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07-09-2009, 07:41 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Dec 2008
849 posts, read 427,003 times
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Well, yes, sometimes the roads get wider, but it seems in much of PA the homes are generally closer to the roads and closer together than neighborhoods of equivalent age in NY/New England at least. And that seems to be the case not only in coal patch towns, but also for older market towns and even for farmhouses.
I agree it's a good functional explanation for many of the coal patch towns built into the side of a hill with walkout basements each one with a coal chute to make it easy for the wagon driving by. That's not limited to western PA, that's pretty noticeable in, say, Williamstown, Dauphin County, and certainly up in some places in Schuylkill County and the Wyoming Valley too.
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10-05-2009, 09:30 AM
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English Teacher in Japan
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Japan
2,289 posts, read 1,177,688 times
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That's interesting people attribute it more to Western Pennsylvania...particularly with the coal references. Very interesting.
It is quite unique, and I'm a big fan of it. It's also so odd how it seems unique to Pennsylvania, I have just never noticed it anywhere else in any other of the other 49 states.
It shows a bit closer connection to Europe, to me. Perhaps Pennsylvania Dutch...it is similar in the Netherlands?
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10-05-2009, 11:09 AM
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Senior Member
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
That's interesting people attribute it more to Western Pennsylvania...particularly with the coal references. Very interesting.
It is quite unique, and I'm a big fan of it. It's also so odd how it seems unique to Pennsylvania, I have just never noticed it anywhere else in any other of the other 49 states.
It shows a bit closer connection to Europe, to me. Perhaps Pennsylvania Dutch...it is similar in the Netherlands?
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I think it's unique too. I had never thought of the coal truck angle. However I notice the tendency much more strongly in the Eastern PA anthracite coal fields.
It's also stronger in Eastern PA non-patch communities without the exposed basement/coal bin explanation.
Strangely I don't notice the close house/row house thing quite so much in the Holland "Dutch" areas in the Hudson Valley (NY/extreme NE NJ), except in the old port towns themselves. Not so much in the old rural crossroads where you see closer houses in southeast PA.
Of course "Pennsylvania Dutch" is south German/Swiss, i.e. "Deutsch", not Netherlands or even North German "Dutch".
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10-05-2009, 11:18 AM
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English Teacher in Japan
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Japan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ki0eh
Strangely I don't notice the close house/row house thing quite so much in the Holland "Dutch" areas in the Hudson Valley (NY/extreme NE NJ), except in the old port towns themselves. Not so much in the old rural crossroads where you see closer houses in southeast PA.
Of course "Pennsylvania Dutch" is south German/Swiss, i.e. "Deutsch", not Netherlands or even North German "Dutch".
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Ah, the "Deutsch"! - German for German.
I guess it's quickly showing that I'm not a Pennsylvanian! |
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10-05-2009, 01:12 PM
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Senior Member
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
I guess it's quickly showing that I'm not a Pennsylvanian!
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I'm not from PA either - which might be why we both notice how close the houses are to the road and the natives don't seem to know what we're talking about!  |
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10-07-2009, 06:28 AM
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English Teacher in Japan
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Japan
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ki0eh
I'm not from PA either - which might be why we both notice how close the houses are to the road and the natives don't seem to know what we're talking about! |
Yes, and if PA people traveled more, we'd be seeing other forums with 'how come the houses are so far away from the road in ___' type of threads
I think you and I are the ONLY ones interested in this topic. I think it looks cool too! |
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10-08-2009, 08:39 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Sunbury PA, hour north of Harrisburg
114 posts, read 406,643 times
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Back in the day setting on the front porch was everything. You greeted your neighbors this way. It was an event- a past time. No AC- no TV. Then come in to the parlor to visit where perhaps mom made some home made pie.
Brooklyn and Mass, I noticed the same thing.
Back in the day house were built well. I mean my place will survive a nuke and could outlast some of the newer homes.
Consider the ornate wood trim then wrap around porches- turots- and columns.
BAck then America was the engine of the world. Where as today- America is a fading power....
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10-08-2009, 02:30 PM
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Please?
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Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Cinti expatriate in Phila.
5,919 posts, read 4,800,785 times
Reputation: 3652
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer
Yes, and if PA people traveled more, we'd be seeing other forums with 'how come the houses are so far away from the road in ___' type of threads
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I've visited nearly every state in the union and lived in three other states, and I still have no idea what the hell you're talking about! |
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