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110-591: Littlefield was born in a Philadelphia rowhome in 1905 to James H. Littlefield and Caroline Doebele Littlefield (also known as "Mommie"). Her father was a native of Maine who worked for the YMCA and later founded a newsreel business. Her mother was raised by her German immigrant grandmother and studied piano at a local conservatory. Littlefield had three younger siblings: Jimmie (b. 1910), Dorothie (b. 1912), and Carl (b. 1915). In 1908, Mommie began giving three-year-old Littlefield and neighborhood children dancing lessons at

220-461: A 110-member symphony orchestra (the world's largest permanent orchestra at that time), a solo theater pipe organist, a male chorus, a ballet company, and a famous line of female precision dancers, the "Roxyettes" . Elaborate stage spectacles were created each week to accompany the feature film, all under Rothafel's supervision. The theater's orchestra and performers were also featured in an NBC Radio program with Roxy himself as host. The Roxy Hour

330-482: A Philadelphia widow and moved with her to a farm on the Potomac River near Montross, Virginia. Littlefield bought a bungalow nearby and the extended family often retreated to the area to be together and relax. Jimmie died at the farm at age 37 after moving hay on an extremely hot day. As for the other family members: Dorothie married twice and had one daughter before succumbing to a heart attack at age 43. Carl became

440-604: A Victorian terrace with a house built after 1980, and found that: The research demonstrated that, contrary to earlier thinking, older housing actually costs less to maintain and occupy over the long-term life of the dwelling than more modern housing. Largely due to the quality and life-span of the materials used, the Victorian terraced house proved almost £1,000 per 100 m cheaper to maintain and inhabit on average each year. Halifax's use of rowhouses, townhouses and terraced housing has been consistent throughout its history, particularly on

550-505: A West Philadelphia YMCA. In addition, she managed a "kiddie" opera troupe along with her husband. Actress and singer Jeanette MacDonald and Ziegfeld Follies star Ann Pennington were members of this troupe as young girls. As a preteen, Littlefield studied with C. Ellwood Carpenter, a third-generation member of a famous family of Philadelphia dancing masters. Under Carpenter's tutelage, Littlefield performed in stand-alone ballets and semi-professional opera performances. Carpenter also had

660-473: A costume department, staff dry-cleaning and laundry rooms, a barber shop and hairdresser, a dining room, a completely equipped infirmary, and a menagerie for show animals. There were also myriad offices, a private 100-seat screening room, and massive machine rooms for the electrical, ventilation and heating machinery. The theater's large staff also enjoyed a cafeteria, gymnasium, billiard room, nap room, library and showers. The theater's stage innovations included

770-449: A day between showings of the feature film, The Black Rose . The Roxy's stage was rebuilt twice, in 1948 and 1952, to add the ice surface for skating shows. During the latter refurbishing, the stage was extended into the house over the orchestra pit, and colored neon was embedded in the ice. Ice shows were presented, along with the feature film, on and off through the 1950s. In January 1956, skating star Sonja Henie brought her revue to

880-443: A diagonal auditorium with the stage in one corner of the lot. It maximized the auditorium's size and seating capacity but compromised the function of its triangular stage. The Roxy's stage, while very wide, was not very deep and had limited off-stage space. Despite this limitation, the theater boasted lavish support facilities including two stories of private dressing rooms, three floors of chorus dressing rooms, huge rehearsal rooms,

990-405: A frontal yard, rear yard, or both. A typical Malaysian and Singaporean terraced house is usually one or two floors high, but a handful of three or four storey terraced homes exist, especially newer terraced houses. Earlier variations followed traditional Western, Malay, India and Chinese architecture, as well as Art Deco and International stylings between the 1930s and 1950s. The manner in which

1100-482: A future for herself in the burgeoning television industry as well as in directing and producing on Broadway, but cancer took her life prematurely at age 46. Among her family, friends, and close associates, Littlefield was warm, funny, and down to earth, while in professional situations she maintained her distance and radiated authority. With her blue eyes, platinum blonde hair, fine jewelry and well-tailored clothes (including an ever-present floor-length fur coat), she cut

1210-425: A glamorous figure. In 1940, she was named one of the country's "Ten Best-Dressed Women." Young dancers often claimed her as their role model. Littlefield was musically adept, able to read scores and conduct orchestras during rehearsals when necessary. Although she never graduated from high school, she was well read and informed about current events. She was politically conservative, unlike many of her colleagues in

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1320-497: A highly decorated pilot in World War II. He later married Lois Girard, had three children, and moved to California to work in the airline industry. He died in 1966. Littlefield's father had died in 1934, while Mommie died in 1957 at age 75, having outlived three of her four children. Littlefield and Philip Leidy separated around 1940 and divorced amicably in 1946. He had developed a progressive neurological disease that necessitated

1430-519: A neighbouring unit. As opposed to apartment buildings, townhouses do not have neighbouring units above or below them. They are similar in concept to row houses or terraced houses, but share a common design and construction. The first and last of the houses is called an end terrace and is often a different layout from the houses in the middle, sometimes called mid-terrace. In Australia, the term "terrace house" refers almost exclusively to Victorian and Edwardian era terraces or replicas almost always found in

