Division Street (Aluminum Siding)

I don’t imagine Division Street* was ever “grand”. The structures that line the street are modest homes and a few storefronts. Originally clapboard sided, two storied, simple roof lines and trim. As you head north up Division you will notice that the east side of the street is up-hill while the west is down. On the east the builders fashioned garages cut into the hillside, perhaps poured a slab roof over the excavation and back-filled it. On the west the homes are clinging to the slop and parking is on the street. Either way the small lots push into the street seemingly hanging over it or falling away from it. Trucks and cars screech to a stop and speed away from the traffic lights, the noise slightly echoing off the canyon walls of the buildings. Since Division is partly commercial most of the houses look to be rentals, with two, three or four families in each according to my quick count of the electric meters and the mail boxes. If you are looking for finer, nicer houses they are around the corner and a block away. Big Queen Anne’s with wraparound porches, decorative cornices and gable ends, large garages (carriage houses) out back are decorated to mimic the grand theme of the main house. Their lots are flat or gently sloping. But one thing all of the homes in the neighborhood have in common is vinyl siding. Or aluminum siding and trim.

When I built my home I had no spare dough. I mean I scrimped every which way to put this house together. I suppose that almost everyone struggles with a budget when they build. Back in the 1800’s and early 1900’s when the homes along Division Street were built siding meant wood and wood means painting and maintenance. That was understood back then but Man is a lazy beast and cheap too. He’d do anything to get out of painting or paying someone else to paint that damned siding.  Along comes The 1950’s and aluminum products are all the rage. You’re watching “Have Gun Will Travel” on the black and white R.C.A TV one night and the commercial by Alcoa aluminum tells you that you don’t have to paint that old siding any more! Cover it up with their siding. It’ll look the same as if you’d done a bang up job of painting and you’ll never have to paint again! Then comes the 1960’s and plastic! And you’re watching “Bewitched” on the color, SONY TV one night and commercial by Dow Chemical tells you that you don’t have to paint that old siding any more! Cover it up with their siding…etc.

Almost no one paints an old house any more. Walking down the sidewalk of Division Street my casual survey counts one house out of thirty or forty that has the original wood siding and trim. All the rest have been covered with aluminum or vinyl. In my opinion the one with the paint usually appears to have a weather-worn dignity while the plastic covered homes look cheap and unkempt. The aluminum roofing trim might be flapping at the seams with the original carved cornices and rafter ends peeking out of the gaps in the loosened metal cladding. Outside and inside corners made of metal or plastic look fake and the radical expansion and contraction of the clad siding causes it to pull loose over time. What the manufacturer didn’t tell us was the “baked on finish” on the aluminum  would “chalk” over time and become powdery and dull. That the vinyl would sag in the heat of the sun and ultraviolet rays would cause it to become brittle in just a few years. It will chip easily. Mold and mildew grow easily on the shady side of the building and it takes a pressure cleaning every couple of years to clean it, and even then it still looks dull and cheap. Given the track record of the aluminum and plastic products, painting doesn’t seem to be too high a price to pay for a good looking, nicely sided house any more.

As I mentioned, I built my house on a budget. I wish that budget had included nice, clear cedar siding but it didn’t. I used vinyl. I picked a color that would fade with a modicum of dignity. I tried to install it properly so that it would stay in place and age well. But plastic is plastic and it has developed some cracks and holes where the brittle product has come into contact with my children’s baseballs and other insults. I have to pressure clean the north side every year as it turns a dirty green with mold. Occasionally I need to re-secure a length of trim or siding where it “popped” off of the building because of bad nailing or extreme expansion/contraction. But I did one thing that I am proud of with the vinyl siding on my house, I didn’t put it on the walls anywhere near where people could touch it or get up close to it. I used vertical ship-lap cedar siding on the porch and both the front and rear entryways. Those locations are under cover of the roof and a sealer has been all that I have applied to it over the last twenty five years. It has become dark and warm with age. Sitting out on the porch feels comfortable, like sitting in an old cabin surrounded by wood. Twenty feet away is a Disneyland of futuristic plastic but right up close is the warmth of wood. I feel like I balanced the budget with something aesthetically pleasing.

For the most part Division Street has given that balance away. Short of pulling all the plastic and metal off the old buildings, and repairing and repainting all the old hidden siding there is nothing that can reclaim the dignity of those buildings and that street. It would be great if the lessons of aluminum/plastic siding could be learned and applied to future renovations but it won’t. People will always look for the cheap, easy way out. If one is looking for clues to the future, look no further than the big box retailer’s display of plastic fencing…Watch it as it turns into land-fill before your eyes.

 *Division Street is located in the town of Peekskill, NY.