Historical Slate Roofing Co

Historical Slate Roofing is a Somerville-based contractor built around a niche most roofers won't touch: slate roofs on historic New England homes, plus the custom copper work — gutters, downspouts, flashing — that tends to go with them. The company has been at it for about 13 years by its BBB record, and the reviews stretch back further than that — one customer says Kevin first worked on their slate roof 30 years ago, alongside his father. That continuity shows up again and again. Across 17 Google reviews averaging close to five stars, the same name comes up constantly: Kevin, described as the person who climbs onto the roof himself, diagnoses the actual problem, and explains it in plain terms. One homeowner with a persistent leak says several other roofers had been unable to find the cause before Kevin diagnosed and fixed it, and another reviewer says a competing quote for the same repair ran up to four times higher. The work described ranges from slate patch repairs and valley replacements to copper roofing, copper gutters, snow guards, and chimney flashing on century-old homes. The company holds a Massachusetts home improvement contractor registration, which BuildZoom lists as active under license #180226 — BuildZoom also shows two now-inactive Newton registrations from an earlier period, and its permit records show 17 completed roofing and copper-gutter projects across Brookline, Milton, and other Massachusetts towns. Its BBB profile carries an A+ rating with accredited status, though BBB shows no separate customer reviews of its own. One thing worth clearing up before booking: BuildZoom names Douglas Parker as the business's owner, but every review on record describes the actual work being done by Kevin — one reviewer identifies him as Kevin Williams Jr. It's worth asking directly who you'd be working with. For a homeowner with an older home and a roof most contractors would rather not deal with, this is a company reviewers keep coming back to over years and even decades, with a track record of straight talk about what actually needs fixing rather than what's easiest to sell.