Neoclassic Rowhouse (1985 to 1915)

A one-story house on a raised foundation, with a hipped roof and dormer window, the Neoclassic Rowhouse shares many classic details with its brother the Classic Box. Its form, however, is more reminiscent of its forebear, the Queen Anne Cottage. Although "rowhouse" suggests attached units, it is used here to mean detached houses built side-by-side, in a line.

The front portico that is so pronounced on the Neo-classic Box is absorbed within the rectangular perimeter of the Rowhouse. The front door is recessed to one side. On the same corner, the large peaked roof reaches out over the door, and rests on one, two or three classical columns. The columns are abbreviated, resting as they do on a three-foot high wall which encloses the porch and accentuates the squared-off plan. The character of the columns varies from house to house. They can be square and chunky with Doric features, or turned and slender with simplified Ionic capitals. On remodeled Neoclassic Rowhouses, the columns are often camouflaged in asbestos siding, or replaced by curlicued wrought-iron supports. In some cases, the porch and its columns have been eliminated altogether, walled-in and weatherized to create more interior living space.

Alley-like sideyards are the result of narrow lots. Designers of the Neoclassic Rowhouse were forced to capitalize on the front and the back of the house for natural light. On the street front the living room had a slanted or square bay with double-hung win-dows; in the rear, there is an airy sleeping-porch. Where space allowed, a modest bay projects into the side yard, the way an elbow sticks out when your hands are in your pockets, no matter how close you hold your arm to your body. Notice the difference in proportion between the broad and austere bay window on the Neoclassic Rowhouse, and the elaborate and elongated bay window on the Italianate.

The dormer window plays an important part in vis-ually breaking up the roof and venting the struc-ture, but it does nothing to supplement the supply of light. Behind the dormer is an attic space rarely converted to living quarters. It is not surprising, then, that when the glass in the dormer breaks it is replaced with plywood or odd-lot lumber.

Like the Classic Box, narrow white clapboard covers the Rowhouse, wide, flat trim frames its assorted windows, and a terraced stoop flanks the front steps. Since the main floor is raised as much as ten feet from the ground, it can present a long climb to the front door. For safety purposes, most steps have supplemental railings that were not a part of the original building. A railing design sensitive to the colonial motif is graduated like the steps themselves. The more common, hardware store solution is a straight wrought-iron rail installed on the diagonal, but its appearance is jarring.

Excerpt from "Rehab Right - How to Rehabilitate Your Oakland House
 Without Sacrificing Architectural Assets"