1540-413: A permanent ice rink) and for Sonja Henie 's touring Hollywood Ice Revues . Although Littlefield never learned to skate, she understood how to apply a dancer's sensibility to skating. The hard-to-please Henie trusted her implicitly. Toward the end of her life, Littlefield entered the field of television, staging skits for Jimmy Durante 's Four-Star Revue, a variety show broadcast live by NBC. She saw

1650-474: A plotless one act called Classical Suite to music by Johann Sebastian Bach; an annual Christmas Die Puppenfee ; and historical pageants such as The Rising Sun and Let the Righteous Be Glad . Although Littlefield choreographed most of the company's repertoire, she also presented works by other choreographers including her Russian ballet master Alexis Dolinoff and modern dancer Lasar Galpern. Littlefield

1760-714: A professional ballet troupe, which had long been a dream of hers. In the meantime, her friend Balanchine had arrived in New York from Europe to establish a school and company under the sponsorship of Lincoln Kirstein . Balanchine needed dancers and visited the Littlefield School to hold auditions, eventually offering scholarships to a half dozen of Littlefield's best students. These girls left for New York, accompanied by Littlefield's sister, Dorothie, whom Balanchine hired to teach, dance, and serve as ballet mistress for his incipient School of American Ballet and first company, called

1870-447: A rising orchestra pit which could accommodate 110 musicians, and a three-console Kimball theater pipe organ . The film projection booth was recessed into the front of the balcony to prevent film distortion caused by the usual angled projection from the top rear wall of a theater. This enabled the Roxy to have the sharpest film image for its time. Courteous service to patrons was a key part of

1980-459: A rooftop deck. While zoning codes do exist which can possibly prevent third stories from being added to homes, Philly Mag claims "The city’s 2012 zoning code overhaul, which increased the height limit for rowhouses from 35 to 38 feet, has made this option increasingly prevalent." San Francisco is also famous for its terraced houses, especially in the older neighborhoods of North Beach , the Castro ,

2090-450: A short story about her. The story was never published and the manuscript was subsequently lost. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Littlefield staged prologues and line shows at movie palaces around the city, including at the opulent Stanley and Mastbaum theaters. During this period, she traveled to Paris almost annually to train with Russian expatriate teachers, particularly Lyubov Yegorova . Mommie and Littlefield's sister, Dorothie, who

2200-537: A singing part. She appeared in the Follies , Annie Dear , and Louie the 14th . While in New York, she studied ballet with Luigi Albertieri and Ivan Tarasoff , becoming familiar with both Italian and Russian techniques. While Littlefield was away, Mommie was hired to teach and stage recitals for the Philadelphia Music Club, an amateur women's musical group. This led to her appointment as ballet mistress for

2310-757: A studio on the Ocean City, New Jersey , boardwalk, and Littlefield took classes with him there during summers when her father worked as a lifeguard. After the Littlefield family moved from Philadelphia to suburban Llanerch, Mommie opened a dance studio on the second floor of the Llanerch Firehouse. While Mommie nurtured her children's interest in music and dance, Littlefield's father encouraged their natural athleticism. He taught them horsemanship and acrobatic stunts, and coached Carl in long-distance swimming. Both of Littlefield's parents were gregarious and fun-loving, and

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2420-618: A wheelchair and didn't want his ambitious wife to feel obligated to nurse him. After their divorce, Leidy remained close to the Littlefields and continued to handle their legal affairs. In 1947, Littlefield married Sterling Noel, a newspaper editor and novelist, whose most successful book was entitled I Killed Stalin . The couple lived in a penthouse apartment overlooking the East River in New York and socialized frequently with theatrical and literary friends. Besides her two husbands, Littlefield

2530-453: A wide variety of dance genres, including movie palace stage shows, Broadway musicals, stadium pageants, ice-skating routines, and television skits. Critic Walter Terry summarized her versatility: "Catherine Littlefield is becoming a theater figure of the first rank, a girl who is leaving her mark in the revue, in the ballet and on ice." Her legacy as a teacher is less well known but equally as important. The dancer/choreographers with whom she

2640-399: Is between through terraces , whose houses have both a front and a back door, and back-to-backs , which are bricked in on three sides. The 1875 Public Health Act imposed a duty on local authorities to regulate housing by the use of byelaws , and subsequently all byelaw terraced housing was required to have its own privy , with rear access to allow the night soil to be collected as per

2750-591: Is made of brick or stucco. The row houses of New York City are built with a variety of material, including brownstone , limestone , and brick , and some are wood-frame homes. Row houses are especially prominent in neighborhoods like Middle Village , Woodhaven and Jackson Heights in Queens ; Bay Ridge , Bensonhurst , Brooklyn Heights , Bushwick , Canarsie , Marine Park , Park Slope , and Sunset Park in Brooklyn ; and Williamsbridge , Wakefield , and Soundview in

2860-644: Is most often compared—Ruth Page, for example—never ran a school on the scale that she did. (Nor did they dance as well.) Littlefield's protegees were foundational to the two most influential ballet companies that exist in America today: the New York City Ballet and American Ballet Theatre. In May 2010, the Philadelphia Sinfonia youth orchestra gave a rousing, multi-media performance of Cafe Society at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center. The performance combined

