Waban Painters — Windsor Road & Pine Ridge Road districts

The Circuit Railroad opened in May 1886, and the village grew from it. Nurseryman William Strong, who bought a 93-acre farm there in 1875 and promoted the railroad, laid out Windsor Road on a curve up Moffat Hill, and developers Charles Page and Frederick Henshaw divided the 42-acre Hyde Farm into 87 lots. Both areas are now on the National Register. The Windsor Road district holds 48 houses on Windsor, Kent and Hereford Roads, with views over the Brae Burn Country Club grounds. The Pine Ridge Road–Plainfield Street district, in the eastern part of the village, holds 44 houses built from the 1890s through the 1930s.

Both nominations list the same family of styles: Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival, Craftsman and Tudor Revival. What stands out for anyone maintaining these homes is the range of wall materials, often two on one facade.

The housing around these districts is strikingly uniform. In Census Tract 3743, which includes Pine Ridge Road and Beacon Street near the village center, 96.5% of homes are single-family detached, 94% are owner-occupied, and about 92% were built before 1980. Only about 3.5% went up after 2000.

Stucco Craftsman and Tudor houses

Several houses on Windsor Road and Plainfield Street are stucco, some with half-timbering above a stucco or brick first story. Hairline cracks in stucco should be filled with a compatible patch before coating, and the coating should be a breathable masonry product rather than ordinary house paint. Half-timber boards are painted wood and weather like trim.

Fieldstone and shingle together

Houses like 196 Windsor Road pair a fieldstone first story with shingles above. The stone stays unpainted. Masking the line where shingle meets stone, and keeping stain off the mortar, takes slow hand work.

Brick colonials with slate roofs

Brick Colonial Revival houses on Pine Ridge and Upland Roads carry painted wood only at the cornice, entry, windows and dormers. Those are exactly the parts that show wear, and the slate roofs above mean upper trim is reached by ladder or lift, not from the roof.

Steep, curving lots

The climb on Windsor Road puts some houses on sloped sites. Ladder footing and staging on a grade take extra setup and leveling, which shows up in the time a job takes.