Mencken Remembers Rowhouses of His Youth

We found this quotation in the Introduction to a book called The Baltimore Rowhouse:

The two story houses that were put up in my boyhood, forty years ago, all had a kind of unity, and many of them were far from unbeautiful. Almost without exception, they were built of red brick, with white trim-the latter either of marble or of painted wood. The builders of the time were not given to useless ornamentation: their houses were plain in design and restful to the eye. A long row of them to be sure, was somewhat monotonous, but it at least escaped being trashy and annoying. Before every row, in those days, ranged a file of shade trees. The green against the red, with flecks of white showing through, was always dignified and sometimes very charming. Many such rows survive, but the trees are gone, and new storefronts, plate glass front doors, concrete steps, and other such horrors have pretty well corrupted their old placid beauty.

H.L. Mencken, Baltimore Evening Sun, February 7, 1927

The Baltimore Rowhouse [archINFORM]