Linden Painters — East of Broadway, around Hunting Field

The City places Linden in the southeast corner of Malden, east of Broadway (Route 99). It contains the Linden School and Hunting Field, which was once part of a much larger park bounded by Broadway, Salem Street, Eastern Avenue and Claremont Street, with gardens and a fountain. Education Way, the park's old entrance, is one of its last remnants, and one of its original large oaks still stands at the corner of Claremont Street.

Linden has been a crossing point for two centuries. The 1980 Massachusetts Historical Commission report on Malden records the Newburyport Turnpike (now Broadway) crossing the Pine River swampland here in the early 1800s, the Saugus Branch railroad running through in 1854, and subdivisions following the Salem Street and Eastern rail corridor. In the 20th century a secondary commercial center with decorative concrete store blocks grew on the streetcar line, multi-family housing spread along Eastern Avenue, and Broadway became an auto highway strip; the report noted that Route One continued to affect adjacent neighborhoods.

Census Tract 3419.04, which includes Wescott, Oliver, Beach and Claremont streets, reflects that long build-out. Of 1,181 homes, 46.1% predate 1940, but the median year built is 1945, later than the 1938 median in the tracts covering Maplewood and Faulkner, and every decade from the 1940s through the 1970s added roughly 5.7% to 10.2% of the stock. Units are spread across detached houses (29.4%), two-families (23.8%), single-family attached (18.8%) and three- or four-unit buildings (15.2%). Owners occupy 41.5% of homes.

Several eras on one street

A block here can hold a pre-1940 two-family next to a 1950s or 1970s house. Houses from different decades can have different siding materials and very different paint histories, so an estimate should be built house by house rather than assumed from the neighbor's.

Flood-zone ground

Malden's open space plan puts the area between Oliver and Salem streets inside the 100-year flood zone and warns Linden could flood if the Town Line Brook tide gates fail. Where ground moisture is a factor, peeling on the lowest courses of siding and on basement-level trim often comes from water behind the paint, which a new coat alone won't cure.

Lead runs later than you'd think

In this tract 78.6% of units predate 1980, and 32.5% were built from 1940 through 1979. A 1950s or 1960s house can look newer than its neighbors, but if it was built before 1978 it falls under the same federal lead-safe rules when paid work disturbs its paint.

Houses on the busy roads

If your house fronts Broadway, Eastern Avenue or another through road, look closely at the film on the siding before painting. A thorough wash and rinse comes first, since new paint laid over road grime won't bond well.