Philadelphia Trinity Row House

This is a lovely Trinity row house in the
Queen Village neighborhood in Philadelphia.

We recently came across this wonderful article that talks about Trinity row houses and the benefits of the small streets of Philadelphia.

In "My Own Piece of Dirt" by Juliet O. Whelan, she says:

"Some of America's first urban workers lived in a unique type of Philadelphia home called a Trinity. Examples date from 1720. Trinities were built to house the artisan classes flocking to a burgeoning city; but while these workers moved on to populate America, the Trinity House didn't follow them. But the Trinity and the narrow streets that contain them warrant a closer look."



"A Trinity, as the name suggests, consists of three rooms stacked on top of each other – and that makes the whole house. A Betsy Ross stair punches through, basically an elongated spiral stair that is so narrow and steep that, instead of a railing for balance, you haul yourself up using a vertically mounted steel bracket."

Trinities aren't the only great small row homes in Philadelphia. Small Federal row homes as well as the workman's row homes are equally wonderful, creating a cozy feeling to a big city.

To read the entire post, please visit http://www.metropolismag.com/pov/20120430/my-own-piece-of-dirt

Featured Row House

Furniture for Small Rooms - Living Room Sofa

Small and/or oddly-shaped rooms are something quite a few row house dwellers have to deal with. Sometimes the room is long and narrow, or there are stairs against the only wall big enough for a sofa. And if you do think your wall is large enough for a sofa, you find that when you get to the furniture store, everything is two inches too long. It's no wonder that RowHouse gets a lot of email about furniture options.

See our website for some great small room sofa ideas!

Letters from RowHouse

Before this blog was established, I wrote a monthly letter to the readers of RowHouse Magazine. As I go through the website to better organize it, I decided to move those to this blog, where they naturally fit better. It's been a fun walk down memory lane!

You can read any of the original posts by clicking around in the archive for this blog, which goes back to 2007, the year we started writing about row houses.

It's hard to believe we've been at it for five years!

Decorating on the Cheap

Photo source: http://www.sxc.hu/profile/alfcb

It's no surprise that most row house owners don't have the elaborate budgets they might have once had. These are tough times. However, we like to think that it's a great time for reflection and creativity. Reflection because without a huge budget, you're forced to really contemplate how much you love that whatever-it-is that you want to bring into your house. Creativity because instead of walking into a store and buying the entire look, you might have to go to several places, and even browse the local second hand, or trash pile.

Today I tripped over an article on the New York Times website. As a former New Yorker, I still think it's the best newspaper out there (bias alert!). In "Bang for the Buck," (Jan 11, 2012) Jesse McKinley chats about decorating and outfitting your home with finds from the dollar store.

In the article he chronicles his shopping experiences and includes some helpful tips at the end on how to shop savvily despite the lure of unbeatable bargains. We've found that it helps to have an idea of what kinds of things you are willing to compromise on before you shop at any store. For example, paper goods might be a good dollar-store option, feminine products, not-so much. Everyday glassware that always ends up breaking anyway, probably a great dollar-store purchase. With a tighter budget, chances are you're buying less. So take the time to really compare what you're getting. You might be surprised that a $1 roll of paper towels works as good as a $3 roll.

Inexpensive Stores We Love

• ALDI
• fiVe BELoW
• Century 21

We're also really big fans of the second-hand store. It's cheap. It's recycling. And often, your local second-hand store benefits some cause. We have a few here in Philly that we love!

Philly Aids Thrift - Awesome doesn't even begin to cover it. Often they get estate items in and reading the entertaining tags on things is worth stopping in alone. Look for the illuminated item of the day, because there is only one.

Uhuru Furniture - benefiting people in Africa, this second-hand furniture store always has a plethora of things, arranged in a life-size furniture tetris arrangement in their store on Spruce Street in Center City. They've even been known to carry pianos and often have bonafied antiques for ridiculously low prices.

Featured Row House - Holiday Decorations!

This is a little late but we loved this festive row house's decorations which were very understated and appropriate for the age of the house. Beautiful!

Tumbleweed Tiny Homes Goes to Occupy Wall Street

It may seem off topic to talk about detached homes, but we also like to discuss small homes as well because most row homes are indeed on the smaller side.

This month, Tumbleweed Founder and Small House Advocate Jay Shafer will head to Occupy Wall Street to show how small houses are a viable affordable housing solution.

On his blog, Jay says, "Since the bank bailout, over 5,000,000 US homes have been foreclosed. Can you imagine what our economy might look like today if we built smaller, more affordable homes 10 years ago?" It's a great question.

Here in Philadelphia, the classic workman's row house is often less than 1,000 square feet and, for more than a century, it was the go-to house for modest-income Philadelphians. Although in later years row houses have grown in size along with national trends, it seems like developers are getting back to small.

Not only is small easier to afford in price, it's also easier to adapt for lower ongoing expenses like energy costs. Yesterday, on SmartPlanet.com, there was an article about how smaller row homes are environmentally friendly and easy to make green. "For Philadelphia's LEED Platinum urban infill project, thin is in" explained how a new row house development in Philadelphia is utilizing a narrow row house design to meet LEED requirements.

Just more reasons to love your little row house!