Brownstone
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{{otheruses4|the building material and the dwelling|the American R&B group|Brownstone (band)|the 1979 musical|Brownstone (musical)}}
[[Image:HarlemBrownstones.JPG|thumb|260px|Four-story brownstones in [[Harlem]], just south of 125th Street, 2004]]
[[Image:RRomanesquePueblo.jpg|thumb|260px|Romanesque revival building in Colorado, built in 1890]]
'''Brownstone''' is a brown [[Triassic]] [[sandstone]] which was once a popular [[building material]]. The term is also understood to be a [[terraced house]] (rowhouse) clad in this material.
==Brownstone dwellings==
In [[Boston]] and [[New York City]], a "brownstone" is understood to be a [[terraced house]] (rowhouse) clad in brownstone. These brownstone apartments typically have stairways which lead from the sidewalk to a second-floor apartment entrance, a design originally intended to avoid bringing in the mud and horse droppings commonly found at street level, a problem that existed when these apartments were built and horses roamed the streets. New York City brownstones tend to be found in certain older neighborhoods, which are perhaps most common in [[Brooklyn]]. For example, the [[neighborhood]] of [[Bedford Stuyvesant]] has the largest inventory of brownstones in the entire City of New York, followed closely by [[Park Slope]]. Many brownstones have been renovated in recent years, leading to (and/or as a result of) [[gentrification]] in areas like [[Park Slope]], [[Bedford Stuyvesant]] and [[Fort Greene]].
In [[Chicago]], a brownstone typically refers to a free-standing house, originally built for a single family, clad in brownstone. While many Chicago brownstones have subsequently been split into multiple rental or condominium units, many others remain single-family homes.
[[North Philadelphia|Philadelphia]] has an abundant number of brownstones. Due to [[urban renewal]], brownstones are developing in [[Detroit, Michigan|Detroit]] as well.
==Popular culture==
[[Rex Stout]]'s fictional detective [[Nero Wolfe]] lives in a luxurious and comfortable New York City brownstone on West 35th Street. In the television show ''[[I Love Lucy]]'' (1951–1957), the Ricardos lived in a converted Brownstone apartment building on New York's East 68th Street owned by their friends the Mertzes. On the popular American television program ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' (1984–1992), the affluent Huxtable family, the show's central characters, lived in a Brooklyn brownstone. [[Carrie Bradshaw]], the protagonist of ''[[Sex and The City]]'', resided in a brownstone at a fictitious [[Upper East Side]] address in [[New York City]].
The term brownstone may also be used as slang for [[heroin]], particularly in the United States; "[[Mr. Brownstone]]" is a [[Guns N' Roses]] song about heroin use. This could be related to brownstone neighborhoods in Harlem where dealers were likely to live, as in the lyrics of the [[Velvet Underground]] song, ''[[I'm Waiting for the Man]]''.
==Notable types of brownstone==
===[[Basswood Island|Apostle Island brownstone]]===
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===Hummelstown brownstone===
[[Image:BarbourCountyCourthouse.jpg|thumb|260px|right|The Barbour County Courthouse (1903-05) in Philippi, West Virginia is faced entirely in Hummelstown brownstone.]]
[[Hummelstown brownstone]] is extremely popular along the East Coast of the [[United States of America]], with numerous government buildings from [[West Virginia]], [[Pennsylvania]], [[New York]], [[Maryland]], and [[Delaware]] being faced entirely with the stone. The stone comes from the Hummelstown Quarry in [[Hummelstown, Pennsylvania]], a small town outside of [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]]. The Hummelstown Quarry is the largest provider of brownstone in along the east coast. Typically the stone was transported out of Hummelstown through the [[Brownstone and Middletown Railroad]] or taken by truck up to the [[Erie Canal]].
==See also==
*[[dimension stone]]
*[[Railroad apartment]]
*[[sandstone]]
*[[Hummelstown Brownstone Company]]
==External links==
*Website devoted to the [http://www.nps.gov/apis/quarries.htm Apostle Island brownstone quarries] in Wisconsin.
*Website devoted to the [http://www.brownstone.us Weser brownstone quarries] from Germany being imported into the US.
*Link to Brownstone Manufacturer [http://stonecleft.com Brownstone Fabricator] in New York.
*Link to Brownstone Supplier [http://brownstone.us Natural Brownstone] US and Canada
[[Category:Masonry]]
[[Category:Culture of New York City]]
[[Category:Stone]]
[[fr:brownstone]]