A 1909 Broadway Park Victorian, repainted to last
This 1909 Victorian sits in the Broadway Park Historic District, just north of downtown Bellingham in the Cornwall Park neighborhood. We took it from failing paint back to a finish that will hold. The old coating had let go across whole elevations, so this was never a wash-and-recoat job — it was containment, lead-safe removal, carpentry on the siding and soffits, and only then paint.
Scope of work: set full ground containment; lead-safe removal of failing paint back to sound substrate; replace siding boards that were split, cupped, or rotted through; repair damaged soffit, frieze, and trim; prime bare wood; caulk joints and penetrations; then finish coats on body, trim, and the original fish-scale gable shingles.
Painting homes in the Broadway Park Historic District
Broadway Park is one of Bellingham’s National Register historic districts, directly north of downtown in the Cornwall Park neighborhood. It was laid out as an early streetcar suburb, and its curving and diagonal streets follow the land rather than a grid — the marshy ground at its center became the park the district is named for.
The oldest blocks near the park went up largely between 1906 and 1915, and most of the district between 1921 and 1931. Craftsman is the most common style — close to half the district — mixed with Colonial Revival, Four-Square, Tudor Revival, and Victorian homes like this one. For exterior painting, that history means:
- Every original house predates 1978. Lead-safe prep is the baseline for a Broadway Park exterior, not an upsell.
- The original materials are worth keeping. Old wood siding and original wood windows are part of what makes these houses contribute to the district, so we repair them wherever the wood is sound.
- The detail is the point. Shingled gables, brackets, eave returns, and porch columns take hand work, and a color scheme that picks them out.
- Mature trees and established gardens. Shaded elevations stay damp longer and grow mildew, and old plantings against the foundation need protecting inside the containment.
In another of Bellingham’s older neighborhoods? See our exterior projects in Columbia and Eldridge.
What we found
This house is a 1909 Late Victorian, classified as historic contributing to the district. The district’s National Register nomination singles out its front gable — octagonal, square, and fish-scale shingles, with a bracketed shelf between them and the windows below. Those are exactly the details a repaint can either protect or bury.
From the sidewalk the house read as tired rather than failing — chalky, flat, a bit gray. Up close the coating had lost its grip over large areas and was coming off in sheets at the eaves and corner boards. Siding boards had split and cupped, the water-table board had weathered to bare gray wood, and the frieze beside one of the vents was down to raw timber.
The detail that set the whole approach was the paint chips sitting loose on the deck boards. On a home built in 1909 those chips should be assumed to contain lead until somebody proves otherwise — and once they’re on a walking surface, or in the soil of a garden bed, they’re a problem that outlasts the paint job.
Containment before a single scraper came out
Lead was in house paint for most of the twentieth century and wasn’t banned for residential use in the US until 1978. A 1909 home almost certainly has it somewhere in the stack, usually buried under later coats. Buried and stable is fine. The hazard is created the moment you disturb it — and scraping an entire exterior is about as thorough a disturbance as there is.
So the first day produced no visible progress at all. We sheeted the yard, the patio, the walkway and the porch in poly and worked with a HEPA vacuum on site. Every chip that came off the building landed on plastic and left with us, rather than going into the flowerbeds to stay there.
We’re EPA RRP lead-safe certified — the federal rule covering renovation, repair and painting on pre-1978 housing: certified workers, contained work areas, captured debris, and a verified clean-up before the plastic comes down. With kids, pets, or vegetable beds near the drip line, that’s the difference between a repaint and a contamination problem.
Siding replacement and soffit repair
Once the failed coating was off, we could see what we actually had. Most of the original siding was sound — old wood that had simply lost its paint — so we kept it, replaced only the boards that were split, cupped, or rotted through, and rebuilt the damaged soffit, frieze, and trim. On a house this age the goal is to keep everything that still has life in it and be surgical about the rest.
- Boards replaced selectively. Split, cupped, and rot-damaged siding swapped out; sound original siding kept.
- Soffit and frieze repaired. Rebuilt where the wood had gone, rather than covered over.
- Bare wood primed. Everything taken to substrate was primed before finish coats.
- Joints caulked. Seams and penetrations sealed so water stays out of the end grain.
- Original details kept. The fish-scale gable shingles were restored and picked out, not flattened into the body color.
Broadway Park exterior painting, start to finish
More from the job — before, during, and after. Click any photo to enlarge.
Broadway Park exterior painting questions
Do you do exterior painting in Broadway Park?
Yes. This project is a 1909 Victorian in Bellingham's Broadway Park Historic District, in the Cornwall Park neighborhood just north of downtown, and we paint exteriors throughout that area and across Bellingham and Whatcom County. Because most of the district's original homes went up between about 1906 and 1931, we plan every Broadway Park exterior as a lead-safe job from the start rather than treating it as an add-on.
Do older homes in Broadway Park have lead paint?
Assume yes until it is tested. Lead was in house paint for most of the twentieth century and was not banned for residential use in the United States until 1978, and most of the Broadway Park Historic District was built between about 1906 and 1931. The old paint is usually buried under newer coats, which is fine while it stays put. It becomes a hazard the moment somebody scrapes, sands, or pressure washes it, which is why we contain the site before any of that starts.
What does EPA RRP lead-safe certified actually mean?
RRP stands for Renovation, Repair and Painting. It is the federal rule that governs disturbing paint on pre-1978 housing, and it requires the firm and the workers on site to be certified, the work area to be contained, debris to be captured rather than scattered, and the site to be cleaned and verified before the containment comes down. Ellwanger Painting is EPA RRP lead-safe certified and licensed in Washington under contractor license ELLWAPL779QL.
Why can't you just pressure wash and repaint an old house?
Two reasons. On a pre-1978 home, a pressure washer turns failing lead paint into contaminated water and chips that end up in the soil, the garden beds, and the neighbor's yard, which is exactly what the RRP rule exists to prevent. Separately, washing does nothing for adhesion — if the old coating has already released from the wood, a new topcoat over it will come off with it. Paint only lasts as long as what it is stuck to.
Can old siding be repaired, or does it all have to be replaced?
Most of it can usually be saved. On this house the majority of the original siding was sound once the failed coating came off, so we replaced only the boards that were split, cupped, or rotted through and repaired the damaged soffit and trim. Replacing whole elevations of original siding on a home this old is expensive, and it throws away original material that is part of what makes a historic house worth restoring.