West Peabody Painters — Lowell Street, Goodale Street and the Crystal Lake area

The state's 1985 reconnaissance survey describes this side of the city as known for its extensive farms, with several 300- to 500-acre grants handed out in the 1630s and 1640s. The same report records early mills here: a sawmill stood on the Norris-Phelps-Pope grant by 1672, and around 1681 Joseph Pope built another on the south side of Crystal Lake, on a brook running to the Ipswich River. Pope's Lane, which the report says probably existed in the 1600s, is today's Goodale Street.

According to the Peabody Historical Society, family farms held on until after World War II, when the land was sold for housing developments. West Peabody and parts of South Peabody kept a rural feel well into the second half of the 20th century, while downtown was defined by leather and other manufacturing.

Census numbers for Tract 2101, which takes in the West Branch library at 603 Lowell Street and the Goodale Street area, show how concentrated that building wave was. Of 2,560 housing units, 1,525 (59.6%) went up between 1950 and 1969, and the 1960s alone account for 1,028. Only 77 units are estimated at 1939 or earlier, and the median year built is 1967.

It is also a tract of owners: 94.1% of occupied units are owner-occupied, and 82.9% of all units are single-family detached houses. The other notable category is mobile homes, estimated at 370 units (14.5%, with a wide margin of error).

One generation of houses, aging together

When most homes in a tract were built within twenty years of each other, their original siding, windows and trim reach the same age at once. A house from 1962 has been through six decades of New England winters, so look for repainting history, past siding changes and soft wood at sills and fascia before choosing a scope.

Lead is still a real question

In this tract, 77.7% of units were built before 1980. Lead paint was banned for homes in 1978, so original trim, doors and window parts on these houses can carry it under newer layers. When a contractor sands or scrapes them, federal lead-safe work rules apply; our lead-safe painting page explains what that involves.

Mobile homes need their own plan

The census estimates roughly 370 mobile homes in the tract, though with a wide margin of error. Owners of a manufactured home are often painting metal or vinyl siding rather than wood clapboards, which calls for different cleaning, primers and coatings. If the home sits in a community with its own rules, check those before picking colors.

Interiors from the postwar decades

A kitchen or bath from the 1950s or 1960s may still have its original cabinets or several rounds of updates. Glossy old enamel and patched walls need adhesion testing and spot priming so new paint does not peel.