Ordinary Homes of the United States

Time period: Late 19th and early 20th century, revived in 21st century. Location: Used to be everywhere.  Today: Seattle and New York City. A mid-rise building with a couple apartments on each floor.   In most cities, you'll find two types of mid-rise apartment buildings in the 4-7 story range. First, there'll be some small historic buildings downtown, side by side like books on a shelf. These are the original point access blocks. Then, there are the big modern buildings taking up a whole block and with long, windowless hallways inside. These are double loaded corridor buildings. Floorplan of a point access block.   Note that apartments have windows facing the front and back of the building.     In contrast, except for the corner units, apartments in a double loaded corridor only have windows facing one direction. Both the point access block and the double loaded corridor were designed to be the most efficient floorplan given the building codes of th...

Location: Philadelphia, Seattle Time period: 1600s-1800s and 21st century   While the 5-story version is new, tower houses are one of the oldest types of homes in the United States.  The early version of it exists in Philadelphia, where they are known as trinities, so named because there are three floors, each with one room. The first floor would be the living room and kitchen, and the upper floors would be bedrooms.  Trinities are also known as "Father, Son & Holy Ghost houses".  When the US declared independence, Philadelphia was the largest city, and its metropolitan area population remained similar in size to New York until NYC overtook it following the completion of the Erie Canal in 1821. Tiny houses went hand in hand with tiny streets. Among the most famous example is Elfreth's Alley in Philadelphia, the oldest continuously inhabited residential street in the USA.When William Penn founded the city of Philadelphia in 1682, he laid out the street grid wit...