Why are the houses so close to the road? (Harrisburg: live, move)

[ki0eh]

In the General U.S. forum there is a thread about what shocked you traveling to a different part of the U.S. Several posters there have remarked that they have been surprised about how close to the road homes in PA are, comparad to other parts of the U.S.

Let's hear your theories, and share your links.

[danwxman]

I assume they are talking about the older homes. That's because they were built at a time when people got around by walking or horse-drawn carriage. No need for a large front yard set back from a road full of automobiles.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

If a narrow two lane road is going thru a village, then as danwxman said there wasn't much of a yard to begin with.

But I've driven thru some remote areas of rural counties in Central Pennsylvania, and houses -- and barns, too! -- are sometimes right on the road. Driving down a paved rural road you can see dirt tracks all over the landscape for farm machinery (now) that were used for animals and carts decades ago. It looked to me like many of the paved road placements were arbitrary, often going between two farms so both had to give up a bit of land. And both owners got paid? If one farmhouse was built on the edge of the property, then the road is basically just outside the door.

I remember seeing this in New Jersey in rural areas occasionally, too. But the houses along the road were for the sharecroppers (people who lived on the property and worked the land) while the owner's home was placed far back into the property.

[BevoInPA]

I once heard it was to reduce snow removal. There are farms up here in northern York County that once had at least a hundred acres and the house is within 12' of the road.

[Pureblood]

I was always told that the older house were close to the road and usually newer ones not so close.

[ki0eh]

The older homes in the far Northern Tier, upstate NY, and New England are usually set back from the road both in town and country, often behind a line of sturdy maples. They date from horse and buggy days and they get snow too. In the mountain and valley inland South it seems the farmsteads are set well back on long lanes from the road. So I'm thinking the reasons for the higher crowding and density in southern/eastern PA must be from some element of cultural heritage.

Before I moved to the Harrisburg area I had no idea what a "semi-detached" house was. Still seems to me like being half pregnant.

[Ohiogirl81]

I would imagine that some of those houses that are so close to the road now weren't all that close to the road when the homes (and the roads) were built. Roads have gotten a tad wider over the years.

[Dawne]

I think the houses were there first, and the roads added later. The roads probably started out as cart paths or tractor paths, then were paved and eventually had to be widened to a set footage to accommodate the passing of two vehicles.

There's a local church that actually seems as though it's in someone's field. You drive off the main road and then between a house and a barn to get to the church. The house and barn have nothing to do with the church, but I'll bet at one time, years ago, the owners of the house, barn and farm were connected with, or maybe even started, the church.

[BPP1999]

I heard that the reason older homes are so close to the road was because 75-200 years ago (or however old they are), the coal was delivered from the coal truck right into the basement through a chute.

The old homes right on top of the roads are certainly nice; if we could only easily move them back to widen our roads.

[pinetar10]

old coal towns in western pa usually have houses right by the road