[Steely Dan]

Originally Posted by eschaton

Again, if we were going to stick to original definitions, somewhere like Elfreth's Alley in Philly has townhouses, but not rowhouses. The houses are virtually all attached on one or both sides, but they were built at different times, and vary slightly in terms of design, stories, floor height, and setback.

In contrast, these are examples of "true rows" - with groups of 2-4 houses in a row, built at the same time, to an identical plan.

now that is a much more straightforward definition. much more useful than "this one looks pretty old, so it's a rowhouse, but that one looks pretty new, so it's a townhouse".

and then getting bogged down in the mind-numbing hair-splitting of "but was that detached garage in back originally built for horses or for cars, because that makes a big difference for some reason"