Fortunes were made, and the newly well-off middle class wanted distinguished townhomes. As the city grew larger, row houses went up, first of wood, and then of brick. The term brownstone comes from a particular type of townhouse that was built in New York in the late 19th and early 20th century. Vinyl was not what I pictured on a brownstone, iron railing was. The white vinyl also contrasted sharply with the reddish-brown, green, and blue colors that were the primary colors of the buildings. I’ve always been of the opinion that vinyl is not the best material for balcony railings, and it also seems insufficiently durable as entry stair railing. Looking around the roof deck, I could see that the white vinyl railings there and on the stairs appeared flimsy. After my trip, I learned she had a point, but at that moment, my issue wasn’t with the stone the houses were made of, but with their accessories. His wife, a proud New Yorker, said these were pale imitations, and that the only real brownstones were those found in New York City. I mentioned the theme in housing I’d noticed during my travels to the owner of the last place, thinking it was funny. In Texas, I visited a friend in the Brownstone development near Austin in Alabama, I drove past a place called The Brownstones on the Gulf in Charleston, I stayed overnight with a friend in a development called the Carolina Brownstones. Over the holidays I got to see many old friends across the country.
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