The dense neighborhoods just north of downtown are almost completely gone, where people once lived in a density that most Americans would find surprising–though it’s still common in most of the world. There are a couple of those old rowhouses left, and I stumbled across this beauty whose elegance has been only slightly marred by white paint.

Look at the series of porches and other gangways accessible on the back side of the row. People would walk through the mouseholes and then walk up the stairs to the upper apartments. Often, these houses never had interior staircases.

Update: You can see the buildings above and below in better shape in March of 2015.

Sadly, many of these old houses, a mix of Federalist/Greek Revival architecture you see on the East Coast with occasional Italianate cornices, are fading from memory.

Update: The house above suffered greater structural collapse by December of 2018.; it was demolished and cleared by the fall of 2019.

Half flounders predominate on the back side of these houses.

Update: The building below was destroyed by fire in early 2022.

Later, apartments such as the ones below replaced the older rowhouses. But even the “replacements” are leaving us.