What’s the difference between a townhouse and a row house, and does it really matter?  Both types of homes are fitted between high side walls and offer slender, discrete facades to the street.  But “townhouse” conjures images of well-heeled urban living, with all the attendant pretensions, while “row house” implies something altogether less formal and prepossessing.

A visited a friend who lives in a three-story brick row house near Frederick Douglass Square in Boston, and now I’m convinced that it’s the best kind of house.  A row house balances the privacy and freedom of a detached house with the security of an apartment.  It grants an inveterate urbanite his own street entrance, rooftop and yard, while keeping him connected to neighbors and the city.  And the spread of space inside, a straight shot through from sidewalk to back yard, offers both compressed urban energy and a sense of suburban ease.