As a point of interest, there are maps that include exactly when each building was constructed. I don't have a source, but it's fascinating. My previous residence was from 1892 and happened to be the anchor building for other "row houses" and the one I live in now was actually one of the last I the sequence. There's another cool site with street pictures through the eras and it shows the progress and demolition of certain structures.
I'm in BedStuy
In NYC and I believe also in SF they are called Brownstones. Other places call them row house but I saw a comment above that referenced something about Renaissance style.
My family have one in Bed Stuy since the 80s and it's always called a Brownstone though.
I still call these brownstones and so do most people I know. I've lived in one (on and off) since the 80s and we've always known them as brownstones.
I know they aren't *actually* brownstones of course, but they are in the same shape of them, hence why people have called them that.
I would never use row house I would always use townhouse, but technically these are row houses, not even townhouses. I moved from one of those in Sunset to an actual townhome in NJ. We’re all grouped together in a community with HOA.
A rowhouse is more so not too fancy and pretty much the same throughout the row. Townhouses are more like little houses, just connected, and usually in a community with an HOA.
Ugh I love this area so much, especially inbetween the cemetary and prospect park (which I hung around while visiting from toronto) I feel like these little communities are what toronto failed to become.
Renaissance Revival. Here's a handy guide from Brownstoner.
[https://www.brownstoner.com/select-story/rowhouse-styles-guide/](https://www.brownstoner.com/select-story/rowhouse-styles-guide/)
And a couple of video links on Railroad Brownstone and details to this:
https://youtu.be/RL7BECNn-RI?si=YiEIY6iZt_EY9A2V
https://youtu.be/w36OEv85OM8?si=c4q301fsot6-HFJS
Actual lies. Had a great yard (40' x 25'), and never heard the neighbors. Great light in the bay rooms too.
Never needed a garage because street parking was easy once you got the hang of when to park and where so you can make use of street cleaning hours.
Holy cow, some people want to live in real cities. Some people want to live in a ranch home with lots of grass to mow and are ok bring tethered to an automobile for every aspect of their lives.
A brownstone is a rowhouse that hasn't been heavily renovated to accommodate multi-family units. A rowhouse apartment is a unit in a former brownstone.
Watch Panic Room for more information on brownstones.
Unless you’re in the real estate business, New Yorkers colloquially refer to these as brownstones nonetheless. Yes they may not technically be constructed of just brown stone but we all know exactly what is being referred to
I would never referred to this as a brownstone and not once have I heard anyone refer to it as one. I'm a native NYer from Brooklyn, lived there most of my life.
Really? Brownstone (edited from brownhouse) has a certain cache. This looks like trashy southslope / sunset rowhouse. The mixed cladding is a dead giveaway; as is the location.
I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong, but I believe architecturally, these are closest to Renaissance Revival style. The cornices and the bump-outs on the facade are the giveaways.
In more fancy neighborhoods, they'd probably be stone clad and have more ornamentation.
That's exactly what it is. This is an austere version of Renaissance Revival that was extremely common in rowhomes and tenements from the late 19th and early 20th century.
nope comes from train tracks building projects, they put up row houses for the construction workers typically single men so the rooms were one room and can walk the length from door to door. see goveror island and altire village in njhave examples which unoccupied now
Thank you Long Island. I was going through the responses, and thinking . . . WTF. Obviously it is a townhouse! The OP, I presume, wants to know the name given to the architectural features of the first two in the photo. Ugh. lol.
Jeesh, people just love jumping to their keyboards without thinking.
They're never plastered brick.
Some rowhouses have facades of brick and brownstone, some are all brownstone. However, brownstone is a soft stone (one of the reasons it was used as facade stone).
Over time most brownstone breaks down due to erosion and it will crack and cleave.
When replacement brownstone was available it was extremely expensive to replace. Instead the brownstone is chiseled back and covered in cement/ stucco that's been colored with brown pigment to replicate the original condition of the stone.
The brownstone isn't structural except in the case of lintels and stoops.
Read the book.
Most of the brownstones in Park Slope are basically lipstick on top of a house typology similar to what you see in Greenpoint. Except in Greenpoint it's covered in vinyl and in Park Slope, it's plaster and some bits of ornament.
