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Haha, true. I couldn't stand living in that kind of neighborhood....it'd drive me nuts, the parking alone (even with driveways). I live in a semi-detached home now, and the last 18 years of being here have driven me nuts being woken up by my neighbor and his wife screaming at each other inches away from my room lol. I don't mind living in a neighborhood that's not a strict grid, like the example I posted at the end that I liked.
I'd think a well-designed semi-detached home shouldn't have that issue, as the hallways would face the shared wall, and the bedrooms not (placed to maximize windows).
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Could be a possibility, my thought was that this was just a continuation of building dense housing in this style while using the "new" street layout and auto-orientation of the era.
I think I've seen something similar in eastern Queens, though more walkable. Some of it is that the city has less stringent max density rules than the adjacent suburbs. Something like this:
but much of the surrounding houses is detached housing on small lots. Both probably built in the 50s? This unusual looking development appears to follow some type of "garden city" model:
Hehe, back when these were built, "TOD" was just "D."
I like those houses in your grandma's area.
Classic "main street" areas have a tough time competing if there is big box convenience, and residents with cars, nearby. Shops have to find their niche.
Thanks, the houses in the area are quite historic, from an era pre-Verrazano bridge when Staten Island was about 10x less populated than it is today. Much of the island was transit oriented, especially the dense north shore and the "towns" along almost each train station on the current railway route. These areas still thrive, because they contain a lot of convenience businesses like delis, dry cleaners, pharmacies and banks next to the commuter train stations like Eltingville or Pleasant Plains.
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Originally Posted by HandsUpThumbsDown
Classic "main street" areas have a tough time competing if there is big box convenience, and residents with cars, nearby. Shops have to find their niche.
Staten Island in particular still has a lot of thriving "main street" areas around each of the train stations as I mentioned above, however the original "Main Street" shopping district on Staten Island pre-early 1970s was Port Richmond Avenue. Staten Island, NY - Google Maps
As more development occurred in the mid-island and south shore communities thanks to the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and expanded (though technically incomplete) highway and arterial network, the "Main Street" of the island became New Springville, where I grew up for the first six years of my life. My father always remembers going shopping with my grandmother on Port Richmond Avenue for school supplies, shoes, clothes, whatever. Of course, he'll always have fond memories of the New Springville shopping area too, as will I, since he worked at Sears Automotive from the mid 70s until the late 90s.
The Port Richmond area did eventually try and morph into a "modern" car oriented shopping area, while still trying to maintain some of it's old scale as can be seen here, however it has been eclipsed by the other three big shopping areas: New Springville, New Dorp shopping area, and since the mid 90's, the Charleston/Richmond Valley area.
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Originally Posted by Ohiogirl81
My house out in the Philly burbs is semi-detached as well, and I chose it mostly because it was on a large lot. I'd go nuts living on a 17-foot lot; mine is 39 feet, so while my one neighbor is attached, the other is about 20 feet away. The semi-detached homes around the corner are on 22 foot lots. It makes a huge difference -- no parking hassles, a little extra breathing room, too.
I'm also on a connected grid -- my preference because I walk outdoors for exercise -- and 2 blocks from a neighborhood commercial strip.
Neither of my neighbors scream, but they both recently got puppies.
Haha, yeah we have an okay-sized lot, and the noise levels really aren't too much of the issue like I made it out to be...my neighbors can get pretty heated though, and I bet people across the street could hear them too. My house is on a 25' wide by 100' deep lot (built 1965), parking is okay in this area but every household has about 2-3 cars so we have to squeeze. It also sucks that everyone but us has a 2 car driveway, since we have a retaining wall to one side, but we manage to squeeze 2 even 3 cars in without blocking the sidewalk or parking on the grass....I used to work valet. I won't post my exact house on a public messageboard, but it's essentially the same as this house with the pole in front.
I'd think a well-designed semi-detached home shouldn't have that issue, as the hallways would face the shared wall, and the bedrooms not (placed to maximize windows).
I think I've seen something similar in eastern Queens, though more walkable. Some of it is that the city has less stringent max density rules than the adjacent suburbs. Something like this:
but much of the surrounding houses is detached housing on small lots. Both probably built in the 50s? This unusual looking development appears to follow some type of "garden city" model:
Forest Hills gardens is much nicer looking, and more expensive.
