Some more house history

I like finding out about the history of our house. Some recent time staring at old maps has led me to believe that the house is older than I had initially thought.

Here is Durant Street in 1879, from this atlas:
http://nmrlsdli.cdmhost.com/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/p4034coll20&CISOPTR=580&REC=3


We're not sure, but we think we might be one of those houses in the cluster of four. It's hard to tell, because none of the outlines exactly matches our house. The outline on the 1896 map (the one I blogged before) looks exactly like our house, but all of the outlines on this map seem a little more basic. Anyway, we're not sure if that's us or not.

It has been hard to trace things back, in part becauase all the deeds are actually about the LAND and not specifically about the house, so it's unclear if any individual transaction included the house, or just the parcel of land where the house now sits. Spending some time at the online Registry of Deeds for Middlesex County, I have been able to figure out the chain of custody for the land at least:

We bought the house from Maria Mazarakis and Luis M. Lima on August 31st 2006

Luis M. Lima and Maria Limabought the house from Robert G. Basnett and Lori E. Basnett on February 26th 1998 for $97,000.

Robert G. Basnett and Lori E. Basnett bought the house from the executor of the will for Veronica Crowley on December 8th, 1989 for $115,000

Margaret M. Crowley and Veronica Crowley bought the house from Fred J. Crowley and Mary L. Crowley on July 29th, 1947 (Book 1072 page 584)

Fred J. Crowley and Mary L. Crowley bought the house from Frank Wiech and Veronica Weich on July 16th 1921 (see book 647 page 163)

Frank Wiech and Veronica Weich bought the house from Mary A. Garvey (the deed notes that she was unmarried!) on August 6th 1920.

Mary A. Garvey bought the house from Augustia Sullivan on May 4th 1920 (Book 624, page 423).

Augustia Sullivan (married to Thomas B. Sullivan) bought the house from Fred M. Chase (for one dollar!) on December 4th 1909 (book 443, page 285). This was the last deed I was actually able to read. It includes the following information:

Fred M. Chase was the sole heir of Joseph Chase

Joseph Chase conveyed to Susan Murray by deed dated August 5th, 1878. The Sullivan deed refers back to this deed: Book 130 page 337; however, I was not able to find this deed (admittedly, I was tired and didn't try for too long). I think it may be that I mis-read the book or page number (the handwriting was pretty tough to decipher). I might try to go back to it another time. You can check it out for yourself here:



Now this Joseph Chase's name appears on the 1879 atlas that I wrote about in a previous post.

All this and more is available at the Middlesex Registry of Deeds: http://www.lowelldeeds.com/
I might have to go to the registry and see if the original copies they have there are any easier to read. It's been fun looking at all these old maps and documents!