Before and after the renovation at 18 Billingham St.

By Marian Berkowitz

In 2015, Dylan and Jamie Welsh noticed an old single-family Victorian period house for sale on Billingham Street just outside Davis Square where Dylan is involved in the hospitality field. Even though the property had been renovated in the past, it had been on the market for some time and clearly needed a lot of work.

They were not deterred, but rather excited to take on the challenge of restoring the exterior of this turn of the century Victorian period house to its original architectural beauty.

Over a period of roughly six months, the interior was basically gutted and the exterior was fully tackled.

Dylan shared some photos of how the house looked before and after the restoration work. The first step required removal of the asphalt shingles siding. Underneath they found the original clapboard and fortunately it was in relatively good condition.

The Welsh family happily enjoying their newly refurbished home.

They replaced some boards where necessary and decided to paint the clapboards a striking historic blue. They then considered how to treat the windows. Dylan said, “we walked around the Somerville-Cambridge area and noticed that a number of historic homes had very dark window frames,” so they resolved to go that route.

Copper gutters were installed, as well as a new roof using architectural shingling that looked like slate. The porch needed significant repair and restoration with new decorative moldings. To highlight it and the trim details all over the house they chose a cream paint color. The house is now a beautiful example of the Queen Anne style with some Colonial Revival design elements.

Dylan and Jamie now thoroughly enjoy their restored house and love living on Billingham Street which Dylan noted at the end of our meeting, “It’s a great street, quiet and full of longtime residents, making it really feel like home.”

For all of their hard work the young family is delighted to have been nominated by a nearby neighbor and then to receive a 2020 Director’s Award from the Somerville Historic Preservation Commission.

Marian Berkowitz is a freelance writer in Somerville with a love of older houses and community involvement.

The Somerville Historic Preservation Commission gives out up to twelve awards each year to owners of designated historic properties (Preservation Awards) and of houses over 50 years old (Director Awards) to recognize their impressive exterior work over the last few years.  This is the 25th anniversary of the Awards Program with 9 winners.  Interviews with the owners plus photos of each property will be highlighted here over the coming weeks of summer.