Merrymount Painters — Between Quincy Center, Adams Shore and Quincy Bay

According to a neighborhood overview the City of Quincy posted in 2009, Merrymount was where Quincy's settlement began. The Adams family later acquired it, and the area was eventually sold off as house lots in the early 1900s, while the city was growing quickly. Single-family dwellings went up on those lots, and the city describes the area as fairly built out by the years after World War II. The same overview notes that the hilly ground gives some of the best views in Quincy over the bays and marshes.

We did not find a Massachusetts Historical Commission area form for Merrymount, so we cannot point to a documented street of a particular style. What the record supports is the timeline: lots sold in the early twentieth century and filled before about 1950.

Census Tract 4177.02, which covers the Merrymount area, backs up that timeline. Its median building year is 1938. Of 1,059 housing units, 565 (53.4%) were built in 1939 or earlier and 927 (87.5%) before 1980. Detached single-family houses make up 64.6% of units, about double the citywide share of 32.7%, though 31.1% of units are in buildings with five or more units. Owners live in 64.7% of occupied homes.

Low streets near Blacks Creek

The city's 2019 hazard plan names Shore Avenue, Chickatabot Road and Norton Road as low-lying and prone to flooding, ranks Merrymount Park by Blacks Creek among Quincy's highest flood-risk spots, and says Furnace Brook often causes localized flooding. If water has reached your sills or lower clapboards, the wood needs to dry out and any rot needs repair before primer goes on. Paint applied over damp siding tends to blister and peel early.

The most coastal properties at risk in the city

Of all Quincy planning areas, Merrymount/Blacks Creek has the greatest number of properties that could be hit by coastal flooding, per the same plan, with five repetitive-loss properties recorded from 1979 to late 2017. For houses near the water, plan the exterior for spray and wind-driven rain. That means careful caulking at trim joints, primed end grain on new boards, and a coating rated for coastal conditions. Our Quincy exterior painting page covers the process.

Aging seawalls next to private yards

The city owns about 1,385 feet of pre-cast concrete coastal structures here, and the rest of the seawall is private. The plan warns that many Merrymount walls are near the end of their 50-year design life. Exterior paint cannot make up for a failing wall, so if water overtops yours, sort out drainage and repairs before you pay for new siding paint.

Lead is the default assumption

With 87.5% of units in the tract built before 1980, any paint-disturbing job in a Merrymount house should start from the assumption that lead paint is present. In Massachusetts, paid work in pre-1978 housing that disturbs more than 6 square feet per room inside or 20 square feet outside falls under the lead-safe renovation rules. See our lead-safe painting page.