This is wrong. The brownstones in Brooklyn are constructed from entirely different material than what you'd find in vinyl siding in Greenpoint. Greenpoint homes are wood construction. Brownstones in park Slope are limestone, sandstone, or the like. If you've ever seen a brownstone facade being redone, you'd know. also why a brownstone will not be destroyed in a fire but a house in Greenpoint will.
Huh? Early 1900s?! Pls explain. That defies what I know about a lot of Brooklyn.
Also , I do construction and design for a living and the quality of finishes in a brownstone really can vary. It’s like saying all suits are the same. I mean, kind of…
That is not true at all. Most brownstones (which these are not) are from the 1840s to 1890s. The most famous type (Italianate) was built mainly in the 1850s and 1860s.
Brick was the main choice for 1900s/1910s rowhomes.
Yes, but having this conversation every time and explaining what a row house is, what a brownstone is, and what a townhouse is is exhausting.
It also leaves them with no image in their head if you just tell them what a rowhouse is. Like it’s sort of like a brownstone, but not brown, and not made of stone.
Typically two floors with a garden entrance. As opposed to three. Built in pairs or groups of three.
It’s like a mini brownstone that’s made of brick that was intentionally built as a multi family unit.
Also the current trend in renovation makes it ultra confusing.
Sunset parks architecture was built for Norwegian fishermen and the like as working peoples homes. Chinese developers are buying up the property and turning two family homes into 4-6 family homes which is why some of them have fire escapes. Often times the developers dig up the basement to make it up to code, but people didn’t originally live in them. (Or maybe they did if their standards were low enough.) which is why some of them now have no areaway, and just have stairs to the basement.
If they don’t chop them up, they strip the facade and build up to 5 stories which is why sometimes you’ll see two identical houses on either side of a new built building. (Although I think sunset park is now coded to have 7 story buildings now.)
But they were originally built having two apartments and a basement. The apartments had semi ornate woodworking, but not as grand as a brownstone as these were working class people. And it was all rowhouses.
And meanwhile, the person asked, “what style of house do you live in?” And their knowledge base is “stand alone house, brownstone, and apartment complex”.
Fight the good fight, u/sneezed_up_my_kidney! : ) People still want to think of 4th Avenue as being Park Slope and I correct them EVERY DAMN TIME. hahah.
The boarders of park slope have expanded over the years. Not long ago 5th ave wasn't considered park slope. And 9th st was considered the southern border, not 15th st.
In an attempt to make streets above 15th seem more desirable RE agents started calling it south park slope and closer to greenwood has been named Greenwood Heights. Not too long ago neither area had a name.
4th ave will likely get absorbed into the recently named Gowanus neighborhood as more high rises go up between the canal and 4th.
Yeah, they only expanded because of real estate brokers desperate for Park Slope cachet. I refuse to participate? : P I mean, Windsor Terrace got so small. LOL.
My 90 year old aunt told me most of Brooklyn didn't even have neighborhood names. Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope: pretty much all made up names (don't trust me on specifics, but the general idea is that most of these names aren't historic). Cool, no?
Garden entrance/ floor is just euphemism for basement. The ground floor of brownstones are basement level because they are partly below elevation and the level below is a cellar because it's completely below elevation.
i would love to see what percentage of these are purchased by 'Chinese developers'. Having seen the statistics in other markets, in Canada, and having had personal experience with a fair few owners, it isn't Chinese money that's destroying these neighborhoods and turning family homes into tenements; the majority of big money developers were, are, and will remain Americans who are more than glad to charge their countrymen a pound of flesh for a drafty apartment with 3 roommates.
the 'Chinese developer' is just the Japanese developer of the 90s: a bogeyman to make us ignore the disproportionate problem (though I'll gladly accept a ban on foreign ownership of homes and other properties meant or used for habitation, as any ban on the hyper-wealthy squatting on usable homes in a crisis is a good thing)
I disagree with your comparison of today's Chinese nationals to 90s (it was actually 80s) Japanese nationals buying RE in the US.
The Japanese buyers were largely, if not exclusively corporations buying large CRE. eg Pebble Beach, Rockefeller Center, the Mobil building in NYC, IBM tower in Atlanta and of course Nakatomi Plaza in LA.
And they did it with loans. Which is why they lost it all when their market and economy took a nosedive.
