Brattle Painters — Brattle Street & Mass. Ave.

Brattle isn't an official town district, and little has been written about it as a neighborhood. The name points to Brattle Street, which leaves Mass. Ave. about midway between Arlington Center and Arlington Heights. What is documented is a handful of buildings and the census tract that covers the street.

The oldest is the Baptist Society Meeting House at 3–5 Brattle Street, built in 1790. It is the only one of four meetinghouses standing on the Battle Road at the end of the 18th century that survives. Sold by the Baptists in 1828 and converted to a residence before 1880, it was moved to the back of its lot in 1913 and turned to face Brattle Street. When the state surveyed it in 1985 it was a two-family with its clapboards covered by asphalt shingles, in what the form called a densely settled residential area. Nearby, Brattle Court holds the 1906–07 Arlington Pumping Station, dark red brick with brownstone trim, and the 1928 Highland Hose House at 1007 Mass. Ave. was described in 1985 as standing amid dense commercial and multifamily building.

Census Tract 3566.01 takes in Brattle Street near Mass. Ave. and Brattle Drive. There, 47.8% of housing units were built in 1939 or earlier, yet 17.7% date from the 1970s, a far larger 1970s share than the town's 10.4%. Buildings of 10 to 19 units hold 19.6% of units, and single-family detached houses 40.1%.

Two building generations side by side

A 1920s house and a 1970s building need different preparation. A prewar wood exterior can hold a century of paint layers, while a newer building's walls may be another material entirely, so any estimate starts by identifying what each surface is and what is already on it.

Old siding under newer siding

The 1790 meetinghouse shows how layered these exteriors can be: original clapboard sat under asphalt shingle by 1985. When an older cover is stripped, the clapboard beneath may need repairs, new primer and caulk before it can hold paint.

Apartments and unit-by-unit work

With roughly a fifth of units in mid-size buildings and 55.9% of occupied units owner-occupied, interior jobs here range from a single condo to a whole house. Work inside a unit is a smaller, faster job than an exterior, but in an association building it may need management sign-off first.