Cleghorn Painters — Between Oak Hill Road and Beech Street

The Massachusetts Historical Commission's 1984 reconnaissance report on Fitchburg describes residential growth in the late 1800s pushing south into "the French Canadian 'Cleghorn' area" between Oak Hill Road and Beech Street, past Columbus Street. St. Joseph's, a brick Romanesque church from 1890 by Worcester architect O. E. Nault, anchored it at Columbus and Woodland as one of two French national parishes founded in the city in that era. A mill complex also rose on Cleghorn Street on both sides of Oak Hill Road.

Building did not stop there. Between 1915 and 1940, the same report says, Cleghorn's "single- and multifamily residences" kept spreading south along Shea, Chester and parallel streets, with Depot Street roughly the western edge and Franklin Road the southern one. So a walk down a few blocks can take you from late-1800s houses to ones built between the world wars.

Census tracts don't follow neighborhood lines, and Cleghorn falls across at least two. Tract 7105, which holds the Woodland, Columbus and Chester street addresses, reports a median build year of 1958: 25.9% of its units predate 1940, 28.2% went up in the 1950s, and 88.4% were built before 1980. Its housing leans heavily multifamily, with 39.0% of units in three- or four-unit buildings and 13.7% in two-family houses, and 73.1% of occupied homes there are rented. Tract 7104, which takes in Shea Street, looks different: 61.3% detached houses, 76.6% owner-occupied, median year 1951.

Three and four units under one roof

The MHC report notes that Fitchburg's multifamily housing from the 1870–1915 era "consists to a large extent of three-deckers." In Tract 7105, 580 of 1,489 units sit in three- or four-unit buildings. Where one of those is a three-decker, the walls run three stories, porches stack one above another, and staging or lifts are part of the plan. Each porch level has its own floor, rail and ceiling to scrape, prime and coat.

Paint layers from several eras

With 88.4% of units in Tract 7105 built before 1980, lead in older coats is a realistic possibility. Federal rules require certified lead-safe practices when paid work disturbs paint on pre-1978 housing, including tenant-occupied units, which matters in a tract where 73.1% of homes are rented. Our lead-safe painting page covers containment, cleanup and testing.

Owners, tenants and timing

In a rented building, interior work has to be scheduled around the people living there, and exterior prep near open windows needs notice. If you own a two-family or three-family and live in one unit, it can help to plan the hallway and stairwell repaint alongside your own unit so the shared areas match.

Two halves, two housing mixes

The Shea Street side, in Tract 7104, is mostly detached houses with resident owners, while the tract around St. Joseph's is mostly multifamily rentals. A single-family on Shea and a triple near Columbus may sit only blocks apart yet need very different access, scheduling and scope.