Porter Square Painters — Porter Square, Cambridge

Cambridge's first railroad station was put up here by the Fitchburg Railroad in 1844, according to a Cambridge Historical Commission history of the Square. The Homer-Lovell House on Forest Street shows what followed: its Second Empire main block went up in 1867, when the area was growing as a residential district because of the station. In the 1920s it was extended and turned into a two-family, and a summary of its National Register listing notes that many nearby houses were converted the same way, most losing their historical integrity along the way.

Older layers survive too. The Cooper-Frost-Austin house at 21 Linnaean Street dates to 1681-82, and the Commission's slideshow includes houses from 1887 on Washington Avenue and Lancaster Street. The same slideshow dates the Porter Square Shopping Center, on the former Rand estate, to 1956.

Census Tract 3536, which includes 1815 Massachusetts Avenue and 11 Forest Street, counts 1,870 homes. Of those, 81.9% were built in 1939 or earlier and only 35 since 2000. Buildings with two to four units hold 34.3% of homes, five-to-nine-unit buildings another 17.4%, and detached single-family houses 15.2%. About a third of occupied units, 35.6%, are owner-occupied.

Converted houses with mismatched parts

A house that was enlarged and split into two units, like the Homer-Lovell House, can carry 1867 trim on the front block and 1920s work on the rear addition. The two sections can differ in wood, profiles and paint history, so plan prep for each rather than one treatment for the whole wall.

Two owners, one exterior

With a third of homes in two-to-four-unit buildings, many exteriors here are shared. Where a building is shared, settle colors, scope and timing with the other owners or the association before anyone schedules the whole building. Our condo painting page for Cambridge covers shared buildings in more detail.

The Avon Hill district next door

Near the Square, the Avon Hill Neighborhood Conservation District takes in about 220 properties bounded by Linnaean, Raymond and Upland and the Mass. Ave. business zone. Work done in kind and changes not visible from a public way get a Certificate of Non-Applicability; other visible alterations need a Certificate of Appropriateness.

98% of homes predate 1980

With 98.0% of the tract's homes built before 1980, sanding old clapboards, porch rails or interior trim calls for lead-safe methods, and Massachusetts requires deleading where a child under six lives.