The Winner: It had me at HELLO!

OK Keys are in my purse....that's enough reason to believe this apartment and I were meant to be! Last night, I picked up the spare set of keys to my soon-to-be 5th East Village apartment. It was just as I remembered it when I laid eyes on it for the first time. It's your typical walk-up pre-war building. Marble staircase, exposed brick, NO Amenities....but that doesn't matter, because this apartment is spacious, plenty windows, and most of all it reminds me of the shot gun houses in New Orleans. It's a "railroad apartment" which is a term used to describe the layout of the space; it mimics that of a railroad car and is similar to a shotgun layout. There are no halls; one room opens to another then to another, and so on, with all entries in line, so that if a gun were to be shot, it would hit every room in the house. OK this is what I was told back when I was a kid. I am sure there are many different explanations flying around. 


What sold me:
1. The walk-in-closet/office in the back over looking the rear yard with plenty of trees. 
2. The picture moulding on the walls of the living room and bedroom.
3. The street: near Thompson Square Park with plenty of restaurants, bars, & boutiques.
4. The rent....It's affordable! I know~still hard to believe I won't be breaking the bank!


SHOT GUN HOMES IN NEW ORLEANS

New Orleans was built as a city that was interdependent of its crop-growing communities. Narrow lots were cut to expose river front properties, forcing the idea of shot-gun homes, forcing intimacy of neighbors with porches nearly touching. Generation after generation, New Orleanians pride ourselves on being an intimate community sharing common values.


RAILROAD HOMES IN NEW YORK

New York's pre-war residential buildings are different from it's familiar friend, the brownstone. Brownstones were built for single families or two families, at most.  Park Slope, Brooklyn is a great place to see beautiful brownstone buildings. 


The villages of Manhattan: West Village, Greenwich Village, & East Village illustrate pre-war tenement buildings, where 12 families or 20 families or more live. These buildings stretch from property line to property line, utilizing the entire lot. The grid system was implemented in New York City cutting very narrow lots, typically 25' wide & 100' long.  Windows are usually on the front and rear facades however many of these buildings have light-wells as shown below.

The light-wells are an efficient way to get light and air to the center of the long buildings. If you are interested in learning more about the tenement buildings of the east village & lower east side, visit the Tenement Museum on Orchard.