Weymouth Landing Painters — Washington Street, Front Street & Summer Street

The Weymouth & Braintree Turnpike, opened in 1805 along today's Washington Street, made the Landing the town's leading business district, and the South Shore Railroad came straight through in 1849 on the route now used by the MBTA Greenbush Line.

The homes are on the hill behind the business blocks. The Front Street Historic District begins near the Landing's commercial node and climbs sharply to the southwest along the spine of Front Street, within a boundary roughly traced by Front, Summer, Kingman, Congress and Washington streets. It covers about 77 acres and 155 contributing properties, and single-family homes are the most common type. The oldest is the Frederick Cushing House at 160 Front Street, from about 1720.

Most of the district's houses were built or substantially remodeled in the mid to late 1800s. Center-chimney Capes and a few Georgian and Federal houses came first; between about 1820 and 1860, gable-end Greek Revival houses with side-hall entries became the norm. Later decades brought Italianate, Second Empire, Queen Anne and Shingle Style, Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival houses, and finally bungalows. The nomination says the area was basically built out by the 1940s, with postwar subdivisions outside its boundary.

The surrounding census tract, 4224.02, has older housing than the town overall: 35.5% of its 1,946 units predate 1940, against 21.7% townwide, and 88.5% were built before 1980.

Shingle or clapboard depends on the house's age

The nomination notes that Federal-era houses kept the shingle siding of the colonial period, that some Greek Revival houses still wear wood shingles, and that the more ambitious Greek Revival examples switched to clapboards. Vinyl and asbestos shingle were later added to some buildings. Each of these takes a different prep and coating plan, so the first step is confirming what is actually on the walls.

Hillside lots close to the street

Most houses sit close to the street on small lots, and some are set into the slope; 27 Front Street, for one, has a full basement exposed at the rear. A grade change means the downhill wall can be a full story taller than the front, which changes ladder and staging needs.

Former shoe shops and small outbuildings

The district keeps a handful of late-1800s shop buildings, at 131 and 204 Front Street, 30 Summer Street and 27 Walnut Street, and two former industrial buildings now used as homes, 9 Glines Avenue and 122 Front Street. Most other contributing outbuildings are one-bay wood or concrete-block garages from the first half of the 1900s. Including them in the same job keeps the property's colors matched.

Small multi-unit buildings mixed in

In the tract, 8.6% of units are in three- and four-unit buildings and 14.1% in buildings of 10 to 19 units. Where a building has several owners, color choices and scheduling for the exterior go through all of them or through the association.