Medford Square Painters — Old center, hillside subdivisions

In the Historical Commission's survey, the Medford Square neighborhood runs from the Mystic River north to the Middlesex Fells, between Winthrop Street and I-93. Its homes come in layers. Ashland and Oakland streets were platted with small lots early in the 1800s, and by the 1875 map they held end and cross-wing houses in Greek and Gothic modes plus at least one hipped-roof Italianate. By 1898 Queen Anne houses had joined them, and duplexes went up on the west side of Ashland. The survey calls this pocket the only 19th-century subdivision in the neighborhood.

Uphill, Governors Avenue, Bradlee Road, Woodland Avenue and the Prospect Park streets filled with large houses before 1930. The survey singles out boxy two-story hipped-roof houses: Colonials with wood siding, ornate cornices and porches, and Craftsman versions finished in stucco. Farther north, the Traincroft and Lawrence Estates subdivisions of the 1920s are mostly Colonial, Tudor and Dutch Colonial, and the survey calls brick a defining material across that whole tract (see our Lawrence Estates page).

The center is also where some of Medford's earliest apartment houses appeared. The survey counts a Mediterranean-style three-story building at 148 High Street, from about 1925, among the first in the city. Around 1930 a group of four-story blocks went up behind High Street between Governors Avenue and Forest Street. Later, more apartment buildings followed, and old commercial buildings and the Lawrence Armory were converted to housing. In Census Tract 3391.01, which includes addresses on Oakland Street, Hillside Avenue, Bradlee Road and Traincroft Street, 51.0% of housing units are in buildings of 50 or more units.

Hillside Avenue is a local historic district

The city lists two local historic districts, Hillside Avenue and Marm Simonds. Its Historic District Commission reviews exterior alterations and repairs visible from public ways. The 1975 National Register nomination describes twenty houses on Hillside and Grandview avenues, mostly built after 1889 and designed by architects in Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles. On these two streets, check with the commission before exterior work starts.

Wood, stucco and brick on one hill

Within a few blocks you can find clapboard Colonials with heavy cornices, stuccoed Craftsman houses, shingled Prospect Park homes and brick-veneer Tudors. Each needs different prep and coatings. Painted wood needs scraping and priming at failed spots. Stucco needs cracks patched and a breathable masonry finish. Unpainted brick is usually best left alone, so the work there is limited to trim, windows and doors.

Vinyl over Victorian trim

The survey reports that many houses in the neighborhood now carry synthetic siding and replacement windows. The 1975 Register nomination already recorded aluminum siding on two houses in the Hillside Avenue district and white vinyl on a third. On a re-sided house, the paintable surfaces are often limited to porches, cornices, doors and any surviving wood trim. On an older house, those pieces may also carry the earliest layers of paint.

Apartment blocks and condo buildings

The survey records interwar apartment blocks here, and later conversions of commercial buildings and the Lawrence Armory into multiple dwellings. If your unit in one of them is a condo, the association generally controls the common hallways, stairwells and exterior, while you decide on the walls, ceilings and trim inside, subject to the condo documents. Condo painting covers how that split works.