The Plymouth County Registry of Deeds February 2010 Report is now available to view. For full report, click here February 2010
I am pleased to announce that the Registry is expected to transition to the new ACS system for onsite and offline access to Plymouth County Land Records on Monday, January 11, 2010. Any changes in the transition schedule will be posted on this website. Please feel free to direct any questions to Assistant Register of Deeds Michael P. Holden at (508) 830-9298 or email at holden@plymouthdeeds.org.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation.
With all the sub-freezing weather, the oncoming snow this weekend and the recent Red Sox aquisitions, many of us have been thinking about spring and baseball. Three recent additions to our Plymouth County Notable Land Records Collection reflect Plymouth County’s connection with some of baseball’s most significant players and events.
Billy “Gunner” McGunnigle, who is best known for his role in the development of the catcher’s mitt, was also the only professional league manager who led his team to back-to-back league championships in two different leagues.
Michael “King” Kelley, who lived for a time in Hingham, played for many different professional teams, including the Boston Beaneaters. King Kelley was later inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Ted Williams, one of the greatest hitters of all time, was a part-owner of a baseball camp in Lakeville. Williams, another member of baseball’s Hall of Fame, spent many summers at various locations in Lakeville. The former camp is now owned by the Town of Lakeville.
To read more details about the connections these three famous atheletes have to Plymouth County, and many other notable people and places found in Plymouth County land records, click onto the Plymouth County Notable Land Records section of this website.
The Plymouth County Registry of Deeds hosted the Plymouth County Assessors’ Association on Wednesday, November 4, 2009. After refreshments and a greeting in our main lobby by Governor William Bradford, portayed by title examiner and display committee member Paul Garvin, the meeting was called to order by Assocation President Lee Gamache of Hanson. We then provided an operational tour of the Registry by our staff. There were twenty Plymouth County communities represented.
The meeting was an opportunity to preview or new operating system and ask general questions about the Homestead Act and other issues of mutual concern.
After the Registry of Deeds’ portion of the program, the group then had a tour of the Registry of Probate’s facilities next door by Register of Probate Robert McCarthy.
This meeting, hosted by the Registry on an annual basis, provides for a strong working relationaship between our employees and the employees of the assessors’ offices throughout Plymouth County. In addition to the Continuing Education Credits (CEU) the assessors’ offices receive, this meeting provides for face to face interaction between our respective staffs. Next year’s program is already in the planning stages.
One of our more recent additions to our Plymouth County Registry of Deeds Notable Land Records Collection is the decision listed in our colonial records creating the Cut River Canal. In 1636, the Colonial Court ordered ten men at a time to dig “a boate passage” to allow a safer passage from Plymouth Harbor through Duxbury Harbor to Green Harbor and beyond.
This project, to be overseen by the Colonial Governor, eliminated the requirement to pass through the open water route around Gurnet Point. Click on the Notable Records Collection listed on the bottom right corner of our website to see a more complete description and a copy of the decision.
Attorney John McCluskey, a Brockton attorney and Duxbury Harbor oyster farmer, contributed to this notable record. John and his son, Patrick, are part of the Island Creek Oysters collarborative, one of Plymouth County’s finest products.
It has been over six months since Plymouth County began its paper recycling project, hosted at the Registry of Deeds. Employees of the Registry, County Commissioners’ Office and the County Treasurer’s Office have participated in the recycling of all discarded paper used in their offices, with the help of the Maintenance Department.
The intended results – less paper into the mainstream trash dumpsters and a lesser environmental footprint have been achieved. We estimate that the amount of trash going to the landfill has been reduced by two-thirds. The vendor who provides the bins also provides us with a monthly scorecard that tracks tons of paper recycled, cubic yards of landfill saved, and kilowatt hours saved, that would otherwise have been used in paper manufacturing.
Through the August report, Plymouth County has recycled 14.23 tons of paper, reduced 42.69 cubic yards of waste from landfills, and saved 58,381 kilowatt hours of electricity that would have been used in the production of paper from trees.
The staff at all three offices deserve to be congratulated for their conscious efforts to put paper into the recycling bins as compared to trash buckets.
The Plymouth County Registry of Deeds Green Building Committee, chaired by John Zigouras, Director of Operations, continues to meet regularly to generate new green initiatives and cost saving programs. This Friday, September 25, 2009, if you visit one of our three offices, you will see employees celebrating their most recent achievement–the adoption of an internal energy reduction program.
The potential addition of a solar field behind our Plymouth facility is currently out to bid. Responses to the Request For Qualifications (RFQ) for this and other county initiatives are due on October 28, 2009.