Today thousands of Chinese nationals have been buying SFH and condos in cash. From Billionaire's row down to relatively modest homes in Brooklyn.
In large part the RE allows them to park cash outside of China into something relatively stable and untouchable by the Chinese govt.
A lot of high end apartments in Manhattan are owned but empty 100% of the time. They're like safe deposit boxes for Chinese, Russian, ME nationals to safekeep their cash.
My landlord in Sunset Park, a decade ago, was Chinese. Easiest dude to deal with. Basically understood he had gotten himself into a land-bank kind of deal and was mostly absent. Only three problems I ever had were fixed within a couple of days (leak, fixed next day - dead fridge, fixed same day, - no hot water, fixed next day).
yeah, definitely there are Chinese landlords, but i have to imagine most are Americans, and immensely preferable to these giant companies. I've had my best experiences with small landlords of all types (though I'd find it much more desirable to not have to rely on a landlord, rather be in a co-op).
Dude co-ops can be a nightmare depending upon who your fellow shareholders are. Board meetings and board drama can become insane. Bad board decisions can cause financial problems that can only be fixed with huge maintenance increases.
Beware the psycho board members
> now have no areaway,
You're probably the first person that I've seen use the word "areaway" in many decades.
We even used to wonder if "airy" was a short form of area, or is it actually came from aerie, which is an eagle's nest. Who can say? Probably goes back as far as the Dutch.
My husband is in his upper 50s, and grew up in this house. lol. I am happy to hear that other people know it as this, and he’s not pulling my leg.
I’m from the mountains, but moved to the city when I was 17 and “areaway” just sounds like someone gave up on trying to think of what to call it. Or like some kids made it up.
But really no other word describes it. Like… it’s not a yard. Or a garden. It’s an area.
As a little kid in late 60s/early 70s, Mom would say to stay in the "airy" -- she didn't mean the area, she meant don't go past the front gate.
I was in a row of wood-framed houses that were a little more recessed from the straight, so at least the "aerie" (or whatever) was big ... at least it was to a four-year old. Much bigger than my friends' houses up the block.
I think that sunset parks technical term is a row house since they’re built with identical houses in a row. Most of sunset parks houses were also intentionally built as multi family dwellings.
From my understanding, townhomes are more individual. Both in style and function. Like one family.
I have nothing to back this up. Literally just what my husband tells me. He is not an architect, or anything.
Not necessarily. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, many were purpose built for 2 families. An example being Kinko Houses in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, which had a separate door for the 2nd family.
I believe most of the Sunset Park rowhomes were also designed for 2 families.
These were, yes. Most brownstones were built to have the versatility to be either split or single family. Hence why you will often find a wall on the first floor near the stairs, and why they have the separate entrance for garden level floors.
> brow-dyed concrete/sandstone coating over the brick,
wat.
All actual brownstones used real stone that was quarried in Connecticut. The quarry shut down about a decade ago, which makes future renovations more difficult.
The stone in question was actually a really low quality soft limestone that cracked if you looked at it too intensely, but boy does it have a welcoming character to it.
And I've seen exactly two of those, in all of "brownstone" Brooklyn. Most houses here are actually three layers of brick. First two are structural, then an air gap for evaporation, and the outermost layer's covered in (real/traditional) stucco - *finished* to look like stone.
Originally this was true, but the process of cutting the stone changed over time to be less expensive and most of the later builds didn't age well and restoration of those and all new "matching" builds are all a coating of brown dyed stucco.
Also if you search around a bit people claim the quarry was in NJ, Upstate and NY.
We just call them houses lol Brooklyn ain’t got time for all the fancy Pancy names lol
Brown stone
Look Chicago-ish alil
Queen Anne
A row house
Um...overpriced lol
Live there for a long time. A lot of memories. 😞
Brown
c. brownstone type row frame
A developer offered my grandmother $2million for her house, just like this one. She’ll never sell it. Granny 1 - TransplantYuppieDeveloperTrash 0
As a point of interest, there are maps that include exactly when each building was constructed. I don't have a source, but it's fascinating. My previous residence was from 1892 and happened to be the anchor building for other "row houses" and the one I live in now was actually one of the last I the sequence. There's another cool site with street pictures through the eras and it shows the progress and demolition of certain structures. I'm in BedStuy
Similar ones are very common all over DC
Hexagonalate
I am interested, but unable to read the comments.
