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instantcoffee69 t1_j9hvaqj wrote

Rowhome

Got to make a house a home.

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S-Kunst t1_j9j2ui3 wrote

Historically Baltimore has not used the suburban term "Town Home" or "Town House" for their row houses. This is because Town home was reserved for the rich who maintained a country home and a city home. The recent use of town house was a term coined by the real estate market to give the public the idea that their now "attached houses" were not city houses. Another use of the term "town home" or "City house" is for a narrow two story frame house that fit on a deep, narrow lot.

Semidetached is what Baltimore calls their "duplex" houses. These are a great alternative to the row house, as it gives windows on all the rooms in the house. Yet Baltimore builders did not built them in the same numbers as the row house.

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UptownHiFi t1_j9j77lr wrote

I would consider the detached houses in the 2600 block of St Paul Street to fit your second definition of townhouse even though they are brick.

On another note, a pet peeve is the use of the term single family home in place of detached. I mean we’re the only family living in this row house.

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trymypi t1_j9i0c1r wrote

Hopefully some of the below jogs your memory:

Sometimes they want to say brownstone but that's not right. Townhouse isn't right either. It's not usually semi-detached. Here's a good read on the history: https://wanderwisdom.com/travel-destinations/Row-HouseTheHistoryofBaltimoreRowhouses

Good luck let us know

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Thin_Bug_6405 t1_j9i0xag wrote

Townhouse ?

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djschue t1_j9iozxi wrote

Lol, this! I grew up in Baltimore City, and lived in a row house. Got married and moved to Woodlawn, Baltimore County. There we rented a house, connected to homes on both sides- it was called a townhouse.

It took me a long time to get townhouse in my mind!

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Walnutsandwhales t1_j9j9c1t wrote

There's a difference between the two. Townhouses have firewalls between the homes, and rowhouses don't.

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nonotsafestuff t1_j9krjhq wrote

Doesn't the solid brick interior party walls that connect the homes act as a firewall?

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weebilsurglace t1_j9mbwgn wrote

The most important thing to know about Baltimore rowhouses is there's never a simple answer.

In most rowhouses the brick party wall goes to the roofline and can serve as a firewall. However, there is some older stock where the party wall doesn't go all the way to the roof and the houses share a small crawl space. In some houses (like mine) there are spots in the wall where there is wood embedded, so the wall isn't solid brick.

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[deleted] t1_j9i63ee wrote

[deleted]

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edgar__allan__bro t1_j9iic8u wrote

Brownstones in NYC are not the same as Bmore rowhomes. Brownstones are more like what you see around Mid-Town/Mt. Vernon. Up in NY/Boston rowhomes as we know them down here don’t really exist.

Source: Am from up that way

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DfcukinLite t1_j9iqgwa wrote

There are definitely rowhomes in NYC and Boston.

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DfcukinLite t1_j9iqe6t wrote

No. A brownstone is made with brownstone. Brown stones can be rowhomes, but rowhomes aren’t brownstones

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[deleted] t1_j9k2moo wrote

[deleted]

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DfcukinLite t1_j9k44c7 wrote

“A brownstone is a type of townhouse made of a brown sand stone that was commonly used to build these types of homes. Townhouses can be built of any material many were made of brick. If it is made of brick it is a townhouse but not a brownstone. So brownstones are townhouses but not all townhouses are brownstones.”

https://fontanarchitecture.com/difference-between-brownstone-townhouse-rowhouse/

“If you are wondering what the distinction between a row house and townhouse is, there really isn't much of one—both are attached to their neighbors. The only real difference is that townhouses might not be exactly the same—they can differ in height, stories, and width, whereas row houses are uniformly laid out.”

https://www.landisconstruction.com/blog/row-houses-explained/

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[deleted] t1_j9k4kze wrote

[deleted]

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Pamlwell t1_j9l6chh wrote

I… don’t see any bullying or harassment in this thread? Just two people disagreeing mildly over the specifics of a definition for “Brownstone”

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Cunninghams_right t1_j9i4o5v wrote

I think Rowhouse is the most common. someone might have said brownstone, but that's not very accurate for most baltimore houses.

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DfcukinLite t1_j9iqj50 wrote

A brownstone can be a rowhome, but a rowhome isn’t a brownstone.

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Cunninghams_right t1_j9k2288 wrote

not sure why someone downvoted you. maybe they misread it. anyway, yes, a brownstone is a type of rowhouse and there aren't very many in baltimore.

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DfcukinLite t1_j9k2ht2 wrote

I think you need to leave to waterfront neighborhoods bro…. Mount Vernon, Bolton hill, Reservoir Hill, plus all the hoods around Druid hill park (the black parts) of Baltimore are indeed brownstones.

