Piety Corner Painters — Bacon Street & Lexington Street

Settled in the late 1600s as Hosier's Corner, the area later took its name from the ministers who lived there. None of the early-settlement houses survive. The National Register district, listed in 1990, centers on the junction of Totten Pond Road with Lexington and Bacon Streets and runs south along Bacon Street to Greenwood Lane and along Lexington Street to Beaver Street. When Totten Pond Road was built in 1960 it cut off a piece near Lexington and Lincoln Streets, which is listed separately as the North Lexington Street Historic District.

The oldest buildings are two Federal-style houses on Lexington Street: the Sanderson-Bemis House at 380, dated c. 1819–29, and the Jonas Clark House at 399, c. 1825. From the 1860s come mansard-roofed Second Empire houses and two Carpenter Gothic houses at 326 and 356 Bacon Street. An octagon house at 361 Bacon Street went up in 1875 and was later truncated. Queen Anne houses such as 326 Lexington (1888) and 395 Lexington (1891) fill in the late century, with Colonial Revival houses after them. Wilkins Hall and the Cottage, built once the New-Church School had outgrown its space by 1864, are described as still used by Chapel Hill–Chauncy Hall School.

Every era needs its own trim plan

Federal, Carpenter Gothic, Second Empire and Queen Anne houses differ in how much molding, porch work and decorative trim they carry. Prep time follows the trim, so two houses of similar size on the same street can take very different amounts of labor.

Mansard roofs and odd shapes

The Second Empire houses carry windows in a steep mansard, and an eight-sided house like the one at 361 Bacon Street has no simple run of wall. Both need careful staging so nobody leans ladders on roofing or works off awkward angles.

Two centuries of paint layers

On a house approaching 200 years old, the wood may carry many coats, the earliest likely lead-based. Deciding how far to strip, and doing it under lead-safe containment, is one of the largest variables on an exterior here.

Register listing, not a review board

National Register status does not by itself put repainting under review for a private owner. Period color research is an option the listing does not require.