Yep! That is very much what it is, Nicholas! They (realtors) always refer to these single, narrow homes as "farmhouses" around here.
There are many scattered about the area, all very much the same, most with a setback from the street of at least a small front yard, others up on big slopes with tall Wissahickon schist retaining walls, and others like ours built right on the street.
I watched over the spring and summer as one almost just like ours had the roof raised and a third floor added, as well as a huge addition to the back complete with a garage below it, cut from the earth. The slope down that driveway was way steep! No idea how they are getting out of there once it snows!
The whole thing must have cost a fortune. It was pretty interesting to watch the project happen, thats for sure!
Ours is about 1050 square ft, or 1200 or so, depending on what document ya read... kind of like the age!
And, not at all what we pictured ourselves in, quite frankly. We were looking for an old stone or brick garage/warehouse to convert to a live work space, and just happened upon the listing and decided to take a look.
The crank in the greenhouse sealed the deal!
And yes, Gothichome, I would agree about the age and style of the door. There are a few eastlake style hardware pieces inside, and some in the greenhouse, and I couldn't quite figure if they and the front door were added on to "dress it up" at some point, or if they were original... but the dates didn't quite mesh. And the back door had the same detail as the front on the framing, so having it been added later didn't make sense to me as they would not have done the back door to match had that been the case.
We liked those few small details, though. It had enough original details that we thought it charming, but a few things changed that we felt like we could make it our own without feeling bad about making changes that were personal ourselves. I so, SO wish I had more of the original windows though.
Mostly, I'd like to restore the windows and replace a few missing doors, and keep it in line with the era, as well as replace/fix the few plaster issues and address getting the foundation repaired correctly. The kitchen had all been redone prior, so if we change that it may be not exactly period.
It is constructed like a row, with the side walls bearing the load, so any interior walls could be altered. I'm pretty sure had we not purchased it, it would have been gutted to be one clear span upstairs and down, and lost any character it originally had.
It has 3 pass thru bedrooms upstairs, the smallest in the back now divided into two rooms when it got it's indoor plumbing. It's not a period style bathroom, however. And in need of some serious work, to boot.
Downstairs is livingroom, dining then kitchen. Originally I think they had a small vestibule (very small) inside the front door, but still unsure of that. I know a neighbor had one she thought to be original, now removed.
I'm going to try and visit the city archives and see if I can get some more info about the block as a whole, and the house. I'm hoping to find that it has a cistern somewhere for rainwater collection that may be useable, as I know the street on the old maps I was shown had no sewer or water, then sewer at one point and finally water lines run.
The good thing is that it is built like a row, but has a lot that is considered triple wide, which is what made it so attractive to us.
I love our little house!