Quote:
Originally Posted by photoLith
I didn't know about those streets you mention. I was just there again a couple of days ago and the only row houses I saw were those on the second image just to the east of the Main Street. I missed those ones you mentioned I guess.
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The larger groupings of rowhouses aren't in areas where a visitor to Erie would really go. There's a handful scattered in and around downtown, but most that still exist are outside the core and are newer (meaning 1910s-1930s) and built in planned areas by major corporations like GE, Chrysler, and National Forge for their workers/returning WWI veterans. Few rowhousees from the 1800s remain in Erie. Most were located in the current footprint of downtown Erie and were destroyed over the years as the city grew. As the core grew into an industrial and commercial center and took over former residential tracts, new residential neighborhood construction in Erie by the 1880s did not favor the rowhouse style like it was in other places.
For a really infuriating example, this was once a rowhouse neighborhood. The brick house is from the 1840s and the wood-sided one on the right is from 1810.
The City, Hamot Hospital, the Catholic Disocese, and Erie Insurance razed entire blocks of classic 1820s-1850s houses the east side of downtown for buildings, parking garages, and lots in this area.
The same occurred on the west side of downtown as the city grew rapidly post-1850s railroad boom. This example from the 1830s is all that remains of the modest rowhouse type that was common on the lower west side.
But overall, Erie is definitely not a rowhouse city like many other cities in PA; it's much more like upstate/western NY/New England/etc as far as housing style goes.