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schmatteganai t1_j9lwqjk wrote

I think you're getting thrown by formstone, which is actually molded concrete/stucco....over brick.

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Cunninghams_right t1_j9k3ctb wrote

  1. what are you defining as a brownstone?
  2. what percentage of baltimore rowhouses do you think are brownstones?
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DfcukinLite t1_j9k3kft wrote

  1. Homes made with brownstone.

  2. A good portion of Baltimore you apparently have never been to or seen.

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Cunninghams_right t1_j9kcweo wrote

you're such an asshole while being so incredibly wrong. yes, there exist brownstones, but they are a minority of houses in the neighborhoods where they exist, and most neighborhoods have none at all.

how many brownstones are there in sandtown? how many in westport? how many in highlandtown?

tell me which neighborhood has the most brownstones? mt Vernon is still mostly brick. Bolton hill is still mostly brick. reservoir hill is still mostly brick. the neighborhoods around druid hill park are mostly brick. maybe you should actually visit a neighborhood and not just drive the main thoroughfare where the brownstones are.

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DfcukinLite t1_j9kdl8s wrote

I lived in reservoir hill for 2 years when I first moved to the city and mount Vernon for 7 years after that. You’re not going to tell me, brooo. Stick with what you know, which is the waterfront.

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Cunninghams_right t1_j9ko651 wrote

you're such a fucking asshole while being so obviously wrong. why? just to troll? I don't get it. if you lived in mt vernon, you should know that the majority of houses are brick, even though it is one of the neighborhoods with the highest concentration of brownstones (link). same with res hill. that's why I had to ask whether you knew what a brownstone was.

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douggoblue t1_j9ikieo wrote

Formstone? It's a facade treatment invented in and popular in Baltimore

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schmatteganai t1_j9i7vl5 wrote

In Europe they're sometimes called terraced houses, but in Baltimore they're rowhouses or rowhomes

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VelarTAG t1_j9j7zkb wrote

In the UK, they are "terraced houses". Never use Row House, or Home.

I live in a 4 storey one!

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S-Kunst t1_j9kj2s9 wrote

Yes, I have heard that term. But it throws me as the term terraced, as in terraced farming, means the land is on a hill and the hill has been cut into wide shallow steps.

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Wirenut625 t1_j9isp5m wrote

Shotgun house

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Big_Garlic_166 t1_j9kdfxr wrote

I’d be very surprised if this is not what OP heard. Very common amongst older folks in Baltimore.

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The_Waxies_Dargle t1_j9l674p wrote

Came here to day this. Seems regional, but that's an opinion with no facts behind it.

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Wirenut625 t1_j9lfmhz wrote

Just what I’ve heard from a few. The definition of one I’m assuming is not what OP is asking.

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Thisteamisajoke t1_j9i41ee wrote

Townhouse.

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WinkyTheFrog t1_j9i8z5o wrote

I would argue that a townhouse is the suburban equivalent of a rowhome in the city.

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OGkateebee t1_j9ilvpo wrote

Raised in the Baltimore suburbs and hard agree. Lived in a townhouse growing up but a row home once I moved into the city.

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Biomirth t1_j9ikknd wrote

The painted ones in a couple of neighborhoods are 'painted ladies'.

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IntellectualDarkWave t1_j9k8nrj wrote

There is a certain subset of rowhomes that are called "painted ladies." They're a little bigger than the normal colonial box rowhomes, have actual front porches instead of stoops, usually some ornate molding on the roof, and bay windows on the upper level. The molding is usually painted in different colors, often bright ones. The most celebrated are probably the ones on Calvert, Guilford and Abell between 33rd and 28th or so, but you'll see this style in a lot of neighborhoods around the city.

There is also another particular subset of rowhome, I'm not sure what they are actually called, but a lot of people call them "keelty" after the developer that built a lot of them a century ago. They're kind of a transition to the modern suburban townhouse. They look like the normal colonial box rowhomes, but are wider and will have a porch with a (usually) green awning, but still retain the flat roof of a rowhome. I have only ever seen this style on the north side of the city, but the style bled into some of the first developments in the inner county as well. I've seen them in parts of Catonsville, Pikesville and Parkville that are right up against the city line.

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doublekidsnoincome t1_j9ke78c wrote

I call them townhomes.

If someone called them Shotguns, that's a specific type of row home that I'm not even sure is popular in Baltimore City. There's a straight line of sight from the front of the house to the back, and they're long and narrow but not tall. Tend to be one floor.

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octopi-me t1_j9jjbel wrote

I’ve heard them called Brownstrone’s

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coredenale t1_j9pnn5y wrote

I was disappointed when I learned that row home has nothing to do with rowing or boats or water.

Town house sounds too fancy-shmancy though.

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L_Azam t1_j9mbzuw wrote

Painted lady?

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