Jennifer Smith has been covering housing and development in Massachusetts for more than a decade, first for the Dorchester Reporter and now at the CommonWealth Beacon. She’s come to accept a reputation as “the most three-decker-enthusiastic person that you could find inside a 12 mile radius.”
In fact, much to her “chagrin,” her reputation has become so strong that two separate friends gifted her the same enamel pin of a triple-decker, gifts that still rest on her mantle.
The three-decker — or, as it is now known, the triple-decker — is a uniquely New England, three story, wood-framed structure where each floor is a separate apartment. It features prominently in some of Boston’s most iconic films including “The Departed,” “Good Will Hunting,” and “Gone Baby Gone.” Around 15,000 of these houses exist in the Boston area today, mostly built between 1880 and 1930…