Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Victorian row houses can be very ornate, with bay windows, cornices, gingerbread, etc. But even plain little row houses like you see in Baltimore can be attractive if they're fixed up or well maintained. Some of the streets in, say, Canton, with the tidy little houses and white marble steps are very attractive.
Check out the row houses in Back Bay, Boston. Park Slope, Brooklyn. Dupont Circle, DC. (Not to mention Chicago.) Lots of variety from house to house. "Row houses" simply means the houses are attached. Not that they're all identical.
Yes, I know what a rowhouse is, and I know there are a variety of iterations of rowhouse. I have been to all those neighborhoods except the Back Bay, which I have seen pictures of. I still prefer detached dense houses, two and three flats, railroad apartments, etc. Its a preference. And, it bears noting, we are not talking about Boston, DC of Brooklyn. We are comparing midwest architectural vernacular.
I like the start of your list, but to put KC above Milwaukee or St. Louis is wrong, wrong, wrong, IMO. Cincy, Detroit and Cleveland though, are beautiful beautiful cities (yes, I said it)!
That's odd, because residential architecture in KC is nearly identical to Detroit, there's just less of it, though it seems more intact, and the topography is hillier. In fact, KC's built environment is more like Cleveland (and even Cincy, north of about McMillan) than either St Louis or Milwaukee are. As a caveat, I'll admit that Milwaukee is the city I am least familiar with, the others I have traveled in extensively, but the parts of it I saw looked a lot like the blander, slightly ramshackle, working class sections of Chicago.
Well, it bears noting that there are fine examples of row houses in Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinatti.
Sure. But if one does not accept the rowhouse as the default ne plus ultra of urban residential living options, then a smattering of nice rowhouse neighborhoods (or less in some instances) becomes just one factor when considering the residential architecture of a city. And though there are certainly nice rowhouses, there are many, many more -- and maybe this is especially true in the midwest, but judging from Baltimore and Philly I don't think so -- which are just the crackerbox houses of a different generation. Crackerboxes with poor light, ill-considered layouts and little ventilation.
Either way, its just a preference, and I can tell you for certain, that you are not going to sway my opinion with mild patronizing, any more than I would be able to sway yours with reiteration.
It's funny how people from the less famous East Coast cities (Any city not called NYC, Boston, Atlanta or Miami) get all hyped out on row homes. Yo Yo Yo look at that row house yo yo yo yo I feel like I am in Paris France yo.
If you don't like row houses then you write off world class cities like San Francisco, London, Edinburg, Dublin, etc.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
