Romanesque Row House, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Romanesque Row House, Allentown, Pennsylvania
Post Card Image of Romanesque Row House in Allentown, Pennsylvania
Taken in Allentown, Pennsylvania, this image depicts a very comfortable middle class residential dwelling in what was then a propersous city in Pennsylvania. The house reflects various details of architectural motifs seen commonly in American cities of prosperity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries including Romanesque Revival characteristics.
Until after the Second World War, this might have been thought of as a dream house. Even though most of America has thrown away its urban centers for suburbia–among other less paramount representations of prosperity, the fact was that living in the city in the 19th and early 20th centuries was an ideal lifestyle. Being close to work, friends, social functions/events, shopping, and the general benefits of urban life were seen as commonsensical attributes of life. This house represented property and “having made it” perhaps to whom ever photographed it and printed it as a post card to send to friends and relatives.
The dwelling is interesting, yet a typical example of a solidly middle class row house with a front porch adapted stylistically in the Romanesque taste, among other motifs. Note the wood-frame around the tree, very much commonplace at that time, as was also the picket fence leading to the rear or side yard.
In 1907, this post card was sent from Allentown, Pennsylvania by “F.M.” to Helen Sands (Sandt) of Stockertown, Pennsylvania. There was no inscription, simply the card.