2970-569: Is quite common in Europe and Latin America, and many examples can be found in the United Kingdom, Belgium, United States, Canada, and Australia. The Place des Vosges in Paris (1605–1612) is one of the early examples of the type. Although in early larger forms it was and still is used for housing the wealthy, as cities and the demands for ever smaller close housing grew, it regularly became associated with

3080-481: Is the modernisation of exterior construction and façade. Certain older terrace houses tend to be converted for various new roles; some are converted into shophouses or business premises (including clubs, hotels and boarding homes–especially pre-independence houses–and kindergartens). Others have remained in use as residential units, are abandoned, neglected, or razed. Significant expansions are also common on all terrace homes; roofs and additional rooms may be added within

3190-744: The Back Bay , Beacon Hill , and the South End . Back Bay is famous for its rows of Victorian brick townhouse homes – considered one of the best-preserved examples of 19th-century urban design in the United States. Beacon Hill is a neighborhood in Boston consisting of Federal-style rowhouses . The South End is built mostly of mid-nineteenth century bowfronts – aesthetically uniform rows of five-story, predominantly red-brick structures, of mixed residential and commercial uses. In Chicago , row houses can be found in

3300-594: The Center Theatre when the owners of the original Roxy sued Rockefeller Center for rights to the Roxy name. After Rothafel's departure, the Roxy Theatre never quite regained its former glory, but remained a leading New York showcase for film and stage variety shows. In 1942, A. J. Balaban , co-founder of the Balaban & Katz theater chain, began nearly a decade as its executive director. He came out of retirement to run

3410-500: The Central Business Districts of the major cities. They are therefore sometimes quite expensive even though they may not be the preferred accommodation style. The lack of windows on the side, the small gardens, and the relative darkness of the rooms is at odds with the design favoured for modern Australian homes. In Belgium , the row houses are the predominant type of housing around the country and closely associated with

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3520-597: The Chicago Civic Opera company. It also undertook an eight-week domestic tour in early 1941, performing in college towns and at the Ohio State Fair. The company disbanded soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor , when many of Littlefield's male dancers enlisted in the American military. Even before Littlefield disbanded her company, she had been pursuing commercial work. Her most ambitious and widely seen undertaking

3630-537: The Ferde Grofé ballet music Littlefield had commissioned with critic Ann Barzel 's film footage and still photographs. Terraced house A terrace , terraced house ( UK ), or townhouse ( US ) is a type of medium-density housing which first started in 16th century Europe with a row of joined houses sharing side walls . In the United States and Canada these are sometimes known as row houses or row homes. Terrace housing can be found worldwide, though it

3740-776: The Haight-Ashbury , Russian Hill , the Mission District , Duboce Triangle and the Western Addition . The " Painted Ladies " on Steiner Street, in the Western Addition's Alamo Square district, although not strictly "terraced", are a symbol of the city. Other ornate, intricately-detailed Victorian-style homes labelled as "painted ladies" around the city are terraced, and others again are semi-detached. Several neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. feature rowhouses, often composing

3850-750: The Huguenot entrepreneur Nicholas Barbon in the rebuilding after the Great Fire of London . Fashionable terraces appeared in London's Grosvenor Square from 1727 onwards and in Bath 's Queen Square from 1729 onwards. The Scottish architect Robert Adam is credited with the development of the house itself. Early terraces were also built by the two John Woods in Bath and under the direction of John Nash in Regent's Park , London. The term

3960-565: The Italianate and Queen Anne architectural styles. As rowhouses are very common, the Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) publishes a specific guide for rowhouse home owners in an effort to detail some of the ways to maintain their properties. With space within the city's borders at a premium, there has been a push to add a third floor to an existing rowhouse's in recent times, often this third level would include

4070-588: The Nicholas Brothers , Carmen Cavallaro , and The Harmonicats . Even classical ballet dancers, such as Leonide Massine , performed there. Balaban invited the New York Philharmonic to the Roxy along with soprano Eileen Farrell for a two-week engagement in September 1950. Appearing for the first time as the main attraction at a movie palace, the orchestra played an abbreviated concert program four times

4180-679: The Rochdale system . As recently as 2011, byelaw terraced houses made up over 15% of the United Kingdom's housing stock. Since the Second World War, housing redevelopment has led to many outdated or dilapidated terraces being cleared to make room for tower blocks , which occupy a much smaller area of land. Because of this land use in the inner city areas could in theory have been used to create greater accessibility, employment or recreational or leisure centres. However, sub-optimal or flawed implementation has meant that in many areas (like Manchester or

4290-638: The Tapiola garden city, Espoo , from the 1950s. Terraced housing has long been a popular form in Paris, France. The Place des Vosges (1605–1612) was one of the earliest examples of the arrangement. In Parisian squares, central blocks were given discreet prominence, to relieve the façade. Terraced building including housing was also used primarily during Haussmann's renovation of Paris between 1852 and 1870 creating whole streetscapes consisting of terraced rows. The first streets of houses with uniform fronts were built by

