I have to check in the AIA bookstore to be sure, but from what I can tell there are no books on Philadelphia rowhouses/twins and nothing at all published about the style which is not Victorian/Edwardian, but not Bungalow/Prarie style either, i.e., the style of my new house.
Based on almost no research, I think this style of house is a bridge between the two eras, but based in an uban setting, which gives it a spin of its own. It owes more to Victorian styling and sensabilities, but as the Edwardian designs started to do, became plainer, more basic, more focused on white and light than on heavy and dark.
I started looking into this because I wanted some ideas about how to arange the furniture in the new house. I wanted to know what was on the walls and floors. I wanted to know if the woodwork was painted white back then, or if it was natural. I haven't been able to find anything!
I would love to collect photographs of row house interior and exteriors, starting from the turn of the 20th century onward. Philly History has some exterior shots, but not enough by a long shot. And the handful of books that I've looked through focus on those architectural eras as they played out in suburban and single family homes. I bet the Penn Fine Arts Library would have stuff, and even the Bryn Mawr A&A. I'll keep looking.
This would be a fine project, wouldn't it? Would this potential book have an audience? Should it focus on images, or should I attempt to place this type of house in a genre or period? Who are the experts? Jeff Cohen would know... Hmmmmm... So many possibilities....
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