East Braintree Painters — Commercial St, Quincy Ave, Shaw St & the Fore River

East Braintree grew where the Monatiquot River meets the tidal Weymouth Fore River. According to the WalkBoston route map published by the town, shipbuilding dominated the small river basin from 1683 to 1854, and Commercial Street, a Boston–Plymouth route since 1640, still holds buildings from that era. Dated examples include the Major Edmund Soper House at 170 Commercial Street (1772), a Cape-style house of 1805 set high above the road at number 140, and the Deacon Josiah Vinton Jr. House of 1830 at number 135, with a veranda wrapping three sides and attached former barns. At 18 Quincy Avenue, a 1798 house now stands among 20th-century businesses.

The 1979 state survey found colonial-period center-chimney Capes in especially large concentrations in East Braintree along the river, with a smaller group of two-story center- and twin-chimney houses near Commercial Street. Later layers followed: Shaw Street buildings going back to 1850, a Thayer Road hilltop built up mostly between 1860 and 1900, 1870s–1890s subdivisions near the Weymouth line around Stetson and Liberty Streets, and interwar suburban streets.

Census tracts covering the neighborhood show that mix. In Tract 4194, which includes Thayer Road, Audubon Avenue and part of Quincy Avenue, 50.1% of 1,314 units were built in 1939 or earlier and 16.4% are in three- or four-unit buildings. Tract 4193, around Shaw Street, has 20.2% of units in 10–19-unit buildings and 25.3% built in the 1970s. Tract 4195, which includes 170 Commercial Street, is 83.6% single-family detached.

Centuries of paint on colonial wood

A house from the 1700s may have had its clapboards, sash and trim replaced in pieces over two centuries, so one wall can hold old-growth boards beside modern ones. Treat the old layers as lead-bearing until a test says otherwise. Prep is slow work: scraping, consolidating soft wood and priming bare spots, following the steps on our lead-safe painting page.

Steep lots and hilltop houses

The town's walking map calls Audubon Avenue and Arthur Street a roller-coaster walk over East Braintree's hills, and a public stairway, the Thayer Steps, links the end of the Thayer Road hilltop to Quincy Avenue. Sloped yards change ladder and staging setups, and a tall house on a grade can need more access gear than its size suggests.

Houses near the tidal river

Some streets here run close to the Monatiquot and the tidal Fore River. We found no flood-zone or salt-spray data to cite for these blocks, so scope is set by what each wall shows: on a walk-around, the sides facing the water get checked for peeling, checking and soft sills like any other.

Small multifamily buildings

With 16.4% of Tract 4194's units in three- and four-unit buildings and about 32% of occupied units rented in Tracts 4193 and 4194, a job can involve tenants or co-owners. Notice, access to each unit and a shared color decision come before any work. Our condo painting in Braintree page covers association projects.