4400-618: The Time-Life building . Eliot Elisofon 's photograph of Gloria Swanson amidst the theater's ruins appeared in the November 7, 1960 issue of LIFE . The theater can briefly be seen from the air, during its demolition, in the prologue of the film West Side Story , across 7th Avenue from the back of the Winter Garden Theatre . The spectacular stage and screen programming ideas of the Roxy's founder continued at Radio City Music Hall into

4510-537: The rivitalo (literally: row house) has not been seen as a particularly urban house type. What is regarded as the first terraced house to be built, Ribbingshof (1916), in the new Helsinki suburb of Kulosaari was designed by renowned architect Armas Lindgren , and was inspired by ideas from the English Garden City movement and Hampstead Garden Suburb , and was seen as a relatively low density residential area. A similarly leafy suburban street of terraced houses

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4620-533: The working class . Terraced housing has increasingly become associated with gentrification in certain inner-city areas, drawing the attention of city planning . Though earlier Gothic examples, such as Vicars' Close, Wells , are known, the alignment of the house fronts with the property line really began in the 16th century following Dutch and Belgian models and became called "row" houses in English. For example, in "Yarmouth Rows" , Great Yarmouth , Norfolk ,

4730-570: The 1791 L'Enfant Plan . Outside of Washington DC many townhomes have been built in the last 50 years to encourage density especially around Metro stations and other areas of interest. In other cities throughout the United States, such as Albany, New York ; Cincinnati ; Cleveland ; Covington, Kentucky ; Detroit ; Hoboken, New Jersey ; Jersey City ; Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; Norfolk ; Pittsburgh ; Reading, Pennsylvania ; Richmond ; Troy ; and Wilmington, Delaware , row houses and terraced housing are also common, with row housing more focused on

4840-484: The 1970s. Its lavish Christmas stage show, created in 1933 by the Roxy's former producer and choreographer, Leon Leonidoff and Russell Markert, continues to this day as the Radio City Christmas Spectacular . The Music Hall itself was saved from demolition by a consortium of preservation and commercial interests in 1979, and remains one of New York's entertainment landmarks. Its restored interior includes

4950-1005: The 19th century. Society Hill is known to have the largest concentration of original 18th- and early 19th-century residential architecture of any place in the United States. The style and type of material used in constructing Philadelphia's rowhouses vary throughout the city. Even in neighborhoods where twin houses are found, their façades and internal layouts usually resemble those of rowhouses. Most are primarily red brick in construction, often with white stone trim. Some are faced with stone, being brownstone on some blocks in Center City , South Philadelphia , and North Philadelphia and being Wissahickon schist in Mayfair in Northeast Philadelphia and Mt. Airy in Northwest Philadelphia . West Philadelphia has many colorful rowhouses in

5060-679: The American Ballet. Despite the loss of these dancers, Littlefield followed through with her own plans to form a troupe. The Littlefield Ballet gave its inaugural performance at Haverford High School on October 25, 1935. Two months later, Littlefield changed the company's name to the Philadelphia Ballet. She served as its director, choreographer, and premiere danseuse, while Dorothie (who had left Balanchine's employ to help her sister) and Littlefield's brother Carl, who had been convinced by Mommie to learn dancing, joined as soloists. Mommie

5170-538: The Belgian culture and history. The Grand Place , the central historic place of the capital Brussels , is surrounded by private houses dating from the 17th century, reflecting the city as a mercantile power at that time in northern Europe. Later, in the 19th century, Belgium played an important role in the early history of industrial revolution like the United Kingdom , where an important amount of working class housing

5280-466: The Bronx . In historic Philadelphia , the rowhouse (almost always spelled as one word) has been the most common domestic building type in the city and some of its suburbs since colonial times. Some of the oldest rowhouses in the city are narrow three-story "Trinity" houses that accommodated a large population of indentured servants and immigrant workers, in addition to enclaves of free African-Americans in

5390-547: The Irish capital. They were built in the Victorian era for the city's lower middle class and emulated upper class townhouses. By the early Victorian period , a terrace had come to designate any style of housing where individual houses repeating one design are joined into rows. The style was used for workers' housing in industrial districts during the rapid urbanisation following the Industrial Revolution , particularly in

5500-546: The London estates) the tower blocks offered no real improvement for rehoused residents over their prior terraced houses. In 2005 the English Heritage report Low Demand Housing and the Historic Environment found that repairing a standard Victorian terraced house over 30 years is around 60% cheaper than building and maintaining a newly built house. In a 2003 survey for Heritage Counts a team of experts contrasted

5610-451: The Peninsula where the city first began settlement. In the older sections of the city are sections of terraced housing used historically for military families, as part of established families' real estate holdings in addition to a country house, and as dwellings for the working classes of the city and as public housing. The most well-known of the terraced housing areas is The Hydrostone , which

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5720-706: The Philadelphia Ballet's leading dancers included Dolinoff, Thomas Cannon, Karen Conrad, Joan McCracken, Miriam Golden, Dania Krupska, and Norma Gentner. Conrad and Golden eventually left the company to become original members of Ballet Theatre (later American Ballet Theatre ). The Philadelphia Ballet was the first classical ballet company to tour Europe. In the spring and summer of 1937, the company performed to critical and audience acclaim in Paris, Brussels, London, and Deauville, France. Littlefield's American-themed works Barn Dance and Terminal proved especially popular with European audiences. Esteemed British critic Arnold Haskell declared that Littlefield's " Barn Dance [was]

