Bell Hill Painters — East Side, Worcester

The top of the hill is a park. The city's Bell Hill (Chandler) Park covers 23.1 acres at the summit, and its pond, once called Bladder Pond, served as Worcester's first reservoir in 1845. The houses fill the slopes below.

According to the National Register nomination for Worcester's three-deckers, three-deckers had already climbed the southwest slope of Chandler Hill by 1890 and pushed north along Eastern Avenue toward Belmont Street. In the 1890s, rows went up on Hooper Street, Eastern Avenue and Rodney Street; five buildings at 140 to 154 Eastern Avenue all date to 1894. The nomination ties these streets to Swedish wireworkers from the nearby Washburn & Moen North Works (wireworker Erick Kaller owned 146 and 148 Eastern Avenue).

A second federal nomination, the Worcester Multiple Resource Area survey, notes that Chandler and Belmont Hills were subdivided in the 1830s and 1840s for side-hall, gable-front Greek Revival and Italianate houses, with some high-style buildings from the 1850s to 1870s. From the 1880s on, three-deckers filled in around them. So a block here can mix an older single house with stacked flats on either side.

Heavily altered fronts, so trim and porches carry the paint

The nomination says virtually all surviving pre-1890 three-deckers on this hill have had major alterations, and it notes that most of the city's three-deckers have been wrapped in aluminum or vinyl. On a re-sided building the painting job shrinks to porch decks, railings, columns, window and door casings, and whatever wood the siding crew left exposed. That is a trim scope, priced very differently from a full-body repaint.

Single-tier and three-tier porches on the 1894 rows

The same document says that by the mid-1890s a full three-tier porch on the entry bay generally replaced the single-tier version, and the 1894 row shows both: it singles out 154 Eastern Avenue for its three-tier porch and 152 Eastern Avenue for its single-tier one. A three-tier front means three stacked porch ceilings, three runs of balusters and tall columns, all worked from staging. Porch floors take the most wear and need a floor enamel, not the body paint.

Mostly rentals, so scheduling is tenant-driven

In census tract 7319, which takes in the Eastern Avenue and Rodney Street rows, only about one occupied unit in seven is owner-occupied. For a landlord, an exterior job means notifying three households, keeping porches usable or closed in sections, and coordinating access to back stairs. Interior work between tenants is often the easiest window.

Pre-1940 surfaces almost everywhere

Just over half of the tract's housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, with a median build year of 1938. Paint on porches and trim from that era should be assumed to contain lead until tested, and the federal RRP rule applies to paid work that disturbs it. Our lead-safe painting page covers containment and cleanup.