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Place, Row and Terrace
These terms usually indicate a row of houses built along a street front. Most such entries in this guide originated as what would now be called vanity addresses. From the 1820s onward, builders of row houses sought to lure buyers by giving their rows distinctive names, ignoring the official system of numbered streets and avenues. Developers liked the terms place, row and terrace because they were associated with fashionable London addresses. Some of these names stuck, at least for a few decades. They were shown on insurance maps and listed in city directories. Letter carriers delivered mail to them; and some appear in election and census records. By the end of the 19th Century nearly all of these private names had faded away. On the other hand a few, including Sutton Place and St. Mark's Place, became official street names. See also Alley and Court. |
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