The Point Painters — Between the South River and Palmer Cove

The Point lies in South Salem between the South River and Palmer’s Cove, with Lafayette Street along its western side. Its National Register nomination, listed in December 2014, says almost the entire neighborhood was destroyed in the Great Salem Fire. Almost three-quarters of the buildings standing today went up from 1914 to 1917, and about another fifth followed between 1920 and 1930. The district counts 245 contributing buildings.

That rebuilding ran under the Salem Rebuilding Commission. Its rules let one- and two-family houses up to two and a half stories, and three- and four-family houses up to two stories, be framed in wood, while larger multi-unit buildings had to be masonry. The commission also required non-combustible roofing and gutters across the city. The nomination says the result is still easy to read: brick apartment buildings of three to five stories standing among smaller wood-frame houses of two to four units.

The brick apartment blocks, with red, buff and multicolored brick, corbelling and cast-stone trim, are concentrated on Ward and Peabody Streets. The most common single-family house is a two-and-a-half-story Colonial Revival, and those cluster near Lafayette Street. Most lots are under a tenth of an acre, and buildings sit close together with little setback.

Census Tract 2043, which takes in Peabody and Harbor Streets but whose boundary does not match the historic district, reports 58.9% of its units in buildings of five or more and only 3.7% in detached single-family homes. Renters occupy 77.1% of its occupied units.

Two kinds of exterior on one street

On a wood two- or three-family house the whole skin is paintable: clapboard or shingle, trim, porches. On the masonry apartment buildings, the brick, corbelling and cast stone are the finished face, so paint work is limited to whatever wood or metal elements a given building has, such as sash, doors or cornices. The scope and the access equipment differ completely between the two.

Tight lots and close neighbors

With most parcels under a tenth of an acre and buildings set close together, there is often little room for ladders between houses. Side walls may need staging planned around the neighbor's building, and overspray and drips have to be contained against walls and cars only a few feet away.

Siding over the original wood

The nomination notes artificial siding applied over original clapboard and wood shingle on some buildings. Where that siding covers the walls, the painting work narrows to trim, porches and doors; where original wood remains, it carries more than a century of coatings.

Post-1914 paint layers

Every building rebuilt between 1914 and 1930 predates the 1978 federal ban on lead in residential paint, so original layers may contain lead. Scraping or sanding porches, sash and trim calls for lead-safe containment; see our lead-safe painting page.