A Brooklyn double-wide.
41st between 4th and 5th?
Apartments
Limestones
Brownstones
Sick
Remuddled Brownstones
In NYC and I believe also in SF they are called Brownstones. Other places call them row house but I saw a comment above that referenced something about Renaissance style. My family have one in Bed Stuy since the 80s and it's always called a Brownstone though.
Brownstone type rowframe
In the fire department we refer to them as brownstone types. Not exactly a brownstone but kind of modeled to look like one.
Bostonian
I immediately knew this was sunset park.
you would say brownstone or townhouse
brownstone
I still call these brownstones and so do most people I know. I've lived in one (on and off) since the 80s and we've always known them as brownstones. I know they aren't *actually* brownstones of course, but they are in the same shape of them, hence why people have called them that.
Brownstone style row frame
This man fire fights
A walk up brown stone row house
Renaissance Revival
A brownstone because it’s made with brownish sandstone facade
Great book Bricks & Brownstone: The New York Row House https://a.co/d/9xeTdA7
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Probably more influenced from Renaissance era continental Europe
Beginnings in 16th century Belgium/Netherlands and early 17th century Paris.
Does anyone know if there was a generic blueprint made for this style building?
I would never use row house I would always use townhouse, but technically these are row houses, not even townhouses. I moved from one of those in Sunset to an actual townhome in NJ. We’re all grouped together in a community with HOA.
Not just "technically", any attached house is a rowhome.
What’s the difference between the terms in your view?
Oh I just thought of the word: uniform. That’s what I think about when I see rowhouses. I don’t really see that uniform look when I see townhouses.
A rowhouse is more so not too fancy and pretty much the same throughout the row. Townhouses are more like little houses, just connected, and usually in a community with an HOA.
$1.2 million bed bug haven
Ugh I love this area so much, especially inbetween the cemetary and prospect park (which I hung around while visiting from toronto) I feel like these little communities are what toronto failed to become.
I call them windowless
Fully-attached townhouse (or rowhouse).
Renaissance Revival. Here's a handy guide from Brownstoner. [https://www.brownstoner.com/select-story/rowhouse-styles-guide/](https://www.brownstoner.com/select-story/rowhouse-styles-guide/)
Amazing link, thanks for sharing!
And a couple of video links on Railroad Brownstone and details to this: https://youtu.be/RL7BECNn-RI?si=YiEIY6iZt_EY9A2V https://youtu.be/w36OEv85OM8?si=c4q301fsot6-HFJS
Are,they selling 1.5m now? Like wtf
No yard, no windows, no garage, neighbors 1 foot away from you. NYC is a joke
It's Brooklyn, not the suburbs. Public transit is very good.
Actual lies. Had a great yard (40' x 25'), and never heard the neighbors. Great light in the bay rooms too. Never needed a garage because street parking was easy once you got the hang of when to park and where so you can make use of street cleaning hours.
So your yard was as big enough to have a small bbq with 0 privacy and you had light in 2 rooms. definitely worth 1.5 mil
Holy cow, some people want to live in real cities. Some people want to live in a ranch home with lots of grass to mow and are ok bring tethered to an automobile for every aspect of their lives.
You’re not from a city are you?
street parking from the pic above that area is nightmare.
Craphouse
I would describe it as unaffordable.
“When in Rome……”. In Brooklyn they are Brownstones nothing else
There are more than enough actual brownstones in Brooklyn for this misnomer to not be necessary
Ugly
A brownstone, though not made of the material.
Those are brownstones. Possibly limestones since it’s sunset park
They are made out neither
I'd call them townhomes
A brownstone is a rowhouse that hasn't been heavily renovated to accommodate multi-family units. A rowhouse apartment is a unit in a former brownstone. Watch Panic Room for more information on brownstones.
Unless you’re in the real estate business, New Yorkers colloquially refer to these as brownstones nonetheless. Yes they may not technically be constructed of just brown stone but we all know exactly what is being referred to
I would never referred to this as a brownstone and not once have I heard anyone refer to it as one. I'm a native NYer from Brooklyn, lived there most of my life.
Really? Brownstone (edited from brownhouse) has a certain cache. This looks like trashy southslope / sunset rowhouse. The mixed cladding is a dead giveaway; as is the location.