5830-723: The Philadelphia Civic Opera and later the Philadelphia Grand Opera. Littlefield returned to Philadelphia from New York to dance lead roles for her mother. She also choreographed ballets and opera divertissements under her mother's name. By this time, Mommie's dancing studio had evolved into the full-fledged Littlefield School, and the Littlefields used their advanced students in their productions. They also hired several men, including William Dollar , to teach and perform. Zelda Fitzgerald , wife of novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald , studied with Littlefield in 1927 and wrote

5940-611: The Quantock Rows on Taylor Street and Jones Street , McDonough Row and Marshall Row. New Orleans has a distinctive style of terrace house in the French Quarter known as the Creole townhouse that is part of what makes the city famous. The façade of the building sits on the property line, with an asymmetrical arrangement of arched openings. Creole Townhouses have a steeply pitched roof, side-gabled, with several roof dormers. The exterior

6050-468: The Roxy formula. The theater's uniformed corps of male ushers were known for their courtesy, efficiency, and military bearing. They underwent rigorous training and daily inspections and drills, overseen by a retired Marine officer. Their crisp attire was favorably mentioned by Cole Porter in a stanza of the song " You're the Top " in 1932. The Roxy presented major Hollywood films in programs that also included

6160-560: The Roxy in her final New York appearance. Widescreen CinemaScope was introduced at the Roxy with the world premiere in 1953 of 20th Century-Fox 's film The Robe . The Roxy had also introduced the original 70mm widescreen format " Fox Grandeur " in 1930 with the premiere of Fox Films ' Happy Days . Due to the Great Depression , however, the Roxy was one of only two theaters (with Grauman's Chinese ) equipped for 70mm Grandeur, and it never caught on. Another widescreen format,

6270-438: The United States is generally referred to as townhouses . In some cities such as New York , Philadelphia , Baltimore , San Francisco , and Washington, D.C. , where they have been part of the landscape for over a century, they are often called row houses or row homes. Despite the narrow lots, many row houses are relatively large, some being over 2,000 square feet. They typically have two stories, but may have three or more (with

6380-399: The building fronts all were right on the property line. The term terrace was borrowed from garden terraces by British architects of the late Georgian period to describe streets of houses whose uniform fronts and uniform height created a stylish ensemble rather than a mere "row" of similar homes. Townhouses (or townhomes) are generally two- to three-story structures that share a wall with

6490-400: The building's structure directly erected in front of the road. One of the reasons behind this was the taxing according to street frontage rather than total area, thereby creating an economic motivation to build narrow and deeply. A five foot way porch was usually laid out at the ground floor for use by both the residents and pedestrians. Alternatively, the porch may be sealed from the rest of

6600-409: The buildings were designed varies by their location in an urban area. Derivatives located within city centres may also utilize their space for both commercial on the ground floor and residential use on the first floor and above (accurately known as shophouses , also similar to Lingnan buildings ). Inner city terrace house design tended to lack any frontal yard at all, with narrow street frontages, hence

6710-634: The center of the city, and later changing over to dense detached housing in outer neighborhoods. Scattered row homes and apartment rows can often be found in other eastern and Midwestern U.S. cities, specifically Minneapolis and St. Paul . The F. Scott Fitzgerald House in St. Paul is likely the most notable example of a row home in the Twin Cities . Columbus, Ohio has scattered row homes, along with smaller Midwest cities like Dubuque , Duluth , and Toledo . There are also scattered row homes and apartment rows in

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6820-519: The cities often entirely around individually owned parcels where single family row houses were built and occupied by both the middle class and the bourgeois class. Some houses are internationally renowned for their architecture like the Art Nouveau style Hotel Tassel or the Hôtel van Eetvelde both designed by Victor Horta . In Finland, an agrarian country where urbanism was a generally late phenomenon,

6930-561: The city's Northwest quadrant, in the densely populated area east of Rock Creek Park , except for Capitol Hill and its sub-neighborhoods, which occupy the areas of the Northeast and Southeast quadrants directly east of the United States Capitol Building . Because many D.C. rowhouses are historic structures, dating back as far as the early 1800s, they are especially common within the city's original boundaries , as laid out in

7040-824: The city, featured in David Fennario's Balconville and Mordecai Richler's The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz . Terraced homes are abundant in Old Toronto . Many of them are constructed in the local bay-and-gable style, popular in the 1870s. Examples of Victorian bay-and-gable style can be found in Cabbagetown, Toronto , Parkdale , The Annex , Kensington Market , areas east of Chinatown, Toronto and Spadina Avenue including Baldwin Village. The last surviving row of Georgian -style terraced houses in Toronto, known as Walnut Hall ,

7150-409: The city. A sizable quantity of Baltimore's row houses are clad with formstone , a distinct feature of Baltimore's row houses, typically found in working class areas of the city. Marble front steps also make Baltimore's row houses distinct from other cities' row houses. Much like Philadelphia, some areas of the city that contain row houses are neglected. The row houses of Boston are found primarily in

