Unique (or-semi-unique) vernacular housing styles in your city...

[muppet]

The Upper classes - now pure white stucco dominates in street after street. There are entire districts of housing like this in West London, most of them now subdivided up into apartments that cost tens of millions each.









This end of terrace complete house (last two windows) went for $140 million.







The aristocracy - these were Grecian palaces for garrulous families of 10 kids and armies of servants with up to 30 bedrooms. These are now converted into offices, hotels, embassies, mulit-millionaire apartment blocks or aristocratic homes still. Over $100 million if ever they come onto the market in one piece. These are the grandest rowhomes you'll ever find - every 3-5 windows along is a new house.














This block is now the London Business School





Only two of these in this block -Carlton Terrace -came onto the secretive 'grey market' in the last 20 years. The first (2007), was valued at $200 million, making it then the world's most expensive property. The offer however was turned down.


http://prod-upp-image-read.ft.com/d9...f-08f9738d6b2b


In 2013 the far corner, back end (not even a frontage) was sold to the Saudis for $350 million. No photos exist in the public domain of these interiors today.



Other houses on the block looked like this. They even had throne rooms:


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/75/1c...7913a7bbd2.jpg

[wwmiv]

Central Texas (Austin and San Antonio) actually has an architectural style endemic to it and named after the region: Hill Country.

Hill Country comes in a variety of sub-styles: rustic, farmhouse, ranch, modern, contemporary and is defined by a mixture of traditional German, Scots, and Spanish rural built forms (saltboxes and multi-shed roofs with varying pitches are common) with an emphasis on tailoring those forms to account for local material restrictions and the harsh topography.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/texashi...l-country/amp/
https://www.houzz.com/discussions/54...on-help-please

For a good historical example, O’Henry House in San Antonio.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/O._H...m_(San_Antonio)

[Pedestrian]

I'm sure it's easy to guess what I'm going to post:


https://www.ft.com/content/ca1fc000-...4-00144feab7de


https://www.terragalleria.com/califo...usca43234.html




https://savingplaces.org/stories/haa...n#.YPkhMi1h3YU


https://sf.curbed.com/maps/map-guide...sco-victorians


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/213076626107535020/


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/474848354462674336/

[hauntedheadnc]

Mill housing is the vernacular for Greenville. Greenville was a major center for the textile industry, and the typical m.o. when building a mill venture was to build the mill, build a neighborhood where the workers would live, and then build any schools, churches, or stores they might need as well. Mill houses, depending on the altruism of the mill owner, are typically 2-bed/1-bath with a small porch.

Greenville mill village neighborhoods:

American Spinning Mill

Brandon Mill

Dunean Mill

Judson Mill

Mills Mill

Monaghan Mill

Poe Mill -- Either this mill owner was something of a philanthropist, or these were the homes for management. Probably the latter.

Poinsett Mill

Taylors Mill

Union Bleachery

Woodside Mill

[Centropolis]

st. louis was already covered but wanted to focus on the 2x2 4-family, which seems fairly unique to st. louis. they are ubiquitous across the entire city (and some suburbs) and have a different appearance depending on the age of the neighborhood.

zillow.com

mediavault.point2.com

zillow.com

ap.rdcpix.com

photos.zillowstatic.com

pi.movoto.com

[MonkeyRonin]

Toronto's iconic vernacular is of course the Bay-and-Gable Victorian. Built between the 1870s-1890s, and characterized by, as the name would imply, the steep gabled roof and bay window on the front. They're usually semi-detached, but also come in detached & row versions, almost always on long, narrow lots. Inside, they're mostly a mix of 1-4 unit variations.


https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/F...Row_Houses.jpg



Even more common though, would be the Edwardian houses built between the 1890s and 1910s. They're otherwise the same basic format as the Victorians - just more numerous and spread further out into the city. They're characterized by the standard covered front porch, 2nd floor bay window, and 3rd floor dormer.





By the 1920s things had shifted towards less ornamented, more spacious semi-detached brick boxes. I'm not sure what this style is called, but some variation on these are ubiquitous throughout Toronto's streetcar suburb neighbourhoods.





Post-war, brick bungalows like these were thrown up by the thousands to house the rapidly growing population. 3-bedrooms, about 1000 sqft plus a basement suite, and they all look more or less the same.