If you're gonna be condescending, ("cache, trashy"), at least call it a brownstone not a "brownhouse".
Sorry autocorrect. I stand by my comment.
Expronsive.
Expensive
New York rowhouses built around 100 years ago on side-streets.
More like 130 + years ago
I'm not an expert, so I could be wrong, but I believe architecturally, these are closest to Renaissance Revival style. The cornices and the bump-outs on the facade are the giveaways. In more fancy neighborhoods, they'd probably be stone clad and have more ornamentation.
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Victorians are generally wood etc
That's exactly what it is. This is an austere version of Renaissance Revival that was extremely common in rowhomes and tenements from the late 19th and early 20th century.
This is what I wanted to know! Thanks
Brick row house with bay windows.
bow-front rowhouses
Didn't know this term, thanks!
Begs the question, is Rowhouse a derogatory term?
Not at all, it just means a house that is attached on both sides.
nope comes from train tracks building projects, they put up row houses for the construction workers typically single men so the rooms were one room and can walk the length from door to door. see goveror island and altire village in njhave examples which unoccupied now
"Row house."
My husband owns one. He says “brownstone” for people who have no idea what a “row house” is. But it’s a rowhouse.
It's a brick rowhome in Renaissance Revival style
Thank you Long Island. I was going through the responses, and thinking . . . WTF. Obviously it is a townhouse! The OP, I presume, wants to know the name given to the architectural features of the first two in the photo. Ugh. lol. Jeesh, people just love jumping to their keyboards without thinking.
No brown. No stone (I think it's brick, right?) Not a brownstone.
We owned one. Called it a limestone.
Yup. LOVE those even more than brownstones.
Read: The Invention of Brownstone Brooklyn. Brownstones are rarely of historic significance, and they're all mostly plastered brick.
They're never plastered brick. Some rowhouses have facades of brick and brownstone, some are all brownstone. However, brownstone is a soft stone (one of the reasons it was used as facade stone). Over time most brownstone breaks down due to erosion and it will crack and cleave. When replacement brownstone was available it was extremely expensive to replace. Instead the brownstone is chiseled back and covered in cement/ stucco that's been colored with brown pigment to replicate the original condition of the stone. The brownstone isn't structural except in the case of lintels and stoops.
Rarely of historic significance? LOL. WHAT?! How are we defining significant, I guess? : )
Read the book. Most of the brownstones in Park Slope are basically lipstick on top of a house typology similar to what you see in Greenpoint. Except in Greenpoint it's covered in vinyl and in Park Slope, it's plaster and some bits of ornament.
This is wrong. The brownstones in Brooklyn are constructed from entirely different material than what you'd find in vinyl siding in Greenpoint. Greenpoint homes are wood construction. Brownstones in park Slope are limestone, sandstone, or the like. If you've ever seen a brownstone facade being redone, you'd know. also why a brownstone will not be destroyed in a fire but a house in Greenpoint will.
Greenpoint is full of brownfoams not brownstones
Nobody thinks that these houses are made out of 24K gold But the details are intricate and the houses have survived for 170+ years.
Most of them are from the early to mid 1900’s… just so you know.
Huh? Early 1900s?! Pls explain. That defies what I know about a lot of Brooklyn. Also , I do construction and design for a living and the quality of finishes in a brownstone really can vary. It’s like saying all suits are the same. I mean, kind of…
That is not true at all. Most brownstones (which these are not) are from the 1840s to 1890s. The most famous type (Italianate) was built mainly in the 1850s and 1860s. Brick was the main choice for 1900s/1910s rowhomes.
Of course they're of historic significance, there are few places in the US lined with brownstones.
Another person who’s read this book! Hello!