7260-540: The city. As is common in other North American cities, in Montreal row houses are often referred to as townhouses. The streetscape of the city's 19th century neighbourhoods, such as the Plateau , Centre-Sud , and Hochelaga , are dominated by row houses, duplexes and triplexes . Row houses continued to be built throughout the 20th century. In many neighbourhoods, such as Villeray , Parc Extension , and Ville-Émard , they became

7370-552: The countries' early British colonial rule . Based on British terraced home designs, the Southeast Asian variations are similar to their British counterparts (in which the living quarters are located on the front and top floor and the kitchen at the back) and were adapted to accommodate the area's tropical weather, which is primarily warm throughout the year and receives heavy rainfall. Earlier versions were more open, designed to better circulate air and features inner courtyards, with

7480-408: The dance world. She was a Francophile and could speak French fluently. The Littlefields remained unusually close into adulthood. Littlefield's brother Jimmie was the only sibling not to dance professionally. A musician like his mother, he formed and directed a nightclub orchestra and published his own songs, some of which were used in his older sister's ice shows at Centre Theatre. He later married

7590-582: The dominant form of housing during the post-war period. In the 21st century, Montreal has continued to build row houses at a high rate, with 62% of housing starts in the metropolitan area being apartment or row units. Apartment complexes, high-rises , and semi-detached homes are less popular in Montreal when compared to large Canadian cities like Toronto or Vancouver but similar to some US cities, in particular Philadelphia . Montreal's characteristic row houses and their iconic alleyways, balconies , and outdoor staircases have become cultural symbols of

7700-565: The downtown and surrounding areas developed in the late 1800s through 1930s. Many are two and three-flat buildings (consisting of one or sometimes two apartments on a three-floored building). A greystone in Chicago is similar to the brownstone found in New York and Boston , except the façade is clad in Indiana limestone. Most row houses are separated by a gangway that leads under the common wall between

7810-433: The family was known to be sociable and close-knit. At age 15, Littlefield was spotted by impresario Florenz Ziegfeld as she danced in the Philadelphia Junior League's presentation of Why Not? He offered her a role in his Broadway hit Sally , and she moved to New York to join the show in the fall of 1920. Littlefield danced in various Ziegfeld productions for the next five years, eventually assuming solo roles and even

7920-565: The first chapter in the history of American Ballet." Indeed, Barn Dance was the first highly successful and widely seen work of "ballet Americana," in which the theme, designs, music, and dancers were entirely American or American made. Following the European tour, the company reverted to its original name—the Littlefield Ballet—to dance for three seasons in Chicago as the resident troupe of

8030-427: The first of six Roxy Theatres in the New York area. Roxy was determined to make the theater the summit of his career, realizing all of his theatrical design and production ideas. He worked with Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager and decorator Harold Rambusch of Rambusch Decorating Company on every aspect of its design and furnishing. Roxy's lavish ideas and many changes ran up costs dramatically. A week before

8140-516: The first speculative housing developments in the United States. Carstairs Row was built on the southern part of the site occupied by "Morris's Folly" – Robert Morris 's unfinished mansion designed by L'Enfant . Prior to this time houses had been built not in rows, but individually. It can be contrasted with Elfreth's Alley , the oldest continuously occupied road in the U.S., where all the houses are of varying heights and widths, with different street lines, doorways and brickwork. Terraced housing in

8250-648: The floorspace of the house's lot. Concerns are also raised with the limited maintenance and monitoring of deserted terrace homes, which potentially become hiding places for rodents and snakes (in yards with overgrown grass), and drug addicts. Earlier variations of the terrace house were constructed with wood, later replaced with a masonry shell holding wooden beams to form foundations for the upper floors and tiled roof. Contemporary variations are primarily held together with reinforced concrete beams, which are later completed with concrete slabs, brick walls and tiled roofs. Roxy Theatre (New York City) The Roxy Theatre

8360-418: The houses built for workers of the expanding textile industry . The terrace style spread widely across the country, and was the usual form of high-density residential housing up to World War II. The 19th century need for expressive individuality inspired variation of façade details and floor-plans reversed with those of each neighbouring pair, to offer variety within the standardised format. A major distinction

8470-525: The houses leading to the rear of the property (where sometimes a rear house or coach house exists) and alleyway. The vast majority of two and three flats do not share a common wall and are stand alone structures. However, many row houses similar to those found in Philadelphia , Baltimore , and Washington, D.C. do exist, largely on the near south and west sides, though not as common. Gordon Row , in Savannah ,

8580-674: The latter often being converted into apartments for separate tenants). The term "townhouse" in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic usually refers to modern terraced houses constructed in the late 20th century and beyond, especially those in suburban settings, which often have home owners associations and include garages. Multi-story attached homes that are grouped in twos or threes are typically called duplexes and triplexes respectively. Most of Baltimore's housing consists of row houses. A few of Baltimore's row houses date back to colonial times. The style and materials used in their constructions vary throughout

8690-413: The majority or a large plurality of the local housing stock. As in other American cities, rowhouses in D.C. span a wide range of architectural styles and building materials. Neighborhoods known for high concentrations of rowhouses include Capitol Hill , Dupont Circle , Logan Circle , Shaw , LeDroit Park , Columbia Heights , Petworth , and Bloomingdale . Many neighborhoods with rowhouses are located in

