The word “rowhouse” (or row house) seems to be uniquely Philadelphian. Most other regions say “townhouse,” or “brownstone”, writes Ryan Briggs for PlanPhilly and  WHYY.

The origins of the word is mysterious and it is unclear whether the word is “rowhouse”, or “row house”.

Early on, colonial buildings were rarely built in proper “rows”.  Architectural historians often cite the 1799 construction of “Carstairs Row,” at the site of Jeweler’s Row, as a kind of origin point for modern rowhouses.

Inquirer real estate advertisements of the 19^th  and early 20^th Century used phrases like “row of houses,” surely the predecessors of “rowhouse,” according to the paper’s style expert, David Sullivan.

The term developed as a space-saving technique for classified ads that charged by the word, Sullivan believes. But the term’s popularization may have been fueled by an age-old competition: Philly versus New York City.

Boosters used the term “city of homes” around this time, contrasting Philadelphia’s many single-family houses with the crowded slums of New York.

National Park Service historian Amanda Casper, who studied the architectural history of the rowhouse, links the rise of the terminology to this early PR campaign.

Read more about the possible origins of “rowhouse,” here.

Editor’s note: This post first appeared Aug. 31, 2019.

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