Roxbury Painters — Highland Park, Fort Hill and John Eliot Square

Highland Park, also known as Roxbury Highlands or Fort Hill, covers about 170 acres of steep ground broken by puddingstone ledge. The City says that after the Revolutionary War it developed into a fashionable 19th-century streetcar suburb, and Roxbury became part of Boston in 1868. The City lists Federal, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Second Empire and Queen Anne examples among its buildings.

The 2022 study report for the area describes an unusually wide mix. Detached houses stand near two-families, triple-deckers and larger apartment buildings. Four- and five-story row houses line parts of Fort Avenue, Highland Park Avenue, Linwood Square and Kenilworth Street, Cedar Street has a series of marble-clad rows, and triple-deckers run along Beech Glen Street's south side and on Highland Street, Lambert Avenue, Lambert Street and Thornton Street. Puddingstone turns up in garden walls and in some house foundations.

Census Tract 814, which includes Highland Street, Fort Avenue and Lambert Avenue, reflects that mix. Of 1,508 housing units, 39.2% were built in 1939 or earlier, while 28.8% date from 2000 or later, including 19.2% from 2010 to 2019. Three- and four-unit buildings hold 41.2% of units, two-unit buildings 15.7%, and 30.0% of occupied homes are owner-occupied. These figures cover one tract, not all of Roxbury.

A conservation district, not a color board

Highland Park was listed on the National Register in 1989, which gave it no local protection. The Architectural Conservation District adopted in 2022 does add review, but for demolitions, major architectural or landscape changes and new construction. Its standards list routine maintenance and in-kind repair as outside review, and on color the district commission may advise but shall not dictate.

Wood triple-deckers on the slopes

The Boston Preservation Alliance notes that Roxbury's triple-deckers had pitched roofs, while South Boston's were mostly flat, and that most Boston-area triple-deckers were wood-framed. Three wood-frame stories plus a gable on a sloping lot means staging or a lift for the upper walls and careful setup on uneven ground.

Detail worth keeping

The study report points to door and window surrounds, scrollwork, bargeboards, cornice brackets, porch balusters and patterned shingles. Each of these holds water in joints and end grain, so scraping, priming bare wood and caulking open seams matter more here than on flat siding.

Changes are part of the record

The report treats fire escapes, basement entrances and added stories as evidence of how people adapted these buildings, and says such vernacular changes should be preserved. A paint scheme can respect that by treating later additions as part of the house rather than hiding them.