At the beginning of the 19th century the row house was introduced to Philadelphia. William Sansom had bought a block of land between Seventh and Eighth Streets between Walnut Street and Sansom Street. Along Walnut Street Sansom built Union Row and along Sansom Street Thomas Carstairs built Carstairs Row. The rows, now part of Jewelers’ Row, were block long rows of houses similar to row houses in the United Kingdom. The row houses were new to the United States as well and when built elsewhere in the country were called “Philadelphia rows”.
b) the 6th boro thing he is referring to is probably an article in the suday times about 5 years ago. 3 or 4 pages. lots of hype. about 1/4 of it worthy of the hype. the rest of it stuff by a writer amazed to find people living in attaced housing outside new york.
c) a brand is what you build. if brownstoner wants to, at probably zero cost, see if he can milk the brand in philly, thats his choice.
d) lots of potential in philly. a long, slow build. if brownstoner is in it for the long haul he will do fine regardless of the brand choice.
e) this was a no brainer given the fact that several posters here regularly spout experiental info about philly.
f) i will be very interested to see what neighborhood gets the early love. it will say alot about the gameplan.
The name thing is tricky, though. One of the things that I love most about Philly is how diverse the housing stock is – I grew up in a federal style brick rowhouse, lived for a while in a tudor twin, and rented an apartment in a seriously grand old georgian row house during grad school. Unlike Brooklyn, which is overwhelmingly defined by brownstone, it’s hard to think of a dominant style for Philly.
Brick does seem to be dominant, however (even Independence Hall is brick). I guess Brickhouser sounds kind of silly?
Clinton Hill really reminds me of West Philly, Benno. They even have decent cheese steaks. (I guess you know this.) But, yeah, West Philly is a great place — it’s probably the reason I am as architecture and real-estate obsessed as I am.
Also gotta disagree with b’stoner about the name, this site is geared towards very local issues it just emphasizes that it’s run/conceived by people outside of philly.
Your “brand” could just as easily be defined as the local housing typology + “-er” suffix.
***Nowadays, the most apt place to call the 6th borough might be Monmouth County, NJ.***
I moved to Brooklyn from Monmouth County. I’ve got lots of love for NJ and this area in particular. It’s a great place to live but I can imagine all the driving one needs to do in order to live there would be a shock to us Brooklynites. We often pine for a little beach house where we can spend weekends and summer (the noun, not the verb!). Train ride from Red Bank into Penn Station is about 1 hour, 10 minutes.
RE: 6th borough. I’ve heard people call Hoboken the 6th borough, quickly followed by guffaws by anyone within earshot.
PS… Good luck with the new enterprise, whatever you end up naming it.
Last post on this, I promise.
An argument for “Rowhouser”:
At the beginning of the 19th century the row house was introduced to Philadelphia. William Sansom had bought a block of land between Seventh and Eighth Streets between Walnut Street and Sansom Street. Along Walnut Street Sansom built Union Row and along Sansom Street Thomas Carstairs built Carstairs Row. The rows, now part of Jewelers’ Row, were block long rows of houses similar to row houses in the United Kingdom. The row houses were new to the United States as well and when built elsewhere in the country were called “Philadelphia rows”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buildings_and_architecture_of_Philadelphia
a) rowhouser.com is taken… try again.
b) the 6th boro thing he is referring to is probably an article in the suday times about 5 years ago. 3 or 4 pages. lots of hype. about 1/4 of it worthy of the hype. the rest of it stuff by a writer amazed to find people living in attaced housing outside new york.
c) a brand is what you build. if brownstoner wants to, at probably zero cost, see if he can milk the brand in philly, thats his choice.
d) lots of potential in philly. a long, slow build. if brownstoner is in it for the long haul he will do fine regardless of the brand choice.
e) this was a no brainer given the fact that several posters here regularly spout experiental info about philly.
f) i will be very interested to see what neighborhood gets the early love. it will say alot about the gameplan.
The name thing is tricky, though. One of the things that I love most about Philly is how diverse the housing stock is – I grew up in a federal style brick rowhouse, lived for a while in a tudor twin, and rented an apartment in a seriously grand old georgian row house during grad school. Unlike Brooklyn, which is overwhelmingly defined by brownstone, it’s hard to think of a dominant style for Philly.
Brick does seem to be dominant, however (even Independence Hall is brick). I guess Brickhouser sounds kind of silly?
> A brand is a brand…at a certain point it transcends literalism.
I’m going to have to join the chorus of disagreement here.
Sure, a brand like eBay transcenda literalism because it does not mean anything. But Brownstone does mean something, only not in Philly.
Come up with a name that is area-appropriate, and add it to your suite of brands: Brownstoner.com, Brooklyn Flea, etc.
AS for the 6th borough bit, that’s just poppycock. I’d throw Jersey, Westchester or even Connecticut into that category before Philly.
Clinton Hill really reminds me of West Philly, Benno. They even have decent cheese steaks. (I guess you know this.) But, yeah, West Philly is a great place — it’s probably the reason I am as architecture and real-estate obsessed as I am.
cool and good luck.
Also gotta disagree with b’stoner about the name, this site is geared towards very local issues it just emphasizes that it’s run/conceived by people outside of philly.
Your “brand” could just as easily be defined as the local housing typology + “-er” suffix.
Rowhouse is also used in D.C. & other cities. What about Townhouser – an extension of (or “addition to”) Brownstoner?
***Nowadays, the most apt place to call the 6th borough might be Monmouth County, NJ.***
I moved to Brooklyn from Monmouth County. I’ve got lots of love for NJ and this area in particular. It’s a great place to live but I can imagine all the driving one needs to do in order to live there would be a shock to us Brooklynites. We often pine for a little beach house where we can spend weekends and summer (the noun, not the verb!). Train ride from Red Bank into Penn Station is about 1 hour, 10 minutes.
RE: 6th borough. I’ve heard people call Hoboken the 6th borough, quickly followed by guffaws by anyone within earshot.