I was slightly over-exaggerating the noise levels in my house, it's not really noticeable that someone is even there 99% of the time, I've just grown up being used to it and the fact that there are no windows on one side of my house. Our house is also set up as you said, the hallways are against the shared wall.
Your second link looks like the standard layout Le Corbusier "garden city" apartments of that era in the city, though much lower in height they almost resemble something out of Los Angeles.
I think both examples were ways in which developers attempted to keep "density" but adapted for larger automobile ownership.
I'd think a well-designed semi-detached home shouldn't have that issue, as the hallways would face the shared wall, and the bedrooms not (placed to maximize windows).
In my house, the hall and staircase "insulate" only one bedroom from the attached house. The walls are pretty thick, and minus the puppy I don't hear much else: kitchen chairs scraping on the floor, the occasional thump or bang, but no voices.
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This unusual looking development appears to follow some type of "garden city" model:
The area with the circular streets is Morrell Park, a development from around 1960, I think. (the Torresdale section of Philadelphia itself is much older, and was once a wealthy railroad suburb)
I live in Northeast Philadelphia. Whoever came up with the idea about the development being for minorities was way, way off.
Mayfair, the newer parts of Holmesburg, the newer parts of Tacony, and the neighborhoods farther north were postwar boom neighborhoods. They were built from about 39 up through the 60s and bought up by young white couples moving north out of Frankford, Kensington, South Philly. This was their moving to the burbs - the new neighborhoods had garages and small lawns, and much wider streets. These neighborhoods were very white until the 80s.
When it comes to the bulk of rowhomes in the Northeast, there are airlights and straight thrus. Airlights have rooms only at the front and back of the houses, so that all rooms have windows (bathrooms are central but have a skylight.) They come in 16 and 18 foot widths, all standard depth. Garage at the back of the basement, fronting an alley. STraight thrus are generally a bit older, weren't built past 1940ish, and have three rooms in a line, so the middle rooms are dark and have no window. The square footage on these is larger, but the layout is old fashioned and cramped.
I can't say why Philadelphia stayed with the rowhome format so much longer than other cities. It was a surprise to me when I moved here, but I have come to appreciate the quality of the home as opposed to modern tract stick built homes, and certainly Levittown nearly-prefabs.
I live in Northeast Philadelphia. Whoever came up with the idea about the development being for minorities was way, way off.
Mayfair, the newer parts of Holmesburg, the newer parts of Tacony, and the neighborhoods farther north were postwar boom neighborhoods. They were built from about 39 up through the 60s and bought up by young white couples moving north out of Frankford, Kensington, South Philly. This was their moving to the burbs - the new neighborhoods had garages and small lawns, and much wider streets. These neighborhoods were very white until the 80s.
When it comes to the bulk of rowhomes in the Northeast, there are airlights and straight thrus. Airlights have rooms only at the front and back of the houses, so that all rooms have windows (bathrooms are central but have a skylight.) They come in 16 and 18 foot widths, all standard depth. Garage at the back of the basement, fronting an alley. STraight thrus are generally a bit older, weren't built past 1940ish, and have three rooms in a line, so the middle rooms are dark and have no window. The square footage on these is larger, but the layout is old fashioned and cramped.
I can't say why Philadelphia stayed with the rowhome format so much longer than other cities. It was a surprise to me when I moved here, but I have come to appreciate the quality of the home as opposed to modern tract stick built homes, and certainly Levittown nearly-prefabs.
Thanks for the information! My guess would be that they were just used to that more traditional urban building model, and were trying to adapt it to the "new" (at the time) design trend of building more so for the convenience of the automobile, while still maintaining an urban feel.
While I do find that their construction is probably pretty durable compared to some early Levittown-type tract homes, the density and blandness do give off a bleak and uneasy feeling to me, just looking at them. I couldn't imagine living there, reminds me of some of the more suburban and newer looking townhouse developments in my hometown of Staten Island..
The second link above is downright tenement-feeling to me, I've run many deliveries in that maze, gotten lost and cannot believe the ridiculous density of units in the little enclaves or whatever they are. It was originally built to house US Navy families in the '90s, however that plan fell through when our Navy homeport was closed down in 1994.
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I won't post my exact house on a public messageboard, but it's essentially the same as 
