San Antonio to Pittsburgh

[safak]

Originally Posted by eschaton

There's a big difference in terms of "cookie cutter" between 19th century neighborhoods and early 20th century ones. In the 19th century building on an industrial scale wasn't really a thing yet, You did sometimes get buildings in twos and threes, or maybe a longer string of attached rowhouses. But the "entire block looks identical" thing didn't really spring up until after 1900 - at least in Pittsburgh.

We will have to agree to disagree on that. Like I said, the high end ones are one thing but medium/low ends are the same deal.
Kinda funny trying to think what was built before 1900.. Almost all of bloomfield right? Is that not cookie cutter because some of the squares are slightly different sizes?
North side, mostly the same deal though tons of demo and renovation . Trying to think the east end, Shadyside wasn't really there. That little 'historic district' in Highland Park/East Lib was pre 1900 barely..all the same exact house down both sides.

[PGH423]

Originally Posted by Katarina Witt

I find that first paragraph to be an urban legend. It's been around forever, too. My parents used to say that back in the 1960s. " They don't build them like they used to". In many cases that's good. Better insulation, windows, plumbing, wiring, etc.


The homes in old neighborhoods are the same few styles as well. They've been updated, have mature landscaping and so forth. I call them 'decorated cookies'.

There is some truth to what you're saying. Often a few basic structures get repeated but I believe there is usually a lot of variation in the brick or stone work in a way that you don't see now.

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by safak

We will have to agree to disagree on that. Like I said, the high end ones are one thing but medium/low ends are the same deal.
Kinda funny trying to think what was built before 1900.. Almost all of bloomfield right? Is that not cookie cutter because some of the squares are slightly different sizes?
North side, mostly the same deal though tons of demo and renovation . Trying to think the east end, Shadyside wasn't really there. That little 'historic district' in Highland Park/East Lib was pre 1900 barely..all the same exact house down both sides.

If you're curious, you can look here. Then turn on the layers showing the different ages. To summarize, most all of the rowhouse neighborhoods were built out by 1890. The East End's grand foursquares were not however. That stuff filled in between around 1895 and 1915 very rapidly. The houses look so samey because even if they weren't "kit" houses they were constructed based upon existing sets of blueprints which were copied repeatedly with minor variations.

Regardless, there are actually very few streets in Pittsburgh at all like Blair Street in Hazelwood, where an entire block is taken up by identical rowhouses. Part of that is due to loss via blight, but we never had the scale of industrial building during that period that Philly or NYC did, where entire neighborhoods could be comprised of essentially a single home.

[PGH423]

I thought we were mostly talking about single family homes. I definitely expect less variation in row houses. That said, I still think in the late 1800s/early 1900s, there was more architectural variation than there is in today's townhouses.