Row Houses

Allentown's most distinctive building type is the row house. As local industries prospered, the city's streets filled with four- and six-unit houses and longer rows. The two-and three-story rows, usually of brick, often are connected by continuous front porches. Many porch roofs gracefully curve downward toward the street and, in some cases, flowering vines wind through the framing, snaking their way along entire blocks. In the blocks around West Park (between 15th and N. West streets), the rows are particularly attractive. The length of Turner Street on the north side of the park features two-and-one-half-story brick rows with second-story bay windows atop continuous porch roofs and gables lighting attic floors. A few blocks to the west at 18th Street, opposite the Fairgrounds, Chew Street contains an interesting collection of doubles, quads, and short rows.