What is a Brownstone?
Serious question — What is the definition of a brownstone? Does the facade actually have to consist of “brownstone” (which I understand is a relatively low strength and easily worked sedimentary stone)? When I see brownstone facades being redone it looks like the workers mix up a mortar mix, add brown coloring and then apply…
Serious question — What is the definition of a brownstone? Does the facade actually have to consist of “brownstone” (which I understand is a relatively low strength and easily worked sedimentary stone)? When I see brownstone facades being redone it looks like the workers mix up a mortar mix, add brown coloring and then apply to the facade. Are there “brownstones” that have something other then actual brownstone but have this brown mortar applied as a coating? I have always followed the rule that what looks like a brownstone must be a brownstone, but I am realizing that I don’t actually know if there are rules to what must be under the surface for a building to qualify as a brownstone.
how about a rowhouse with brick facade and 3×5′ brownstone insert? Or the >50% of the facade area must be covered with brownstone?
Furthermore, who is allowed to post on this site? Only people, who proven to have proper brownstone? 🙂
lechacal – LOL @ #5!! townhouselady may have something to say about that!!
Re #4 – Remember that the trim of any house can be anything. that brick house could have limestone trim or the limestone can have brownstone trim, etc. (Think how wood trim defines ‘tudor’ architecture.)
“To me a townhouse is a 1 family building in the “traditional brownstone style”. I think anything more than 1 family means its an apt building.”
Anything 3-4 stories and generally one lot size (16-25′) wide is referred to as a townhouse or a rowhouse. You can’t actually tell by looking at the exterior whether any of them are 1 family, 2 family, 3,family or 4 family.
Also, if it’s brick, then it’s brick, not brownstone.
You may have been here for a lot longer than I have but your generalizations are wrong.
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OK, let me try to build a beginner’s vocabulary:
1. Row house: It’s a house in a row with other houses with no space in-between. Might be brick, might be a brownstone, might be a limesone, might be a wood frame house. But one way or another it is a row house, even if the distinction might seem pedantic to someone who doesn’t follow urban real estate.
2. Brownstone: If the facade consists of either brown stone or a thin layer of brown masonry work, you can probably call it a brownstone (regardless of whether there is any actual brownstone involved).
3. Limestone: The facade consists of limestone. End of story.
4. Brick: The facade is mostly brick (maybe there is some brownsone at the bottom).
5. Townhouse: You live in a development somewhere in Florida.
Does this sound about right?
Christopher: “”Is that cluster 3 row/town houses of different material? Or generically “brownstones”?””
They are rowhouses. Brownstone is misused – it is not generic.
Your band-aid argument is backward: they are all rowhouses; some are brownstone rowhouses, some are brick rowhouses and some are limestone rowhouses (among other types of rowhouses).
You might want to pick up a copy of the wonderful book “Bricks and Brownstones: The New York Townhouse”
“brownstone” is one of those words, I think, that has evolved into multiple meanings.
Traditional “brownstone” is the actual material used to create many rowhouses/town houses in a large part of Brooklyn. And as many have said the original method of making it doesn’t exactly exist and the quarry’s are largely closed, so 100% original brownstone is hard to come by.
But the general reference of “brownstone” is, I think, akin to “band-aid”. A Band-aid is a bandage but not all bandages are band-aids.
My grandmother’s building (Bklyn Heights, 25′ wide, 5 story, etc) is brick. Built well over 100 years ago. True brownstone building on one side, a red sandstone, not quite brownstone, on the other. Is that cluster 3 row/town houses of different material? Or generically “brownstones”?
As anyone who knows me will tell you, I am extremely provincial regarding my neighborhood, it’s history/characteristics, and what not, but even I use the term “brownstone” to describe a wide variety of townhouse/row houses. I refer to my grandmother’s as a “brownstone”, but if someone were to ask specifically about the facade I’d say it was brick, using “brownstone” as a generic building description, not an actual factual material referent.
To add an layer to this, there is the brownstone/limestone/brick argument, but how about the “townhouse” differential? To me a townhouse is a 1 family building in the “traditional brownstone style”. I think anything more than 1 family means its an apt building.
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lechacal, I agree with you that it is odd, but I think many houses in Carroll Gardens are actually brick with that “brownstone” cement over it and people call them all brownstones and they look pretty much like true brownstones. However, they all still have that brownstone parlor floor with high ceilings and details (if not stripped out), so I don’t think whether they were originally brick or brownstone changes that. I always thought true brownstone houses were rare in this neighborhood, at least, but I have no real knowledge. But the brownstone looking facades have definitely been the norm since at least the 1930s and perhaps they were intended to look like true brownstones from the beginning.
Brick facade = pre 1880/1890s or therabouts.