South Peabody Painters — Lynn Street, Summit Street, Spring Pond and Brown's Pond

The Massachusetts Historical Commission's 1985 town report names the plain of South Peabody as the largest flat area in Peabody, and places most of the city's bigger hills here, west of Spring and Brown's ponds. The same report says members of the Brown family may have settled around Brown's Pond by 1629, and may have been the first settlers in what became Peabody, and that William Trask held a 100-acre farm near Spring Pond.

Two of the area's main streets are very old routes. The Old Ipswich Road, first an Indian trail, ran from Lynn Street along County and Summit Streets toward Danvers and was laid out in 1643. In 1685 Jeremiah Meacham opened a fulling mill by Goldthwait Brook on the west side of Summit Street, and around 1690 a sawmill went up on a brook from Cedar Pond.

The housing that stands today is much later, but still older than the city median of 1966. Census Tract 2106, which runs along Lynn Street and includes the library's South Branch at number 78, has a median build year of 1955. Of its 1,764 units, 401 date from 1939 or earlier, 274 from the 1940s and 431 from the 1950s, so 62.7% predate 1960.

A second tract, 2104.02, takes in addresses on Summit Street. In it, 607 of 1,716 units (35.4%) were built in 1939 or earlier, and the median year is 1956. The Lynn Street tract also has more small multi-unit buildings than West Peabody: 334 units sit in two-family houses and 177 in buildings of three or four units, together 29.0% of the total.

Pre-1940 wood and many coats of paint

A house from the 1920s or 1930s on these streets can carry many decades of repaints. Thick, alligatored layers can fail all at once, so the prep budget depends on how much needs to come off rather than on the wall area alone. Anything from before 1978 should be treated as possibly containing lead; our lead-safe painting page covers the rules.

Two-families and shared walls

Painting a two- or three-unit building means coordinating porches, stairs and entries that more than one household uses, plus access for ladders or lifts on every side. Owners who rent out a unit should also think about scheduling interior work around tenants and about lead disclosure duties for rental property.

A wide spread of build years

The Lynn Street tract is not one era: about a quarter of units date from the 1950s, while others are prewar or from the 1980s. Neighboring houses can need very different scopes, from simple recoats on newer siding to repair work on original trim and sash.

Summit Street leans older and owner-occupied

In the Summit Street tract, 70.6% of units are single-family detached and 76.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, and more than a third of units predate 1940. On a prewar house, the first visit should map failing paint, soft sills and window sash before anyone talks colors.