Payson Park Painters — Oakley Road, Cushing Avenue & Payson Road

Payson Park occupies part of John P. Cushing's 150-acre country estate, Bellmont, which gave the town its name in 1859. Samuel Payson bought it after Cushing died, and in 1886 he sold it to the Payson Park Land Company, which developed the land in three stages. Payson Road and Elm Street were laid out in 1888; Linden Avenue and Pine, Acorn and Spruce Streets followed in 1903 and were built up by 1917, while Oakley Road, Lawndale Street and Hillside Terrace filled in more slowly. The company sold the neighborhood on its streetcar link to Boston, advertising cars every fifteen minutes.

Because building stretched from 1886 to about 1920, the town's 2014–2016 survey finds Queen Anne and Colonial Revival houses among the earliest, with English Revival, Craftsman and Bungalow designs after them. 410 Common Street and 20 Cushing Avenue both appear in an 1898 sales brochure.

The survey calls the area primarily wood-frame, with a few masonry standouts: brick Colonial Revival houses at 48 and 38 Oakley Road from 1908 and 1912, a 1908 Craftsman at 34 Cushing Avenue with steel-reinforced concrete walls, a flat-roofed brick house at 34 Oak Avenue from the early 1920s, and a 1915 two-family at 58-60 Oakley Road of rubble with stucco and half-timbering above. After the Bellmont mansion came down in 1929, houses went up on Preble Gardens, Essex, Old Middlesex and Indian Hill Roads, reportedly using brick from the estate's boundary walls.

Census Tract 3574, which includes Oakley Road, Cushing Avenue and Payson Road, shows how little has been added since: 85.3% of its 905 housing units date from 1939 or earlier and 98.1% from before 1980. Single-family detached houses make up 52.8% of units and two-unit buildings 34.9%, a mix the survey reflects when it says single-family homes predominate alongside some unusual two-families, such as 210-212 Payson Road and the duplexes on Chester Road.

Thirty years of styles on one street

A Queen Anne house with layered trim and patterned surfaces can stand near a plain Colonial Revival or a low Craftsman. Each has different trim profiles and a different amount of detail to prep, so two neighboring houses can need very different amounts of prep.

98% of units predate 1980

With 98.1% of the tract's units built before 1980, original painted wood is best treated as lead-bearing until a test says otherwise. Scraping and sanding need containment and cleanup under the federal RRP rule; see our lead-safe painting page.

Brick, concrete and stucco need their own approach

The concrete walls at 34 Cushing Avenue and the stucco on 58-60 Oakley Road shouldn't get the same film-forming paint as wood clapboard. Masonry that has never been painted is usually best left bare, and stucco that is already painted needs a breathable coating.

Two-families with shared surfaces

Two-unit buildings hold 34.9% of the tract's housing units. Shared porches, stairs and trim mean both owners should agree on scope and color before an exterior starts.