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Pride in the Best Old House Neighborhoods

By: Conrad Neuf , Contributing Writer
In: Old Houses, Old House Musings, In The News

I worked in Northern Virginia from 2004 to 2008, just outside of Washington, D.C., and I watched subdivision after subdivision being built. I had a close-up view because I was involved in building some of them. Every evening, I drove 80 miles back to my old house in the country, and then got up in the morning and drove the 80 miles back.

No one could understand how I could do it, but I would not have traded my old house in the country for any of the homes I was building. They were nice houses, but I could not imagine myself living in one. I’m just an old-house type of person.

Best Old House Neighborhoods List

This Old House Magazine recently released their list of the 51 best neighborhoods to live in an old house in the U.S. This is the third year the magazine has released such a list, and their writers research the entire country to create the list. But that wasn’t the case–the Internet is full of articles written by people who are proud that their town, city, or area has a neighborhood that is now considered one of the best neighborhoods for old houses.

A Bevy of Blogs

For example, the LA Times blog has an article about the West Adams neighborhood that made the list, and the Chicago Now blog has an article about the Mayfair neighborhood that also made the cut. Mayfair is a community on the northwest side of Chicago. The NBC New York blog has an article about Brooklyn’s Stuyvesant Heights neighborhood, which made the list for its old row houses. A Philadelphia blog is proud of Mt Airy’s old houses making the list, and a Tacoma, Washington blog is bragging about the old houses in McKinley Hill that also made the list. Even a blog in Lee’s Summit, Missouri was proud of their old house neighborhood being on the list.

Apparently, the neighborhoods that made it are very proud to be there. I’m not sure whether my old house neighborhood will ever make the list, but now I don’t feel like I am in such a small group of old house aficionados anymore. Lots of people are happy to live in their old houses.

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