Sorting Out Rowhouses, Townhouses & B-Stones
A reader brought to our attention a posting from the blog of the Affordable Housing Institute (who knew?). A reader poses the oft-asked question about the difference between a townhouse, a row house and a brownstone. Here’s the response, lifted pretty much verbatim from the recent book The American Townhouse: Town house: A multi-story urban…
A reader brought to our attention a posting from the blog of the Affordable Housing Institute (who knew?). A reader poses the oft-asked question about the difference between a townhouse, a row house and a brownstone. Here’s the response, lifted pretty much verbatim from the recent book The American Townhouse:
Glad we got that cleared up.
Townhouse or Rowhouse? [AFI]
Anon 5:27
Townhouses are attached mansions. Mansions are 5000+ sqft.
Rowhouses are generally 3200 +/- sqft.
95% of brownstones are rowhouses with brownstone facades.
over 5000+ would be called mansion if you asked me.
Seems no consistent usage of terms…I rarely hear rowhouse used in NY and brownstone used too often for any attached house over certain age.
I never inferred from townhouse any particular size… just usually attached. And often late 20th century housing development with attached duplex/or triplex are called townhouses.
Rowhouses usually are identical to the adjoining rowhouses on the same street and within the same neighborhood.
Townhouses are usually unique in the design of the facade.
Townhouses are above rowhouses. Most brownstones are rowhouses. Townhouses are usually built out of a more expensive material than brownstone like limestone or marble. There are a few brownstone townhouses: located on Montague Terrace and Columbia Heights.
In my opinion: in order for a row house to be called a townhouse it should be considerably wide, have
5000+ sqft (excluding cellars), high ceilings,
highly detailed, high end finishes.