And then of course, there were the thousands of quintessential 60s/70s tower blocks, which now house the plurality of Toronto's population. This particular style is a dead giveaway for being somewhere in Ontario.


https://www.archpaper.com/2020/09/to...rises-feature/



There are also more localized or neighbourhood-specific vernaculars, like the Beaches Duplexes.





Or Romanesque Victorians in the more upscale areas.



https://acotoronto.ca/show_building.php?BuildingID=2076

[proghousehead]

Originally Posted by TempleGuy1000

Nice I like these. There are a few good examples of this type of Federalist Style in Philadelphia and NYC.

Bishop White's House in Old City Philadelphia is an 18th century example taken care of by the National Parks Service.


Harrison Street in Tribeca is a good example in Manhattan



If I had to pick what I thought was 'unique' to Philadelphia, it would probably be the gothic-revival style of West Philadelphia.

https://www.google.com/maps/@39.9483...7i16384!8i8192

Also I have never seen anywhere else in the US have a tiny English village in the middle of it like the Rittenhouse neighborhood in Center City:

Manhattan also has a tiny English village:







And of course, the french village also in the heart of Manhattan:

Originally Posted by Centropolis

st. louis was already covered but wanted to focus on the 2x2 4-family, which seems fairly unique to st. louis. they are ubiquitous across the entire city (and some suburbs) and have a different appearance depending on the age of the neighborhood.

zillow.com

mediavault.point2.com

zillow.com

ap.rdcpix.com

photos.zillowstatic.com

pi.movoto.com

Thanks for posting these. This is what I meant by "four-family flats" being the most prevalent multi-family style in St. Louis. I was too lazy to go hunting for examples though.

[Streamliner]

San Diego adopted modernist styles fairly early on. Irving Gill is a local architect, though his fame is limited to San Diego and to an extent Southern California. He started building very simplistic, almost cube-like homes in San Diego in the early 1900s.

This is one of my favorite examples, from 1909:


A lot of newer San Diego homes claim to take inspiration from Gill. His work favors clean lines, mission-inspired arches, and very little ornamentation, which was unusual for the era.

[Tom In Chicago]

Steely. . . is the 4 + 1 unique to Chicago???

https://www.google.com/maps/@41.9803...7i16384!8i8192

. . .

[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by Tom In Chicago

Steely. . . is the 4 + 1 unique to Chicago???

good question.

i don't honestly know, but my earlier post was really only focused on early 20th century stuff when chicago was growing stupidly fast.

when we expand timelines out, lots of other stuff will come into focus.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

st. louis was already covered but wanted to focus on the 2x2 4-family, which seems fairly unique to st. louis. they are ubiquitous across the entire city (and some suburbs) and have a different appearance depending on the age of the neighborhood.

zillow.com

ap.rdcpix.com

There are/were a few flats in Detroit and Highland Park that had a similar style: https://goo.gl/maps/Ls3efEWMuFfztnbR9

That one has been demolished, though. As have most of them that were a similar style.

[samne]

Originally Posted by muppet

The Upper classes - now pure white stucco dominates in street after street. There are entire districts of housing like this in West London.




This end of terrace (last two windows) went for $140 million.







The aristocracy - these were Grecian palaces for garrulous families of 10 kids and armies of servants with up to 30 bedrooms. These are now converted into offices, hotels, embassies, mulit-millionaire apartment blocks or aristocratic homes still. Over $100 million if ever they come onto the market in one piece. These are the grandest rowhomes you'll ever find - every 3-5 windows along is a new house.














This block is now the London Business School





Only two of these in this block -Carlton Terrace -came onto the secretive 'grey market' in the last 20 years. The first (2007), was valued at $200 million, making it then the world's most expensive property. The offer however was turned down.


http://prod-upp-image-read.ft.com/d9...f-08f9738d6b2b


In 2013 the far corner, back end (not even a frontage) was sold to the Saudis for $350 million. No photos exist in the public domain of these interiors today.



Other houses on the block looked like this:


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/75/1c...7913a7bbd2.jpg

These look absolutely pricey!

Would there be some kind of common elements fee or contract as an owner of these to maintain in accordance with the entire row?

Id be pretty vexed if I splashed 100 mill and my neighbor neglected their roof.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by iheartthed

I've never seen this particular style of flat housing anywhere else but Detroit: https://goo.gl/maps/w1uBRVJq1APmhxPz6

That wouldn't be out of place in parts of St. Louis, although most 2-flats typically are flat roofed.