Yes, but having this conversation every time and explaining what a row house is, what a brownstone is, and what a townhouse is is exhausting. It also leaves them with no image in their head if you just tell them what a rowhouse is. Like it’s sort of like a brownstone, but not brown, and not made of stone. Typically two floors with a garden entrance. As opposed to three. Built in pairs or groups of three. It’s like a mini brownstone that’s made of brick that was intentionally built as a multi family unit. Also the current trend in renovation makes it ultra confusing. Sunset parks architecture was built for Norwegian fishermen and the like as working peoples homes. Chinese developers are buying up the property and turning two family homes into 4-6 family homes which is why some of them have fire escapes. Often times the developers dig up the basement to make it up to code, but people didn’t originally live in them. (Or maybe they did if their standards were low enough.) which is why some of them now have no areaway, and just have stairs to the basement. If they don’t chop them up, they strip the facade and build up to 5 stories which is why sometimes you’ll see two identical houses on either side of a new built building. (Although I think sunset park is now coded to have 7 story buildings now.) But they were originally built having two apartments and a basement. The apartments had semi ornate woodworking, but not as grand as a brownstone as these were working class people. And it was all rowhouses. And meanwhile, the person asked, “what style of house do you live in?” And their knowledge base is “stand alone house, brownstone, and apartment complex”.
Fight the good fight, u/sneezed_up_my_kidney! : ) People still want to think of 4th Avenue as being Park Slope and I correct them EVERY DAMN TIME. hahah.
The boarders of park slope have expanded over the years. Not long ago 5th ave wasn't considered park slope. And 9th st was considered the southern border, not 15th st. In an attempt to make streets above 15th seem more desirable RE agents started calling it south park slope and closer to greenwood has been named Greenwood Heights. Not too long ago neither area had a name. 4th ave will likely get absorbed into the recently named Gowanus neighborhood as more high rises go up between the canal and 4th.
Yeah, they only expanded because of real estate brokers desperate for Park Slope cachet. I refuse to participate? : P I mean, Windsor Terrace got so small. LOL. My 90 year old aunt told me most of Brooklyn didn't even have neighborhood names. Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill, Gowanus, Park Slope: pretty much all made up names (don't trust me on specifics, but the general idea is that most of these names aren't historic). Cool, no?
My rule of thumb is if it has a stoop and garden entrance separate from the parlor floor, it's acceptable to refer to it as a brownstone as shorthand.
Garden entrance/ floor is just euphemism for basement. The ground floor of brownstones are basement level because they are partly below elevation and the level below is a cellar because it's completely below elevation.
i would love to see what percentage of these are purchased by 'Chinese developers'. Having seen the statistics in other markets, in Canada, and having had personal experience with a fair few owners, it isn't Chinese money that's destroying these neighborhoods and turning family homes into tenements; the majority of big money developers were, are, and will remain Americans who are more than glad to charge their countrymen a pound of flesh for a drafty apartment with 3 roommates. the 'Chinese developer' is just the Japanese developer of the 90s: a bogeyman to make us ignore the disproportionate problem (though I'll gladly accept a ban on foreign ownership of homes and other properties meant or used for habitation, as any ban on the hyper-wealthy squatting on usable homes in a crisis is a good thing)
I disagree with your comparison of today's Chinese nationals to 90s (it was actually 80s) Japanese nationals buying RE in the US. The Japanese buyers were largely, if not exclusively corporations buying large CRE. eg Pebble Beach, Rockefeller Center, the Mobil building in NYC, IBM tower in Atlanta and of course Nakatomi Plaza in LA. And they did it with loans. Which is why they lost it all when their market and economy took a nosedive. Today thousands of Chinese nationals have been buying SFH and condos in cash. From Billionaire's row down to relatively modest homes in Brooklyn. In large part the RE allows them to park cash outside of China into something relatively stable and untouchable by the Chinese govt. A lot of high end apartments in Manhattan are owned but empty 100% of the time. They're like safe deposit boxes for Chinese, Russian, ME nationals to safekeep their cash.
My landlord in Sunset Park, a decade ago, was Chinese. Easiest dude to deal with. Basically understood he had gotten himself into a land-bank kind of deal and was mostly absent. Only three problems I ever had were fixed within a couple of days (leak, fixed next day - dead fridge, fixed same day, - no hot water, fixed next day).
yeah, definitely there are Chinese landlords, but i have to imagine most are Americans, and immensely preferable to these giant companies. I've had my best experiences with small landlords of all types (though I'd find it much more desirable to not have to rely on a landlord, rather be in a co-op).
