Waverley Painters — Waverley Square, Lexington & Waverley Streets

Waverley fills the southwest corner of Belmont, near the Waltham and Watertown lines. After the Fitchburg Railroad came through in 1843, the Waverley Land Company subdivided 300 acres in 1854 and laid out Sycamore, Beech, Maple, Walnut, Chestnut, Linden and White Streets. The town's 2014–2016 historic resources survey calls it the first part of Belmont subdivided for suburban development. 36 Sycamore Street is one of the few houses from before 1853 still standing, and 44-48 Church Street is thought to be the original Waverley Hall of about 1851.

Building came in waves. An Italianate house at 151 Lexington Street dates to about 1870. In the early 1870s a Cambridge developer, D. Gilbert Dexter, bought land on both sides of Waverley Street, and well-preserved French Second Empire houses, several with towers, still line Waverley, Hawthorne and Cambridge Streets. When the streetcar arrived in 1898, Queen Anne and Shingle style houses followed, along with new multi-unit forms such as the Thayer at 20 Moraine Street, a six-unit 1908 take on the three-decker with two-story Ionic columns.

Census figures for Tract 3577, which includes Waverley Street, Moraine Street and Waverley Square, show the density that followed: 37.8% of its 1,767 units are in two-unit buildings and another 15.4% in buildings of three or four units, while only 18.7% are single-family detached. Nearly half of occupied units, 48.4%, are rented. In the neighboring Tract 3576, around Sycamore and Lexington Streets, 69.5% of units date from 1939 or earlier.

Mansard roofs and towers

Second Empire houses carry their top story inside a mansard roof, and a tower adds another level of height. Dormer trim and tower cornices sit high above the ground and are hard to reach, so access equipment and a close look at that woodwork shape the plan.

Rentals and multiple owners

With more than half of Tract 3577's units in two- to four-unit buildings and nearly half rented, a job may involve a landlord, tenants or a condo association. Tenants need notice before work starts, and in pre-1978 rentals, lead-safe rules apply to every unit where paint gets disturbed.

Old village houses with many lives

The former Waverley Hall was moved across the street before 1875, and the survey describes 51 Lexington Street, an 1896 church, as altered. On houses with that kind of history, siding and trim may come from several periods, so prep starts with figuring out what each surface actually is.

Former institutions turned condos

The 1873 Victorian Gothic school at 445 Trapelo Road became a fire station and, in 2006, condominiums. In a conversion like that, the master deed spells out whether the exterior and shared spaces belong to the association or to individual owners.