8800-454: The mezzanine. Off the rotunda was a long entrance lobby that led through the adjacent Manger Hotel to the theater's main entrance at the corner of Seventh Avenue and W. 50th Street. The hotel (later called the Taft Hotel ) was built at the same time as the theater. Ahlschlager succeeded in creating an efficient plan for the Roxy's irregular plot of land, utilizing every bit of space by designing

8910-496: The older, inner city areas of the major cities. Terraced housing was introduced to Australia from Britain in the nineteenth century, basing their architecture on those in the UK, France and Italy. Large numbers of terraced houses were built in the inner suburbs of large Australian cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne , mainly between the 1850s and the 1890s (terraced housing is rare outside of these cities). Detached housing became

9020-463: The oldest neighborhoods of Denver, Colorado . Montevideo and Buenos Aires during the last decades of the 19th century developed a type of terraced house called the Standard House or informally ' Chorizo' House. Introduced around the beginning of the twentieth century, terraced houses (also known as shophouses or linear linkhouses) have been adopted in both Malaysia and Singapore since

9130-748: The popular style of housing in Australia following Federation in 1901. The most common building material used was brick , often covered with cement render and then painted. Many terraces were built in the " filigree " style, a style distinguished through heavy use of cast iron ornament, particularly on the balconies and sometimes depicting native Australian flora. In the 1950s, many urban renewal programmes were aimed at eradicating them entirely in favour of modern development. In recent decades these inner-city areas and their terraced houses have been gentrified . The suburbs in which terrace houses are often found are often sought after in Australia due to their proximity to

9240-422: The relationship between the United States and Mexico, a fashionable subject at the time. It drew a glittering audience and enormous publicity but didn't fare well with the critics and was never repeated. After a brief stint as ballet mistress at New York's Roxy Theatre , Littlefield returned home and married Philadelphia lawyer/socialite Philip Ludwell Leidy. With Leidy's financial support, she started organizing

9350-554: The routine as a "clear if complex blending of human anatomy, solid geometry, and acrobatics offered as a symbolic demonstration of manners." Throughout the 1940s, Littlefield also choreographed Broadway musicals, including Hold onto Your Hats , Crazy with the Heat , Follow the Girls , The Firebrand of Florence , and Sweethearts . In addition, she choreographed ice-skating shows for Broadway's Center Theatre (which had converted its stage into

9460-422: The theater at the urging of Spyros Skouras , the head of the Roxy's parent company, National Theatres, as well as 20th Century-Fox Studios. Balaban restored the theater to profitability with access to first-run Fox films, as well as the production and presentation of first-class live shows. Among his innovations were building an ice rink on the Roxy stage, and engaging many of the era's noted performers, such as

9570-472: The theater from National Theatres. Following the end of Windjammer 's run, the theater's capacity was increased. One of the Roxy's last big combined shows was in 1959, with the feature film This Earth Is Mine starring Rock Hudson and Jean Simmons , followed by The Big Circus starring Victor Mature . On the stage were Gretchen Wyler , The Blackburn Twins, Jerry Collins, and The Roxy Orchestra. The Roxy closed on March 29, 1960. The final movie

9680-599: The theater named for him for Rockefeller Center , where he opened the new Radio City Music Hall and RKO Roxy theaters. Most of the Roxy's performers and artistic staff moved to the Music Hall with him, including producer Leon Leonidoff, choreographer Russell Markert, and conductor Erno Rapee . The Roxyettes went on to greater fame at the Music Hall, where they became the Rockettes in 1935 (and where their successors continue performing today). The RKO Roxy soon changed its name to

9790-505: The theater opened, Lubin, $ 2.5 million over budget and near bankruptcy, sold his controlling interest to movie mogul and theater owner William Fox for $ 5 million. The theater's final cost was $ 12 million. With Lubin's exit, Roxy's dreams of his own theater circuit also ended. Only one other of the projected Roxy chain was built: the Roxy Midway Theatre on Broadway, on Manhattan 's Upper West Side , also designed by Ahlschlager. It

9900-501: The theater's appearance had been altered considerably from its original lavish 1920s design. The big orchestra pit was mostly covered by the stage extension, and the organ consoles were removed. The elegant lobby areas, however, remained largely intact. In 1956, the theater was acquired by the Rockefeller family for $ 6.1 million and leased back to National Theatres. In 1958, Rothafel and an independent syndicate took over management of

10010-446: The three-projector Cinemiracle , also debuted at the Roxy on a curved 110-foot screen with the 1958 film Windjammer which resulted in the capacity being reduced to 2,710. Part of the proscenium and side walls were removed to accommodate the huge Cinemiracle screen, and much of the rest of the auditorium was covered in heavy drapes. From 1955 on, the theater's managing director was Roxy Rothafel's son, Robert C. Rothafel. By this time

10120-460: The twentieth century, and a construction boom of the house design occurred in Malaysia since the 1940s, with numerous housing estates consisting of terrace homes sprouting in and around cities and towns. In the process, the design of the building began to diversify, with various refinements and style changes. Generally, the building's floor space and yards become larger and more elaborate through time, as

