West End Painters — Dexter, Beltran, Grace and Bartlett streets

The city's 2016–2017 survey report explains that the 2007–2008 effort concentrated on the West End and Edgeworth, citing "an abundance of properties meriting survey" there. Geographer Arthur Krim filled out more than 50 building forms with a West End place label. The earliest is a Greek Revival house at 33 Ivy Road dated 1847–51; the latest is a 1960 Contemporary ranch on Corey Road.

About three-quarters of the forms fall between 1880 and 1899, and roughly half list Queen Anne as the style, either alone or blended with Colonial Revival, Italianate, Tudor or Mansard. Others are Shingle Style houses on Dexter, Francis, Hawthorne and Grace streets and Woodland Road; Mansard houses such as 18 Bartlett Street, built around 1862 on Summer Street and moved in 1888; and a 1912–13 Dutch Revival at 34 Earl Street. 36 Bartlett Street, an 1874–75 Italianate, still has an attached carriage barn with its original vertical board siding.

The surveyed houses fall in two census tracts. Tract 3411.01, which includes the surveyed house at 36 Bartlett Street, is the older and more owner-occupied: 71.9% of its 1,529 units were built in 1939 or earlier, 51.5% are detached houses, and owners live in 73.7% of homes. Tract 3411.02, which includes 86 Dexter Street and the Beebe School on Pleasant Street, mixes houses with larger buildings: 38.5% of its 2,504 units are in buildings of 20 or more units, and 42.2% are owner-occupied.

Shingles and clapboards on the same house

More than half of the forms list shingle in the walls; others record clapboard. Shingled walls, bay windows, brackets and porch columns are the places to inspect closely before choosing a prep method. Our Malden exterior painting page covers prep and coatings for wood siding.

Siding that has already been changed

A dozen or more forms record vinyl or other artificial siding, including an 1869–72 Mansard house on Glen Street re-sided around 1930 and several houses re-sided around 1970. On those, paint work shifts to whatever wood was left exposed, such as trim, porches and windows, and the condition of what sits under the siding is unknown until it comes off.

Hills and slate

At least eleven of the surveyed houses stand on hillside or hilltop lots, and a handful still have slate roofs. Sloped yards change how ladders and staging are set, and slate can't take foot traffic the way asphalt shingles can, so high trim and dormers are better reached from staging or lifts.

Rebuilt porches and lead

Some forms note porches rebuilt around 1920. In Tract 3411.01, 87.4% of units predate 1980, so layered paint on porch rails, ceilings and window sash should be handled with lead-safe methods. See our lead-safe painting page.