Centralville Painters — Christian Hill, West Centralville & the numbered streets

The Central Bridge Company bought most of Joseph Bradley's 57-acre farm across the river and laid it out in 1831 as a grid: numbered streets running east-west, tree names on the north-south cross streets. A 1981 state survey form notes that building stayed slow until the bridge tolls ended in 1843, after which skilled workers and small businessmen moved in. The form credits Centralville's character to modest Greek Revival and Italianate houses of the 1840s–70s, where Italianate brackets, bay windows and paneled corner boards were added to the basic side-hall plan. Barns went up on many small lots, and a few still stand.

Christian Hill holds the largest group of fashionable 1865–85 residences on the north side of the river. Around Tenth, Eleventh and Methuen Streets the survey found Second Empire, Stick and Queen Anne houses, many drawn from pattern books, some with carriage houses; 697 Bridge Street is singled out for its wood ornament. Elsewhere, Albert Viles built about 30 one-and-a-half-story rental cottages for mill workers between 1880 and 1895, French-Canadian families built bow-gambrel houses on Hildreth Street from 1898 to 1904, and the state Homestead Commission put up ten shingled buildings (12 houses) in 1917–18, its only remaining product.

Today's census tract around Sixth and Eleventh Streets counts 2,405 housing units. Two-unit buildings and single-family detached houses each account for 38.8%, and 84.9% of units predate 1980.

New siding on parts of the hill

A 1994 Lowell Historic Board survey of Christian Hill listed "much new siding & inappropriate renovation" among its alterations, and found about half the buildings still keeping substantial historic integrity. On a sided house the paint job shrinks to trim, porches, sash and doors; on an unsided one the clapboard and its old paint layers are part of the scope.

Two-family houses, two households

With two-unit buildings making up 38.8% of the tract, each of those buildings holds two dwellings under one exterior. Agreeing on colors, schedule and access to both floors' windows and porches before work starts avoids stalls.

Applied ornament on simple frames

The Italianate brackets and bays added to side-hall houses, and the Stick and Second Empire trim on Christian Hill, are where water sits and paint lets go first. Each bracket and drip edge needs scraping, priming and sealing on its own.

Shingled and gambrel-roofed cottages

The 1917–18 Homestead Commission houses were shingled for low maintenance, and the Hildreth Street gambrels have curved roof faces and recessed gable arches. Shingle walls take stain or paint differently from clapboard, and curved trim is cut and brushed by hand.

No local review district

Christian Hill and the rest of Centralville are not among the 11 named Lowell Historic Board review districts. To confirm for a specific address, the city offers an Address Quick Find tool.