house & about two acres of land situate in Billerica", appraised at $325. Licensed by the Probate Court, his administrator, William Chandler of Lexington, sold the place at auction in 1837 for $151 to John Merriam, Esq., and Roger Lane, yeoman, both of Bedford.

Merriam and Lane already owned the pasture around it. In May 1833 William Mann Jr. had sold them, for $315, "a certain pasture called the Pond pasture", 23 acres and 20 rods, running from the turnpike along Ichabod Fiske's land to the pond, then east along the pond 66 rods to Pond Lane, and back by Mann's land. Mann had bought it a month before, for $295, at the auction held by the guardian of Crosby's young son after the death of Crosby's widow Betsey. In May 1841 Lane sold Merriam his undivided share of the Pond pasture "with a dwelling house thereon", 25 acres, for $333. Merriam lived in Bedford. In his will of November 1, 1852, allowed on November 15, 1853, he left "my 'Pond Pasture' so called, situate in Billerica, 24 acres", bounded by the pond, by land of William H. Odiorne and by "the old Middlesex Turnpike", to his son John Augustus Merriam, who later farmed in Billerica. John A. Merriam's son William A. Merriam is the "Wm. Merriam" of the 1875 atlas.

The pond land next passed to John A. Merriam's son George H. Merriam. In 1887 his widow, Ida I. Merriam, holding under his will, mortgaged the thirty acres to Edwin Phillips of Lowell, promising to keep "the buildings thereon" insured, and on August 2, 1887 sold them for $1,600 to Burwell H. Kittredge of Billerica. The tract ran 1,950 feet along the Stearns land on the north and 360 feet along the Noyes farm on the east, then 1,950 feet along the pond and 990 feet along the turnpike. On May 20, 1895 Kittredge sold the seven acres at the corner of the turnpike and the pond "with the buildings thereon" to Elmer A. Winship, keeping a right of way along the shore. Mary A. M. Whitmore of Everett held mortgages from both men. She sold the rest of the land under her power of sale in December 1896, and the seven-acre house lot in May 1899, both to Fred L. Winship.

On March 14, 1910 Fred L. Winship sold the thirty acres "together with all the buildings thereon", except a portable cottage to be removed by April 1, to Ignatius Brand and Edward A. Burroughs of Cambridge, who bought Frank W. Crosby's land across the turnpike the same day. In April 1910 C. A. Thayer drew the land as Plan B of Nuttings Lake Park, with Lake Street along the shore and rows of small cottage lots. Lot 201, a narrow lot on the turnpike between Lake Street and the pond, is at the site of the house. No later deed found names the old house. In 1926 the town sold lot 201 "with buildings thereon" for unpaid taxes, and the building there became a store, the Turnpike Spa, and later the Lakeside Lounge. The present restaurant building replaced it in 1985.

References

1. Walling, Map of the Town of Billerica (1853), State Library of Massachusetts via Digital Commonwealth: "Merriam" on the east side of the Middlesex Turnpike at the north shore of Nutting's Pond
2. Beers, County Atlas of Middlesex, Massachusetts (1875): "Wm. Merriam" on the turnpike at the north shore of Nutting's Pond, with a peach orchard behind
3. Middlesex probate 7579, Ichabod Fiske of Lexington (1836): inventory, "A Dwelling house & about two acres of land situate in Billerica"
4. Middlesex probate 37613, John Merriam of Bedford (1853): will leaving the Billerica "Pond Pasture" to John Augustus Merriam
5. Billerica assessor, 512 Middlesex Tp (parcel 87-131-2): Nuttings Lake Park Plan B lots 200-206

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.