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Rowhomes aren't pre-automobile per se but rather pre-streetcar. In most smaller, industrial cities (Cincy, Columbus, etc) you see rowhomes all but disappear and give way to twins and bungalows as soon as trolleys became viable. Philly and Baltimore and to a lesser extent Pittsburgh are really the only places where they hung on as a housing style throughout the 20th century.
Not to be pedantic, but it was really the advent of electric streetcars which killed the rowhouse. There are plenty of examples of horsecar/cable car suburbs which were still built out as rowhouse neighborhoods in many cities.
Pittsburgh's post 1890 rowhouses are pretty scattered, outside of South Oakland, which is mostly rowhouses and was built out between then and 1910. But you more tend to see "postclassic" rowhouses which are built in small clumps in mostly detached neighborhoods.
Are you not counting San Franciscan row homes? Many of those were built around the electric streetcar, but there's often small spaces in between the homes.
Rowhomes aren't pre-automobile per se but rather pre-streetcar. In most smaller, industrial cities (Cincy, Columbus, etc) you see rowhomes all but disappear and give way to twins and bungalows as soon as trolleys became viable. Philly and Baltimore and to a lesser extent Pittsburgh are really the only places where they hung on as a housing style throughout the 20th century.
If you're discussing North America in general, Montreal kept building row homes at least as long as Philly. The OP is from England where rowhomes were common for much of the 20 century, though they decreased in popularity from the 20s onward. This neighborhood just outside of San Francisco was built in the late 20s:
same city, mid 50s detached tract homes. Not really that different, just bigger setback. Lot size is larger than the first view 3400 sq ft vs 2900 sq ft if zillow is accurate. The neighborhood of the second view is the inspiration for the "tacky boxes" song. According to zillow, a tacky box can be yours for $600,000!
Some of the southwest was influenced a lot by Spanish architecture. Maybe that's why? How interesting though, I didn't realize there weren't rowhouses in Seattle and San Diego and places like that.
Not to be pedantic, but it was really the advent of electric streetcars which killed the rowhouse. There are plenty of examples of horsecar/cable car suburbs which were still built out as rowhouse neighborhoods in many cities.
Meh, I enjoy pedantry but I think your point is mostly irrelevant here. In part because I used streetcar and trolley interchangeably ('trolley pole' being the name of the device which collects electricity from the overhead wire) and they're common and modern enough terms in north america that one can use one without having to distinguish them from obsolete technologies or archaic usages . . . but mostly because there are a handful of examples of horsecar suburbs in the entire US. But they were never really mass transit in the way we would think of it today. It was a convenient way for the elite to get around but the working man was still walking home from work and as long as he was walking then rowhomes (or some other, denser style of housing) were a necessity.
If you're discussing North America in general, Montreal kept building row homes at least as long as Philly. The OP is from England where rowhomes were common for much of the 20 century, though they decreased in popularity from the 20s onward. This neighborhood just outside of San Francisco was built in the late 20s:
Fair enough. I wasn't really thinking of Canada but I wasn't trying to be exclusive by listing a few mid-atlantic cities.
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same city, mid 50s detached tract homes. Not really that different, just bigger setback. Lot size is larger than the first view 3400 sq ft vs 2900 sq ft if zillow is accurate. The neighborhood of the second view is the inspiration for the "tacky boxes" song. According to zillow, a tacky box can be yours for $600,000!
The rowhouse is still quite popular in most cities and a lot of suburbs - we just call them townhouses now.
Rowhomes aren't pre-automobile per se but rather pre-streetcar. In most smaller, industrial cities (Cincy, Columbus, etc) you see rowhomes all but disappear and give way to twins and bungalows as soon as trolleys became viable. Philly and Baltimore and to a lesser extent Pittsburgh are really the only places where they hung on as a housing style throughout the 20th century.
There are very few styles of rowhome where a lack of windows is an issue. I think what you're talking about in B'klyn is just because someone moved a wall so they could break up a house into apartments.
They airlite style from the 50s/60s that is common in Philly and Baltimore are only two rooms deep and a lot of the working class rows from the late 1800s are the same but most older rows that are more than 1200 s/f (3 bedrooms) are "L" shaped . . . meaning that they might share an entire wall with the neighbors to the right but with the neighbors on the left only the front rooms share a wall. Two neighboring houses might be 16 ft. wide at the front but in the back they're only 14 ft. wide and there's a 4 ft. wide breezeway between them.
For example - you can see the 3-bedroom houses with the breezeway in the back and the 2 bedroom houses behind them with no breezeway.
Well, I didn't say these cities had NO rowhouses, just that they're not noted for their rowhouses. Denver has rowhouses, FWIW.
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Originally Posted by nei
Are you not counting San Franciscan row homes? Many of those were built around the electric streetcar, but there's often small spaces in between the homes.
Maybe we need to define "rowhouse" then. Denver has homes like that.
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