Medford Hillside Painters — South of the Mystic, below College Hill

The Historical Commission defines Hillside as the corner of South Medford bounded by the Mystic River to the north, the jagged Somerville line to the west and south, and Winthrop Street, Summer Street and College Avenue to the east. Its 2016–17 survey plan for South Medford says the Boston & Lowell Railroad added a stop at South Street, now Winthrop Street, in what became the Hillside neighborhood. Tufts was founded in 1852 on Walnut Hill, now College Hill, which straddles the city line. A state-funded survey of Hillside in 2013–14 covered the village center, a few small commercial clusters, and well-preserved houses that were mostly built in the 1800s.

Published detail on individual Hillside streets is limited. For South Medford as a whole, the survey plan describes block after block of single- and two-family houses and some three-deckers from the building booms of the late 1800s and the first half of the 1900s. It credits trolley access and proximity to Somerville with the faster, denser growth after 1900.

Census data for the two tracts that contain Hillside's core addresses fits that description, though tract lines do not follow the neighborhood boundary exactly. In Tract 3394 (Winthrop Street, Emery and Dearborn streets, and Boston Avenue near 300), 71.8% of units were built before 1940 and 45.0% are in two-unit buildings. In Tract 3395 (Burget, Hume and Fairmount and the 400 block of Boston Avenue), the figures are 66.3% and 45.2%. Fewer than half the occupied units in either tract are owner-occupied.

Not the Hillside Avenue district

The names are easy to confuse. The Hillside Avenue Historic District, a local and National Register district, is on Hillside and Grandview avenues north of the river near Medford Square. Medford Hillside, south of the river, is not part of it or of the Marm Simonds district, the other one the city names. If in doubt about a specific address, the Historic District Commission can confirm.

Two-family houses, two sets of decisions

With roughly 45% of units in two-unit buildings in both tracts, many exteriors here belong to houses with two households. If the units are separate condos, the association documents may control exterior color and timing. If one owner rents out the other floor, that owner decides alone but still has to schedule around tenants.

Rental units and lead rules

Owner-occupancy is 48.2% in Tract 3394 and 46.4% in Tract 3395, so a large share of units are rented. Before-1980 construction accounts for 97.8% of units in Tract 3394 and 87.7% in Tract 3395, so landlords and owner-occupants alike are dealing with possible lead paint. Paid work that disturbs old paint has to follow the lead-safe rules.

A college campus at the edge

Tufts sits on College Hill at the neighborhood's edge. The survey plan lists Curtis Hall at 474 Boston Avenue, a Romanesque Revival brick block from 1893, as determined eligible for the National Register. That finding concerns the college building, not the houses nearby, whose owners plan their own exterior work.