Glenwood Painters — Otis, Dudley, Central Ave & Hooker St

Medford has no official map of Glenwood. Address lookups such as Walk Score place Central Avenue, Otis Street and Hooker Street in it, and the name also belonged to a stop on the Boston & Maine's Medford branch: the East Medford station at Spring Street was renamed Glenwood by 1889. The city's 2010 survey plan treats these streets as part of East Medford, and its history is the best documented record of how they were built.

Dudley and Otis streets were cut through the Dudley Hall tract east of Park Street by 1875. Among the first houses on them were larger cross-wing designs, with ornate piazzas filling the corner between the wings; the survey pictures one at 45 Otis Street and a Gothic-trimmed house at 102 Dudley. By 1900 Dudley and Otis were thickly built, and rows of two-story, two-family flats were going up at their Salem Street ends. Turrets were a favorite on Otis Street.

Close by, the 1920s added speculative rows. A 1922 plan for Hurlcroft, Yeoman and Central avenues and Linwood Court produced identical two-families fronted by two-story porches capped with a gambrel pediment; Sheridan Street got facing rows of two-families, and a row of four-squares went up near Hooker Street. Census Tract 3399, which includes Central Avenue, Otis, Dudley and Hooker, counts 2,206 units: 57.6% built in 1939 or earlier, 33.9% in two-unit buildings and 31.4% single-family detached. Renters occupy 44.8% of occupied units.

Clapboard first floor, shingles above

The survey describes houses of this era often sided with clapboards on the first story and wood shingles on the second, split by a wide belt board or a flared apron. Shingle butts and clapboard laps are scraped and brushed differently, and the flare holds water, so each band gets its own prep.

Two-story porches and gambrel pediments

On the 1922 rows, the porch is the face of the house: two decks of posts, rails, ceilings and the pediment above, one deck per unit. Repainting one deck and leaving the other will show from the street, so where the units have separate owners, scope and color are worth settling together.

Siding that has been replaced, or covered

Many houses here were later covered with asbestos-cement shingles or metal and vinyl siding, the survey notes, and many porches were stripped or enclosed. Asbestos-cement shingles should not be sanded or power-washed hard, and a painter should know whether they are on the house before quoting.

Shared walls of paint history

With a median build year of 1938 in Tract 3399, porches, sash and trim may carry lead paint under newer coats. On an occupied two-family, dust control has to protect both households, and the work follows lead-safe rules.