Triple Decker? I Hardly Know Her.

Carly Martin

07 Mar 2025 — 5 min read

Good morning esteemed guests and colleagues. This edition features a wide range of topics from diner tuna melts to chalk pastels. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your Friday read.

March Ins and Outs

Here we are once again, at the start of another month. You know what that means:

ins

Grappling under the weight of considering grad school
Japanese sweet potato

outs

Freezing temperatures
The concept of the eleventh hour
Mindfulness

What's for Dinner

I have not cooked an actual meal in like a solid week but I did go to the Palace Diner in Biddeford with the siblings while I was home and had a kind of incredible tuna melt. Really enjoyed the concept of an "iceberg steak".

A Quicky History Lesson

I think everyone here has spent at least some time in Boston at some point in their life. Whether that was a few months or several years, I think everyone has seen one or two triple decker apartments in their time in Beantown, maybe you've even lived in one. As I've been on my recent hot girl walks, I've been taking more and more notice of all the variety and was wondering about how they've become a staple housing structure in the city.

Upon my googling journey I found this great article from the Boston Preservation Alliance, and this one by Greg Minott for the Boston Globe that answered my question nicely.

The illustrious piece of Boston architecture that graces nearly every neighborhood in the city, is actually deeply interconnected to the history of the area. Most triple deckers (or "three-deckers" ig??) were built between the 1890s and the 1930s as an answer to the expansion of the city and need for more housing for workers. This style of apartment could fit 3 working or middle class families and offered paths towards building generational wealth as a person could live in a unit while renting the others. Triple deckers were a giant step up from tenement buildings at the time because they had individual kitchens, bathrooms, and parlor rooms in each unit for affordable prices. According to the BPA article, units at the turn of the century were going for $20-$25 a month. These buildings were integral to the social and economic development of Boston at the turn of the 20th century.

As with literally any study-able period of history, the boom for building triple deckers came to an end when wealthy white folks in the area decided that this type of building brought too many immigrants to their neighborhoods. There became a racist stereotype of the 'triple decker menace', which fueled restrictive zoning laws leading to the eventual total ban on building triple decker structures in the 1930s.

In terms of design, triple deckers do not adhere to just one style. There seem to be two general camps (Victorian/Colonial Revival), but builders used all kinds of materials and non-structural decorations to complete these apartments. The defining characteristic that makes a triple decker a triple decker is simply the three floor structure.

According to the BPA article, styles varied based on builders in the neighborhood. South Boston had many triple deckers go up with flat roofs while ones in Roxbury largely had sloped roofs. Other neighborhoods had a mix depending on contractors in the area and design preferences of the time period. Building built closer to 1890 tended to favor Queen Anne or Victorian characteristic like steeped sloped roofs, turrets, and ornate decorative shingles and brickwork. Colonial Revival came later with hipped (kinda trapezoidal looking) roofs and grand front door entrances.

Colonial Revival style on the left, Victorian style middle and right

Anyway, this was the marble rolling around in my brain for the last week-ish while out for walks. Now you'll be aware of triple decker architecture and the cultural impact housing has on a city - for better or for worse. Live, love, history and sociology.

If you're now finding yourself inspired by the architectural marvel that is the Boston triple decker, maybe in search of a visual tribute to the subject, you should check out bestie Matt Baynes artwork! @mvbaynes on instagram for some gorgeous paintings focused on light and shadow and the architecture of Eastie. Here's his website in case you are in need of a mural or an original piece anytime soon.

Quick to the Draw

This past week I went to a color theory workshop with Life Drawing Boston in Somerville. It was a very cool class. We did figure drawing with a live model and the instructor had some fun prompts to do with primary/secondary colors and playing with values. We worked in chalk pastels which I don't think I've done since high school art class so it was fun to try again.