Back Central Painters — Back Central, Lowell

UMass Lowell's Back Central Project describes the neighborhood as the land south of the big mill complexes, below Church Street, with the Concord River on the east and the South Common on the west. It started as Chapel Hill, an early suburb, and took the Back Central name in the 1880s. The oldest house still standing, according to the project, is the Abel Rugg house at 7 Wamesit Street, from about 1822.

Several survivors from that first period are masonry: a brick bakery building at 547 Central Street (c. 1826), the 1833 Locke House at 557–561 Central, which the project calls a rare Lowell "brickender," a Federal-style stone house at 23 Ames Street, and a detached brick house at 41 Chapel Street from 1825.

After 1845 the hill filled in. The triple-decker became, in the project's words, "a staple of the neighborhood," modest Italianate two-families such as 5 and 9–11 Watson Street reached its back edges in the 1890s, and several grand houses were cut up into apartments. The project notes almost no new building from the 1920s until urban renewal, when Bishop Markham Village public housing went up between Gorham Street and the South Common in 1958 and Central Plaza (1962) replaced a seven-acre area between Church, Tyler and Charles streets.

Census numbers reflect both halves of that story. In Tract 3120, one of two the city's 2011 plan assigns to Back Central, 64.2% of homes predate 1940 and 30.6% are in three- and four-unit buildings. Tract 3119, closer to the South Common, has more recent construction: 23.4% of its units date from 2000 or later, and only 16.1% of occupied homes there are owner-occupied.

Brick and stone that shouldn't be coated

The 1820s and 1830s houses on Central, Ames and Chapel streets are brick or stone. Unpainted masonry of that age should be left bare; a film-forming paint can trap moisture in soft old brick and mortar. Where masonry was painted long ago, recoating calls for a breathable mineral or masonry product, and loose paint comes off by hand, not by blasting. On these buildings, the wood parts (sash, doors, cornices) are where paint belongs.

Triple-deckers in tight quarters

The project describes Back Central as having "many narrow alleyways" and "a high density of dwellings," and the city's 2011 report measured it at 26.6 people per acre in 2010, one of the three highest densities the report cited, alongside the Lower Highlands and part of the Acre. On a three-story wood building with a neighbor a few feet away, staging and ladder placement have to be worked out before anyone starts, and the side walls facing an alley get the same prep as the front.

Tile, mosaics and shrines to work around

In its account of Portuguese homeownership in the neighborhood, the project notes decorative mosaics and tiles on the exteriors of many homes, along with small shrines and grape arbors. Those features get masked and protected, not painted over, and caulk lines next to tile should be done with care so they don't smear onto the glaze.

South Common review district

Houses around the South Common, such as the 1850s Appleton Manufacturing Company agent's house at 42–44 Highland Street, fall in a Lowell Historic Board neighborhood district created in 2005. Review there covers demolition, new construction and partial demolition, including stripping details for siding or removing porches. The city's page doesn't list repainting.