South Norwood Painters — The Flats, along Washington Street

Washington Street was laid out through this end of town around 1802, but even after Norwood's 1872 incorporation the land along it stayed flat, largely unsettled farmland, with about 14 permanent buildings by 1900. Lithuanians arrived first, in the 1890s. As Norwood manufacturing expanded and housing ran short, building came fast: the Norwood Historical Society counts roughly 400 multi-family apartment buildings put up between 1913 and 1917, each holding anywhere from 3 to 12 apartments. The society notes that triple-deckers in Norwood are, for the most part, unique to South Norwood.

Locals called the area the Flats, running from around the Coakley Middle School down Washington Street to Dean Street and onto the side streets. Those side streets are largely residential, while many buildings on Washington Street had shops on the first floor and apartments above. Conditions were crowded until the 1918 influenza epidemic, after which officials forced landlords and builders to add bathrooms and other safety features, and utilities finally reached the neighborhood.

Census Tract 4135, which includes St. George and Oolah Avenues, is the closest census match, though its lines don't follow the old Flats exactly. Of its 2,005 housing units, 787 (39.3%) are in two- to four-unit buildings and 477 more in buildings of 5 to 19 units, against 620 single-family detached homes. Two-thirds of occupied units (67.2%) are rented.

Three stories of exterior

A triple-decker puts the top of the wall roughly three floors up, which usually calls for staging or a lift instead of ladders alone. Where a building has a porch on each level, every one has its own ceiling, rails and posts to prep and paint. Scope those porches separately in the estimate so nothing gets skipped.

1910s buildings and lead rules

Buildings from the 1913–1917 boom long predate the 1978 ban on lead house paint. Paid work that disturbs those surfaces falls under the EPA renovation rule, which Massachusetts administers itself; see our lead-safe painting page for how containment and cleanup work.

Working around tenants

With 1,321 of 1,965 occupied units in the tract rented, a repaint may have to happen with apartments occupied. Owners can help by giving tenants written notice of the schedule, which windows will be closed or masked, and when porches will be off limits while coats dry.

Churches and halls turned into condos

St. George Lithuanian Catholic Church at 37 St. James Avenue, built in 1915 and dedicated in 1916, has been converted to condominiums, and Lithuanian Hall at 13 St. George Avenue was remodeled into condos as well. In converted buildings like these, the association controls the exterior and shared spaces; unit owners handle their own interiors.