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TRIVIA: The first IKEA in the U.S. opened in Philadelphia in 1985, and today, Philadelphia is where the U.S. headquarters are located. The second IKEA opened in Washington D.C. in 1986, and the third opened in Baltimore in 1987. The fourth? Pittsburgh in 1989. Take that, New York!
Ikea chose Philly for their first US store out of various reasons. Many of those discounting NYC simply had to do with finding proper space to suit purposes. When Ikea finally did open in NYC area store was located in Elizabeth, NJ. NYC proper wouldn't get an Ikea store until former dockyards space along Brooklyn waterfront was redeveloped.
Back Bay, Boston is went up over landfill in 1859, it really is a bay filled in by land which explains all the rats.
Victorian through Edwardian period saw an explosion of similar development not just in Boston but NYC, and many other urban areas not only in USA but Britain and elsewhere.
Brooklyn Heights was once billed as one of if not the first suburb in USA. Area existed during colonial times and there are still traces of that about.
That Brooklyn Heights block in the Wikipedia article photo is the closest thing I've seen to the kind of streetscape I've been talking about.
But its architectural style is not quite Colonial.
It's not the isolated Colonial buildings but the unified Colonial streetscapes that I and others maintain New York lacks. So far, I have yet to see evidence refuting my assertion.
That Brooklyn Heights block in the Wikipedia article photo is the closest thing I've seen to the kind of streetscape I've been talking about.
But its architectural style is not quite Colonial.
It's not the isolated Colonial buildings but the unified Colonial streetscapes that I and others maintain New York lacks. So far, I have yet to see evidence refuting my assertion.
Do you mean actually colonial? There's not that much of it in any of the Acela metros. Some other poster cited Back Bay, but Back Bay didn't even exist as land during the colonial period. Georgetown has several buildings, but certainly dwarfed by the much greater number of 19th century buildings. Old City is maybe the best bet.
Do you mean actually colonial? There's not that much of it in any of the Acela metros. Some other poster cited Back Bay, but Back Bay didn't even exist as land during the colonial period. Georgetown has several buildings, but certainly dwarfed by the much greater number of 19th century buildings. Old City is maybe the best bet.
As that last Street View shows, the neighborhood's housing is not uniformly Colonial in style; on some blocks, Colonial and contemporary play nice with each other, as they do here and here. After all, cities are living organisms, and neighborhoods change their appearance all the time. But the 18th-century Colonial/early-19th-century Federal aesthetic sets the tone for Society Hill in a way I've seen in no New York City neighborhood — or any other Philadelphia neighborhood, or any Boston neighborhood outside Beacon Hill, or anywhere in Washington save some residential streets in Georgetown.
As that last Street View shows, the neighborhood's housing is not uniformly Colonial in style; on some blocks, Colonial and contemporary play nice with each other, as they do here and here. After all, cities are living organisms, and neighborhoods change their appearance all the time. But the 18th-century Colonial/early-19th-century Federal aesthetic sets the tone for Society Hill in a way I've seen in no New York City neighborhood — or any other Philadelphia neighborhood, or any Boston neighborhood outside Beacon Hill, or anywhere in Washington save some residential streets in Georgetown.
Not quite what Society Hill has though since there's no cobblestone streets and there have generally been teardowns and replacements of some homes over the ages. The closest is probably South Street Seaport for a block of them alongside cobblestone streets: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7074...8192?entry=ttu
There's a very nice Federal row right around the corner from your first street view. These are indeed in the neighborhood.
BTW, I added a view of Elfreth's Alley in Old City to my prior post after you responded. You might want to take a look at it. But again, that's one block in a mid-19th-century commercial neighborhood, a true historic artifact whose residents are committed to its preservation.
Ikea chose Philly for their first US store out of various reasons. Many of those discounting NYC simply had to do with finding proper space to suit purposes. When Ikea finally did open in NYC area store was located in Elizabeth, NJ. NYC proper wouldn't get an Ikea store until former dockyards space along Brooklyn waterfront was redeveloped.
I was speaking in terms of metropolitan areas, not cities proper. The Philadelphia IKEA opened in Plymouth Meeting in 1985. The Washington D.C. IKEA opened in Woodbridge in 1986. The Baltimore IKEA opened in Nottingham in 1987. The Pittsburgh IKEA opened in Robinson Township in 1989. All of those metropolitan areas still had IKEA before their store opened in Elizabeth in 1990.
In NYCs defense, running back a few pages, what cities actually have through running? I cant name one off of the top of my head.
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