Quote:
Originally Posted by T. Damon
As an architect and historical house junkie, I am familiar with this distinctly American, Philadelphian phenomenon that has for me, a much more solid architectural and historical building form than the otherwise similar building that is commonly bastardized with hideous vinyl siding (Triple Decker) in the Boston area.
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Well no architect here LOL. But basic Philly rows under the term - bastardized (I don't fully agree) has plain walls of brick rows having residents over the decades want to add distinction to their homes that might have merely 12-feet of frontage that otherwise are indistinguishable from each other ..... you needed to look for the door and address to find or at least different door colors.
They sometimes painted Brick in different colors, added awnings, sometimes a narrow porch if they could. All to add individuality to a small foot-print on a whole block. These common mass produced blocks of rows were not given much in craftsmanship features with extras .... some higher-end rows could have and other styles of houses they built in them eras.
So given this brick painted and added awnings might be -bastardizing in some standards too (like siding)? Oh .... they too used siding and the on decorative feature they were given? Might have been their top eaves. That many ended up being covered up too by aluminum and vinyl.
Of course, many times full gentrification sandblast the brick back to original look and removes added awnings or porch-like added features. Creating a wall of mostly plain brick again.
As for Boston Triple-Decker's not brick. If they had fancy decorative wooden shingle work covered by siding? It might be a -bastardized instead of restoring it? But decades of upkeep and painting still had most similar wood siding. Merely covered in aluminum then vinyl. Again, a insulation sheathing and wall blown in insulation could be added and covered over for a low-maintenance cover. Many Triple-Decker's were NOT Covering up decorative features? But similar wood siding. Of course ... it could some.
So unless some decorative woodwork was actually covered or removed? It is not bastardizing to me.
* Interesting link on Boston area housing and how homes originally built more plain? Were bastardized (I would not say that) by adding Victorian decorative features and how late 19-cdntury was already mass-producing decorative features a remodeler could add or newer Triple-Decker's could incorporate in designs that were earlier restricted for the upper-class homes.
Victorian Houses in Jeffries Point » Terrace Place
from the link that includes Triple-Decker examples too:
- Toward the end of the 19th century, factories began mass producing house parts. Builders and homeowners could simply look through a catalog and choose from a wide variety of affordable decorative bits
to add to the front of a house. With all sorts of decorative house parts readily available, builders started adding more and more elaborate details.
- With inexpensive, factory-produced house parts readily available, these builders added a wide range of decorative elements to their triple deckers – elaborately paneled window bays, scrolled brackets under the eaves, carved garland and wreath decorations, fluted pillars to support the front porch, palladian windows. So many of these decorated triple deckers were built across Boston that people began to think of them as commonplace. But recently there’s been a revival of interest in these buildings. They’ve stood the test of time, providing affordable housing and multigenerational living arrangements to Bostonians for over a century.
And with their elaborate decorative details, they deliver character in spades, making up an important part of the charm of many of Boston’s historic neighborhoods,
- Earlier Victorian efforts to provide housing for poor and working people were often philanthropic ventures –
rich people designing and building low income housing. At the time, these rich philanthropists
thought that adding decorative elements to low income housing was morally wrong, even unhealthy for the people who lived there. As a result, many of these early low income houses were incredibly plain, completely devoid of decoration. But by the time triple deckers were being built in Jeffries Point for working class immigrant families, many of the neighborhood’s builders were recent immigrants themselves. Unlike the wealthy philanthropists who proceeded them, these immigrant builders paid attention to what their customers wanted – and, unsurprisingly, it turned out that poor and working people liked living in fashionable houses just as much as rich people.
ADDING Victorian additions were NOT common for Philly common brick late 19th and early 20th century rows. Painting and awnings were over the years. Some may have added shutters to look more colonial?
*Now THIS DOESN'T TAKE AWAY from more elaborate higher-end Gilded-age rows in neighborhoods of Philly and suburbs and Double-homes to quaint Colonial era examples. Or those that used stone and had more craftsman features of their era. JUST COMMON ROWS FOR THE MASSES.... were kept simple with less decorative features as most were built assembly-line fashion by bulk common materials.
The most important reasoning? Was build them quick and as cheap as possible ..... so mill workers could afford them. With still profits for speculators and builders after selling them to these masses.
I personally find blocks of same row of basically just a plain brick front? ACTUALLY, DRESSED-UP BY AWNINGS and even paint, as it adds COLOR they did not have and individual distinction to your 12-15-feet of ...... SAYING THIS IS MY HOME and I CAN SAY MINE HAS THE GREEN AWNING and this COLOR BRICK.
I applaud LA and Chicago bungalows of the era for COMMONLY adding Frank Lloyd Wright and Tiffany inspired features, to basic bungalows over building row-homes in their cities. They were preserved well. Especially Chicago's that were brick and RARELY EVER CHANGED exteriors look, but for some that added to the second level floor-space or their backs a extension.
Fronts remained the same. So little claims to -bastardizing of them.
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