I forgot about the railroad house in st. louis…essentially a detached “1 flat” lego of a house. They tend to occur in clusters of entire streets but not always. The only other places I’ve seen anything similar is Denver and Chicago but they are by far more prominent as a proportion of housing type in st louis.

https://goo.gl/maps/fTVtUEBK7DH1k2BPA

Styles and flourishes semi-common in the mid-atlantic but not midwest (yet present in st. louis) are mousehole passages and flounder houses.

builtstlouis.com

stlouispatina.com

also…as you can see in the above photo and below streetview long 2-story side porches similar to what you’d find in Charleston, SC are present in the oldest areas of St. Louis.

https://goo.gl/maps/sapvJJWCzttqfC7HA

[Camelback]

I got lost in the 30+ pictures posted above of random places of London.

Thread ruined.

Another style that's pretty ubiquitous in St. Louis which I haven't seen in other cities is the ~1.5 story mansard or "mini mansard." Though, I wouldn't be surprised to find them in Montreal.


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3377768450747843/


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/376402481354131763/


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/376402481354131764/


https://www.pinterest.de/pin/376402481354159016/


http://stlouispatina.com/benton-park-mansard-roofs/


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/376402481354132098/


http://stlouispatina.com/benton-park-mansard-roofs/


https://www.movoto.com/saint-louis-m...id_2uzvq6efhh/

[muppet]

Originally Posted by samne

These look absolutely pricey!

Would there be some kind of common elements fee or contract as an owner of these to maintain in accordance with the entire row?

Id be pretty vexed if I splashed 100 mill and my neighbor neglected their roof.

Im pretty sure you'd be held somehow or other to keep the external property the same, maybe through the heritage listing (a Grade I or II listed building means you can't change it). Also a lot of West London is owned by the Crown Estates, a shady billionaire landowner that belongs to the Royals, that would hold you back from turning it into say, a neon palazzo.

There are a few less salubrious districts such as Paddington and Earls Court, that have plenty of stucco mansion blocks, that were converted into slightly seedy hotels back in the 70s (catering to the train terminals). A few even functioned as brothels back in the day.

Outside they may look like this:



But inside may still be pleasingly er, retro




Also - London has a couple of 'billionaire's rows' by the royal parks, which tend to be a line of tacky, detached neoclassical mansions built in the last few decades. Owned by different royal families round the world such as the Saudis, Thais, Qataris etc and their gilded businessmen. -Although outwardly looking splendid, urban explorers recently discovered many of them were abandoned and falling into ruin inside -just money parking facilities being passed from owner to owner without anyone needing to live in them.


http://stock.jasonhawkes.com/media/b...-s-park-london

[eschaton]

Originally Posted by Centropolis

Styles and flourishes semi-common in the mid-atlantic but not midwest (yet present in st. louis) are mousehole passages and flounder houses.
https://goo.gl/maps/sapvJJWCzttqfC7HA

In Pittsburgh those passageways are called breezeways. They aren't super-common here, but there were a fair amount in my old neighborhood of Lawrenceville. This house has, AFAIK, the only remaining "horse breezeway" in the city.

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

Another style that's pretty ubiquitous in St. Louis which I haven't seen in other cities is the ~1.5 story mansard or "mini mansard." Though, I wouldn't be surprised to find them in Montreal.

They exist in Pittsburgh in limited numbers. Here are two somewhat remuddled wood ones.

Come to think of it, wood rowhouses/rowhouse-like buildings are something fairly unique to Pittsburgh as well - though not present in every neighborhood (tend to only be common in what were historically the poorest regions further away from the rivers). The only other places I know of substantive numbers outside of Pittsburgh are the small boroughs in the Coal Region of PA, and Atlantic Canada.

[Centropolis]

Originally Posted by eschaton

In Pittsburgh those passageways are called breezeways. They aren't super-common here, but there were a fair amount in my old neighborhood of Lawrenceville. This house has, AFAIK, the only remaining "horse breezeway" in the city.



They exist in Pittsburgh in limited numbers. Here are two somewhat remuddled wood ones.

Cincinnati and (maybe) northern KY has mini-mansards but they aren’t as prolific.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by IWant2BeInSTL

Another style that's pretty ubiquitous in St. Louis which I haven't seen in other cities is the ~1.5 story mansard or "mini mansard." Though, I wouldn't be surprised to find them in Montreal.


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3377768450747843/

We have a lot of those in Toronto as well.





My pics