East Dedham Painters — Mother Brook, the Mill Pond, Colburn, Maverick and Bussey Streets

Mother Brook was ordered dug in 1639 to send part of the Charles River into the Neponset. Two years later John Elderkin put up a corn mill at a dam on East Brook, in what is now East Dedham. In time the brook's five mill privileges turned out cotton, wool, paper, wire and carpets. None of those mills runs today, though an 1835 stone mill was converted to condominiums in 1986–87.

The mills needed workers and housed many of them. A history of the brook says every mill built homes to rent to its employees, that boarding houses multiplied as the mills grew, and that much of this housing clustered around Maverick and Colburn Streets. By the 1880s, census records show most residents of the triangle formed by Maverick, Colburn and Curve Streets were Irish-born mill workers.

Documentation is catching up. A 2018 town request for consultants to survey the Mother Brook Corridor stated that the area had never been surveyed, and Heritage Consultants presented an architectural survey of the brook in January 2020. A Mother Brook Lower Mill Pond Historic District, covering addresses on Bussey, Colburn, High and Berry Streets and the Maverick Street dam, appeared on the National Park Service pending list in April 2025; we could not confirm whether it has since been listed.

Census Tract 4021.02, which takes in the Mill Pond blocks of Colburn and Bussey Streets, shows the density: 25.8% of its 1,921 units are in two- to four-unit buildings, compared with 10.2% townwide, and 35.7% were built in 1939 or earlier.

Two-families and shared walls

With 339 units in two-unit buildings and 157 in three- or four-unit buildings in the tract, many exteriors here belong to more than one household. Owners of each side or each condo unit need to agree on color and timing, because a half-painted double house reads as unfinished from the street.

Tight lots and close neighbors

Where houses stand a driveway's width apart, ladder and staging placement, drop cloths on a neighbor's side and overspray control all have to be planned. Brush and roller application avoids the drift that spraying risks next to a neighbor's car or windows.

Old worker housing, many paint layers

Former boarding houses and worker homes from the 1800s have been repainted many times, and the census puts 81.1% of the tract's units before 1980. Assume lead in the older layers until a test says otherwise; our lead-safe painting page explains the rules for scraping and sanding.

Water at the back of the lot

Houses backing onto the Mill Pond or the brook may stay damp longer after rain on the water side. Checking that wood is dry before priming, and looking for soft sills and bottom boards, matters more than usual on those walls.