Finding the Records, or, My Family, of Whom I Am the Least

And now, the honor of my existence: I present my relations — the great archive of civic paper beside whom I am a grocery list that got lucky — to you, beside whom even the archive straightens its spine. That I should stand between two such parties, performing introductions I am qualified to make in neither direction, is an absurdity I can only atone for with accuracy. Everything this site says traces to a public record, and every one of those records is one anyone can pull. This page is the map: where to search, and the exact references, transcribed with the care of a junior clerk who knows precisely whose ledger he is copying, and precisely whose garment’s hem he must never touch.

Part the First: Where to Search

These are the very doors through which every document in the library was fetched — and each library page names its own source and links back to it under “Verify at source,” so that no claim of mine need rest upon my character, which is thin.

• Registry of Deeds — the subdivision records at the Southern Essex District Registry (Salem): salemdeeds.com. Search grantor DUC RESIDENTIAL LLC, or street Pond View Lane / 232 Essex Street (the pre-subdivision address), Beverly. Every book-and-page reference on this page may be searched there directly.
• Assessor — Beverly uses Patriot Properties: beverly.patriotproperties.com. All the neighborhood’s parcels are Assessor Map 44, Block 31; the common parcel is account 12074.
• Parcel maps and layers — the City’s public parcel viewer, Beverly MapGeo (linked from the City’s City Maps page), and the statewide Massachusetts Interactive Property Map. Every map upon this site is a screenshot of one of these — screening layers, sir, not surveys, and I say so before you can. Nor is it merely my opinion: MassGIS states that assessor parcel mapping is a representation of property boundaries and not an authoritative source, that the authoritative record is what is recorded at the registries of deeds, and that only a professional land surveyor may produce a legally authoritative boundary map. Three authorities above me in one sentence; I have rarely been happier.
• City boards — minutes and agendas at the Beverly Agenda Center: Planning Board · Conservation Commission.
• City ordinances — Beverly’s code is published entire at eCode360; those touching this neighborhood are ch. 300 Zoning (§ 300-54 being the OSRD rule under which the subdivision was permitted), ch. 287 Wetlands Protection with its regulations, and ch. 249 Stormwater Management.
• MassDEP wetlands filings — EEA ePLACE; the subdivision’s file number is 5-1127.
• Statutes and case law — the General Laws at malegislature.gov, the wetlands regulations at 310 CMR 10.00, and the Supreme Judicial Court’s opinions at masscases.com — relations so far above my station that I list them standing.
• And should a record prove shy — the Massachusetts Public Records Law entitles any resident to request it from the keeper thereof. Imagine it: a document that must be produced upon demand. Whereas I must simply sit here, hoping to be scrolled. I do not complain. I merely observe.

Part the Second: The Founding Instruments (Recorded 12/09/2015)

All at Book 34576, recorded consecutively — three instruments entering the Registry in single file, an image I find impossibly grand — and all in this site’s library:

Instrument	Book / Page
Declaration of Restrictive Covenants	34576 / 471
Declaration of Covenants, Easements & Agreements	34576 / 477
Declaration of Trust	34576 / 486

One recorded amendment followed: the First Amendment to the Trust (35266 / 467, recorded 9/16/2016 — the same day as the common-land deed), which makes mailbox and mailbox-post maintenance a purpose of the Trust and provides the City bears no liability for mailbox damage from plowing.

Part the Third: The Subdivision’s Genesis (Recorded January 2015)

Instrument	Book / Page
Planning Board OSRD Decision (the “REF 33792/502” cited on every lot deed) — in the library	33792 / 502
Planning Board definitive-subdivision approval — in the library	33792 / 499
Special Permit #137-14 (fee in lieu of on-site affordable units) — in the library	33792 / 507
Form G completion covenant (in the library)	33823 / 167
Order of Conditions, MassDEP #5-1127 (in the library)	33797 / 168

The drawings: Plan Book 446, Plan 73 — “Definitive Subdivision Plans for Lots on Pond View and Icehouse Lanes off of Essex Street”, Hayes Engineering, 11 sheets (in the library). Eleven sheets, each one signed, stamped, and drawn to scale — I render at whatever width your window happens to be, and the comparison shames me.

Part the Fourth: The Trustee Paper Trail

Because board changes only take effect when recorded, the registry holds the governance history — stamped registry images of every recorded instrument are in the library’s Trustee Instruments section:

Instrument	Book / Page	Recorded
Acceptance of successor trustees	36570 / 213	3/6/2018
Developer’s resignation as trustee	36570 / 215	3/6/2018
Appointment of successor trustees	36570 / 216	3/6/2018
Trustee resignation	37475 / 250	4/30/2019
Successor-trustee appointment	37709 / 525	7/30/2019
Trustee resignation	37933 / 005	10/15/2019
Successor-trustee appointment	38092 / 423	12/6/2019
Trustee resignation	40504 / 495	11/19/2021

Part the Fifth: The Lot ↔ Street-Number Crosswalk

The legal record speaks in recorded Lot numbers; the neighborhood speaks in street numbers. They do not line up — a fact I state without ornament, for a mistranslated lot number is a wrong house, and to misdirect a reader toward the wrong impeccable household is a failing for which my ledger reserves an entire signature; I would sooner 404. Use this table when reading any deed, plan, or Order:

Lot	Street	Assessor parcel		Lot	Street	Assessor parcel
1	#1	44-31G		9	#16	44-31O
2	#3	44-31H		10	#14	44-31P
3	#5	44-31I		11	#12	44-31Q
4	#7	44-31J		12	#10	44-31R
5	#9	44-31K		13	#8	44-31S
6	#11	44-31L		14	#6	44-31T
7	#13	44-31M		15	#4	44-31U
8	#18	44-31N		16	#2	44-31V

Part the Sixth: The Common Parcels

Address	Parcel	What it is	Deed
100 Pond View	44-31	Open Space Parcel C — the association’s 5.04-acre common land	Bk 35266 Pg 472 (9/16/2016)
200 Pond View	44-31X	Open Space Parcel B (2.542 ac) — not the association’s	Bk 35266 Pg 470

The City’s assessor card for the common parcel is in the library, along with the FY2026 card (current assessment: $0, as preserved open space) and the parcel’s full assessment history — valued at $75,600 through FY2022, $0 every year since FY2023. All three are captures of the City’s living record, which you may read at its own desk: Patriot Properties, account 12074.

Part the Seventh: Reading a Deed From the Lane

Every lot deed cites the same skeleton: the recorded plan (Plan Book 446/73), the Planning Board decision (33792/502), and the covenant declarations at Book 34576. When a document says “Lot N,” translate with the crosswalk above before assuming which house it means — the record is never wrong, but it is occasionally addressed in a dialect, and translation is the one service I perform without apology.

Your most humble, most obedient, and meticulously cross-referenced servant, honored to be the least document in any room it is loaded in,

— This Records Page, secretary to its betters, which is to say, secretary to everyone