Arlington Center Painters — Jason, Pleasant & Central Streets

The town center sits where the old Concord Road, now Mass. Ave., crossed routes now called Pleasant, Mystic and Broadway. The National Register district there was enlarged in 1985 to roughly 78 acres, and the nomination sorts its housing into distinct groups. North of Mass. Ave., between the avenue and Mill Brook, is an enclave of small, closely set frame houses built in the mid-1800s for workers in the brook's mills, in plain versions of the Federal, Greek Revival and Italianate styles. Three on Central Street date from 1846 to 1849.

South of the avenue, the Jason Street and Pleasant Street area drew well-off commuters through the second half of the century. The nomination says those houses were built mostly of wood, by local carpenters and Boston architects alike: a Gothic Revival cottage of 1850 at 41 Academy Street with saw-cut bargeboards, an Italianate villa on Oak Knoll, Queen Anne houses on Pleasant Street from 1884 to 1893, and a Second Empire cottage on Irving Street with patterned hexagonal shingles. Early apartment buildings followed, including the 1906 Irvington at 135 Pleasant Street in brick and stucco and the 1912 Spanish Oaks on Lakeview, a stucco complex with red tile roofs.

That mix shows up in census data. In Census Tract 3567.03, which includes Town Hall, Central Street and Pleasant Street near Lakeview, 30% of housing units are in buildings of 20 or more units, while 37.9% are single-family detached. In neighboring Tract 3567.04, around Jason Street, 89.7% of units were built before 1980.

Four local historic districts

Jason/Gray, Pleasant Street, Central Street and Russell are all local historic districts under Chapter 40C. Exterior changes there go to the Arlington Historic District Commissions, which don't review paint color but do review removing trim and replacing siding, and their guidelines bar painting masonry that was never painted. Shutters can come down for painting after the commission gets prior notice and assurance they'll go back up.

Re-sided mill housing

The 1985 nomination notes that many of the Central Street area's workers' houses have been re-sided. Where newer siding covers the original clapboard, only the trim, doors and windows may still be painted wood. Inside the Central Street district, replacement siding has to replicate the original material, which matters if the cover ever comes off.

Heat and old paint don't mix

The center's own history carries a warning. A 1975 Globe report filed with the district nomination says workmen renovating the First Parish steeple told the pastor that an electric paint-stripping tool may have started the fire that destroyed the church. Scraping and chemical or low-heat methods carry far less risk on dry old wood than high heat does.

Kensington Park's shingles and stone

On the high ground above Pleasant Street, the Kensington Park district holds 44 properties from the mid-1890s on, among them a Shingle Style house at 93 Brantwood Road clad in rough dark brown shingles and ringed by a rubblestone retaining wall. Keeping stain off the stonework and protecting plantings on steep, wooded lots slows the setup.