East Boston Painters — Eagle Hill & the shipbuilding-era streets

Eagle Hill is a glacial drumlin, part of what was Noddle's Island before East Boston existed. Donald McKay ran a shipyard on Border Street and built thirty clipper ships there; in 1844 he built his own Greek Revival frame house at 78–80 White Street. A Landmarks Commission study counts East Boston's population at 1,455 in 1840 and 20,572 by 1865.

The Eagle Hill Historic District, listed on the National Register, covers Meridian, Trenton, Eutaw, Monmouth, White, Lexington and nearby streets and contains 437 contributing buildings. Its nomination says the single most common form is the three-story mansard end house of roughly the 1860s and 70s: a narrow three-bay front, a two-story polygonal bay, bracketed cornices and an entry hood on scrolled brackets. Later, frame three-deckers went up in numbers that matched any other house type, and after 1900 many mansard duplexes and rows were raised to a full flat-roofed third story.

In the census tract that takes in Lexington Street on the hill, 83.6% of the 1,636 housing units were built in 1939 or earlier and 64.7% sit in three- or four-unit buildings. Only 30.2% of occupied units there are owner-occupied; the rest are rented.

Trim buried under synthetic siding

The Eagle Hill nomination notes that owners covered many buildings in synthetic siding to avoid the expense of painting, often right over the clapboard and ornament instead of stripping it. If you remove aluminum, vinyl or asbestos-type siding, expect to find brackets, window hoods and corner boards that need scraping, consolidating and priming before they can be painted again. Asbestos shingles are a separate abatement question, not a paint job.

Mansard slopes and polygonal bays

Dormers set in a mansard and two-story bays add many short runs of trim, inside corners and window casings. On these houses that detail adds more prep and brush time than the flat wall area does.

Converted rows with mixed rooflines

Where only some houses in a row were raised to a flat third story, the cornice line changes from one unit to the next. Painting one unit of a row means deciding where your color stops at a shared corner or party wall, which is worth settling with the neighbor first.

Pre-war paint, multiple households

With 83.6% of units in the Lexington Street tract built before 1940, assume lead in older trim and porch paint until a test says otherwise. Work in an occupied three-decker has to be planned around tenants; our lead-safe painting page covers the Massachusetts rules.