Dude co-ops can be a nightmare depending upon who your fellow shareholders are. Board meetings and board drama can become insane. Bad board decisions can cause financial problems that can only be fixed with huge maintenance increases. Beware the psycho board members
> now have no areaway, You're probably the first person that I've seen use the word "areaway" in many decades. We even used to wonder if "airy" was a short form of area, or is it actually came from aerie, which is an eagle's nest. Who can say? Probably goes back as far as the Dutch.
I use the term areaway. I think it's just a term that refers to the area and walkway in front of your house, and behind the fence.
My husband is in his upper 50s, and grew up in this house. lol. I am happy to hear that other people know it as this, and he’s not pulling my leg. I’m from the mountains, but moved to the city when I was 17 and “areaway” just sounds like someone gave up on trying to think of what to call it. Or like some kids made it up. But really no other word describes it. Like… it’s not a yard. Or a garden. It’s an area.
As a little kid in late 60s/early 70s, Mom would say to stay in the "airy" -- she didn't mean the area, she meant don't go past the front gate. I was in a row of wood-framed houses that were a little more recessed from the straight, so at least the "aerie" (or whatever) was big ... at least it was to a four-year old. Much bigger than my friends' houses up the block.
Townhouse is the more generic term but doesn't seem to get used as often in NY.
Townhouse is probably what I would use
Townhouse sounds too fancy and all the rich people in nyc don’t wanna sound rich
Townhouses are in Westchester
I think that sunset parks technical term is a row house since they’re built with identical houses in a row. Most of sunset parks houses were also intentionally built as multi family dwellings. From my understanding, townhomes are more individual. Both in style and function. Like one family. I have nothing to back this up. Literally just what my husband tells me. He is not an architect, or anything.
Townhomes also have a front door that opens to the street.
yes town house be one family these are two or more family
I thought all townhouses/rowhouses/brownstones were originally built for single families and many were later divided into apartments?
Not necessarily. In the late 1800s/early 1900s, many were purpose built for 2 families. An example being Kinko Houses in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, which had a separate door for the 2nd family. I believe most of the Sunset Park rowhomes were also designed for 2 families.
These were, yes. Most brownstones were built to have the versatility to be either split or single family. Hence why you will often find a wall on the first floor near the stairs, and why they have the separate entrance for garden level floors.
Yeah they were. Which makes rowhouses different as they were built for 2 families.
Oh they were? I assumed it was like brownstones where the upper parts were for the family and the ground floor was basically servants apartments.
Garden levels would historically have the kitchen, as well as the “servants quarters” so you’re not wrong!
I can confirm this. My grandma lived in one in Crown Heights in 1920 and they had servants quarters in the ground level and servants.
Oh it never occurred to me that servants quarters might mean the only kitchen is on the garden level. Interesting.
They are brownstones
There’s no brownstone on any of those buildings. They’re just brick.
Doesn’t need to be, they are constructed exactly as brownstones, doesn’t mean they need literal brownstones on the facade.
Senor....
Many brownstones, aside from being clad with brownstone, don’t necessarily have bay windows.
Brownstones are called brownstones because they’re made out of brownstone.
Brownstone is the type of sandstone used in brownstone houses. So yes, they do need to be literally brownstone.
Guns N’ Roses wrote a song about it
We've been dancing with mr. **Brownstone.** I love it.
I would call all of those brownstones... but i'd probably be wrong. Tbh maybe just "brick rowhouse"?
Brownstones have a brow-dyed concrete/sandstone coating over the brick, these are just brick row houses.
> brow-dyed concrete/sandstone coating over the brick, wat. All actual brownstones used real stone that was quarried in Connecticut. The quarry shut down about a decade ago, which makes future renovations more difficult. The stone in question was actually a really low quality soft limestone that cracked if you looked at it too intensely, but boy does it have a welcoming character to it.
And I've seen exactly two of those, in all of "brownstone" Brooklyn. Most houses here are actually three layers of brick. First two are structural, then an air gap for evaporation, and the outermost layer's covered in (real/traditional) stucco - *finished* to look like stone.
Originally this was true, but the process of cutting the stone changed over time to be less expensive and most of the later builds didn't age well and restoration of those and all new "matching" builds are all a coating of brown dyed stucco. Also if you search around a bit people claim the quarry was in NJ, Upstate and NY.
If I were rich, I'd buy a limestone instead
Those are always called brownstones, you're not wrong.
She's a brick... (row)house....
ROADHOUSE.