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Row houses are a big thing in many parts of the USA. Today they call them townhouses.
Today, the term, townhouse, is used to describe units mimicking a detached home that are attached in a multi-unit complex.
Almost all of them, are set up as Condos. Usually 2 story, with homes connected on each side with another unit, with a Condo association.
Some of them may be lower class, but the majority are not low class living by far.
It's interesting that they're so rarely freehold in the US.
There are some condo townhouses in the Toronto area, which tend to have narrower streets (no room for street parking) and often no sidewalks since they are private streets subject to different rules. But many townhouses around Toronto are just like SFHs but with the 5-10 ft separation between homes removed.
Although it's true that the Mid-Atlantic has a lot of rowhouses too, they seems to have mostly stopped building them after the 1950s while England looks like it never stopped building them.
England did shift somewhat in the later 20th century to semi-detached and detached homes; rowhomes are found more in the old city centers.
It's interesting that they're so rarely freehold in the US.
There are some condo townhouses in the Toronto area, which tend to have narrower streets (no room for street parking) and often no sidewalks since they are private streets subject to different rules. But many townhouses around Toronto are just like SFHs but with the 5-10 ft separation between homes removed.
Wow... that streetscape consists of nothing but garages and driveways. It has the worst aspects of the modern detached home (a sea of garages and driveways) without any of the benefits of space, distance, ornamentation or individuality.
That's where people go to have their souls compacted and crushed.
The Knightsbridge photo in London mentions "Cadogan". I stayed three nights in the Cadogan Hotel years ago, and I'm wondering if that is actually the hotel where I stayed.
Do you know if that was formerly the Cadogan Hotel?
The photo is of Cadogan Place. The Belmond Cadogan hotel (formerly just the Cadogan) is on Sloane Street a few hundred feet away. It is the poshest part of London, unfortunately now mostly "occupied" by foreign landowners who do not rent out the properties, they just leave them empty and use them a few times a year.
Here in Boston, we refer to the grand connected homes in the Back Bay and Beacon Hill as townhouses whereas they might be called row houses or brownstones elsewhere. They were single family homes built for the white collar workers in the late 1800's and early 1900's. These are usually individual homes and not condos.
What some people may look at lower class are the tenements that were built for the working class in the same time frame in the North End which today is some of the most expensive real estate in the city:
Row houses versus free standing homes are based on availability of land, lifestyle, etc. There is no right or wrong answer, just preferences. Right now I am in a traditional single family home in a suburban town. But I could see myself in a townhouse at some point.
I wonder if the fact that England ran out of wood a long time ago has anything to do with the differences. They had to build out of brick masonry, so probably there was less of a risk of fires spreading. That might have meant better insulation from sound too.
Although it's true that the Mid-Atlantic has a lot of rowhouses too, they seems to have mostly stopped building them after the 1950s while England looks like it never stopped building them.
The question I'd need answered there is: Are they tearing down the old row houses and building fully detached houses in their places?
If not, then you're just looking at the effects of economics and market preference everywhere.
Where developers have attempted townhouses in areas that the economics have equally favored small or older detached homes, townhouses are typically tough resells.
I asked DH about this (he of the PhD in physics and lots of construction experience) and he said it would be very expensive to add on to a row.
Infill of this sort happens frequently in cities with a lot of rowhouses. Essentially a neighborhood goes downhill for awhile, some houses are demolished, and later on there is infill on the vacant lots. Here's an example from my old neighborhood which is definitely attached on one side.
Quote:
Originally Posted by memph
I wonder if the fact that England ran out of wood a long time ago has anything to do with the differences. They had to build out of brick masonry, so probably there was less of a risk of fires spreading. That might have meant better insulation from sound too.
Although it's true that the Mid-Atlantic has a lot of rowhouses too, they seems to have mostly stopped building them after the 1950s while England looks like it never stopped building them.
Umm, what are you talking about? As I said upthread, Rowhouses were rare in New England even in the 19th century outside of the brick core neighborhoods of Boston. New England cities were really badly affected by urban renewal in the mid 20th century, so it's hard to be certain, but there's really nothing left elsewhere but isolated streets - certainly not whole neighborhoods like Boston's South End.
Rowhouses can of course be made out of wood, but you really only find large numbers of wood rowhouses in Pittsburgh and some of the coal mining areas of Eastern Pennsylvania. Some of the oldest colonial-era buildings in New England can look a bit rowhouse-like however. They tended to always be detached, but were often built with zero setback.
Here in NJ, historic rowhome neighborhoods can be found mostly in cities influenced by Philadelphia's architecture such as Camden and Trenton, or places that were directly tied to NYC like downtown Jersey City and Hoboken. Cities like Paterson, Elizabeth, and especially Newark feature(ed) only handful of quality attached houses. Much of Newark was comprised of detached wooden houses, sometimes with very small front yards, and often of dubious quality, built in the late nineteenth century. By the early twentieth, when the city was at its zenith, construction had already moved on to detached single and multi family houses on the city's edges. Poor quality and the poverty of today's residents have left many of these neighborhoods in complete disrepair, while the detached, multi-family homes of more recent vintage are decidedly subpar.
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