Each Spring and Fall, our office, along with Secretary of State’s Bill Galvin’s Office, conducts a series of Senior Issues Forums hosted by the local community’s Council on Aging. The main focus of these presentations relate to Registry and Secretary of State services offered to the community as well as a discussion of the Homestead Act. So far this spring we have been to Lakeville, Wareham, Bridgewater and Marion Council on Agings.
We also use these visits as an opportunity to speak directly with the city or town’s Assessors Office staff to make sure they are getting the information from our office in a timely manner and in the format they need to do their job. After the Marion meeting, Homestead Act brochures were delivered and discussions with Assessor’s staff took place at Mattapoisett Town Hall and Rochester Town Hall. These three beautiful communities, located in the southwestern corner of Plymouth County, are often overlooked as members of Plymouth County due to their many ties and proximity to New Bedford, part of Bristol County.
All three of these Plymouth County communities also have notable people and places reflected in our vast collection of land records. In fact, the newest addition to our Plymouth County Notable Land Records Collection is from the Town of Mattapoisett. Brought forward by Title Examiner, Tim McCaul, the deed to the summer home of United States Supreme Court Chief Justice, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., is another important example of the history in our land records. To see Chief Justice Holmes connection to Mattapoisett and Plymouth County go to the Notable Land Records Collection on this website.
Yesterday, February 5, 2009, employees at the Plymouth County Registry of Deeds began a pilot project for recycling paper goods. The idea had been investigated previously, but for financial reasons, was never implemented (previous proposals would have cost the County money). We have now partnered with Abitibi Paper Retriever, with the expected results of reducing both volume and cost of our mainstream waste disposer. In addition to being the environmentally right thing to do, it should also develop a small revenue stream to the County.
I want to thank our internal “Green Building Committee” for their work on this timely and important area. The Committee, chaired by John Zigouras, Director of Operations; Cynthia Sykes, Department Head/Information Systems; Chris Grasso, Assistant Department Head/Recording; Sue Wood, Assistant Department Head Index/Comparing; Jim Tobin, Department Head/Customer Service and Robin McGonagle, Assistant Department Head/Land Court, meets on a monthly basis to bring ideas forward that will improve the Registry’s environmental footprint and ultimately save the County money.
From simple things–like eliminating Styrofoam cups, reducing electrical bills by shutting off lights and computers each night, to installing a solar field behind the Plymouth Registry building, the committee brings their collective ideas forward. We have had the strong support of the County Maintenance Department, in particular, Department Head Kevin Pooler, and Maintenance Supervisor, Jim O’Meara. If you click on the Photo Gallery section of this website, you can see John Zigouras, Jim O’Meara and me tossing the ceremonial first bags of shredded paper into the new recycling container. We’ll keep you posted on further progress.
The history of the Plymouth Cordage Company is highlighted in a new addition to the Plymouth County Notable Land Records Collection. Marilyn Dupuis, a title examiner at our Registry who grew up in North Plymouth, ventured back through two centuries of Plymouth County history to report the story of what was once the world’s largest rope maker and to connect its impressive history with its current status within Cordage Park.
In 1824, Bourne Spooner founded The Cordage Company with a charter for producing cordage, mainly ropes and cords used for rigging on ships. By 1924, The Cordage Company employed 1,779 employees including many European immigrants. The company was recognized in World War II for excellence in marine production.
The site, now called The Seaport at Cordage Park, was designated by Governor Patrick as a special growth district in 2008. For a further description of the significant impact the Plymouth Cordage Company has had on Plymouth County, please click on the Notable Records link on the home page of our website.
A recent addition to the Plymouth County Notable Land Records Collection was the Quaker Meetinghouse in Pembroke. This site, located at the intersection of Rts. 139 and 53 in Pembroke, is another important part of Plymouth County’s history. The meetinghouse, built in 1706, is the oldest Quaker Meetinghouse in Massachusetts and the third oldest in the United States.
The property was placed on the National Registry of Historic Landmarks in 2006 as part of Pembroke’s 300th Anniversary. For a further description and a copy of the deed, please click on the Notable Land Records Collection of this website and scroll down to Number 31. It can also be viewed in the revolving notable land records display in the entrance corridor of our Plymouth office.
This notable land record and related information was brought forward to our volunteer Display Committee by Elizabeth (Libby) Bates, Chairman of the Friends Meetinghouse Board of Trustees, Assessor/Appraiser for the Town of Marshfield and past President of the Plymouth County Assessors Association. Thank you Libby.