10230-407: The walkway to serve as personal space. Such designs became less common after the 1960s. Terrace houses located on the outskirts of city centres were less restrictive, although the design of the building itself was not unlike those in the city. Certain homes tend to feature longer front yards, enough to accommodate cars. Others strictly serve as a small garden. This design remained in demand throughout

10340-419: The year in their country houses . These terraced houses, often surrounding a garden square , are hallmarks of Georgian architecture . The same was true of many British and Irish cities. In Dublin , Georgian squares such as Merrion Square and Fitzwilliam Square housed the city's upper classes. A type of terraced house known latterly as the "one-floor-over-basement" was a style of terraced house particular to

10450-468: Was The Wind Cannot Read , a British film with Dirk Bogarde , which opened March 9. The Roxy was acquired by Rockefeller Center in 1956, then sold to developer William Zeckendorf . It was Initially purchased to obtain air rights for the Time-Life Building , built to its east. Zeckendorf had it demolished for an expansion of the Taft Hotel , and for an office building that is now connected to

10560-446: Was American Jubilee , an historical pageant at the 1940 New York World's Fair that featured a 350-member cast of singers, actors, and dancers. It was performed multiple times each day for 24 weeks in an outdoor arena. Its most innovative routine, "My Bicycle Girl," featured 75 men and women riding bicycles "with extended limbs and elevation assisted by the use of pedals and handlebars, and in elaborate ground maneuvers." Kirstein praised

10670-485: Was a 5,920 -seat movie palace at 153 West 50th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues, just off Times Square in New York City . It was the largest movie theater ever built at the time of its construction in 1927. It opened on March 11, 1927 with the silent film The Love of Sunya starring Gloria Swanson . It was a leading Broadway film showcase through the 1950s and also noted for its lavish stage shows. It closed and

10780-599: Was also a dancer, often accompanied her. In Paris , Littlefield became friendly with Lucienne Lamballe, the etoile of the Paris Opera ballet, and George Balanchine , the Russian choreographer and eventual founder of the New York City Ballet . In 1932, Littlefield choreographed her first attributed work, called H.P. ( Horsepower ). Composed by Carlos Chavez and designed by Mexican muralist Diego Rivera , it concerned

10890-556: Was an excellent ballerina herself, known for her clean unmannered style. "Ethereal" was the word most often used to describe her dancing. Dorothie, on the other hand, was a lyrical, athletic ballerina with great technical capabilities. Dorothie's former student, Barbara Weisberger. who later founded the Pennsylvania Ballet , remarked: "There was nothing Dorothie could not do." Carl was naturally gifted and shone in both classical and comic roles. Besides Littlefield and her siblings,

11000-468: Was broadcast live weekly from the theater's own radio studio. As a result, Roxy's theater was known to radio listeners nationwide. In spite of the theater's fame and success, the stock market crash of 1929 created financial problems for its majority owner, the Fox Film Corporation . This destabilized the Roxy's complex operations, and it was often saddled with inferior films. In 1932, Rothafel left

11110-697: Was built in the 1850s. It (and its individual carriage houses to the rear) is a contributing property of the Savannah Historic District , itself on the National Register of Historic Places , and fills an entire city block. After falling into disrepair, the buildings were renovated in the mid-20th century by the Historic Savannah Foundation . Other similar-style row houses exist in Savannah's Scudder's Row , William Remshart Row House ,

11220-514: Was built to accommodate the coal miners in small brick row houses usually called " Coron ". These types of constructions are very common in the Walloon region, but also in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France . Within the same period (from 1850 to early 1900), major cities like Brussels or Antwerp faced important urban development with the construction of new neighborhoods as extensions of

11330-413: Was demolished in 1960. The theater was conceived by film producer Herbert Lubin in mid-1925 as the world's largest and finest movie palace. To realize his dream, Lubin brought in the successful and innovative theater operator Samuel L. Rothafel, aka "Roxy" , enticing him with a large salary, a percentage of the profits and stock options, and even offering to name the theatre after him. It was intended as

11440-596: Was demolished in 2007 as a result of structural decay. According to the US Census Bureau, the highest concentration of terraced houses in the United States is in the Mid-Atlantic region, particularly the Philadelphia , Baltimore , and Washington metropolitan areas. The first terraced houses in the nation were Carstairs Row in Philadelphia , designed by builder and architect Thomas Carstairs c.  1799 through 1820, for developer William Sansom, as part of

11550-609: Was nearly completed when it was sold to Warner Bros. , who opened it as Warner's Beacon in 1929. Known as the "Cathedral of the Motion Picture", the Roxy's design by Ahlschlager featured a soaring golden, Spanish-inspired auditorium. Its main lobby was a large columned rotunda called the Grand Foyer, which featured "the world's largest oval rug", manufactured by Mohawk Carpets in Amsterdam, New York, and its own separate pipe organ on

11660-543: Was originally built as replacement housing stock for those made homeless after the Halifax Explosion ; individual owners have, however, altered the exteriors of many of the rowhouses over time to accommodate changing family needs. More recently, there have been rowhouse developments appearing in diverse areas throughout the city. Montreal has the largest stock of terraced houses in Canada and they are typical in all areas of

11770-516: Was picked up by speculative builders like Thomas Cubitt and soon became commonplace. It is far from being the case that terraced houses were only built for people of limited means. This is especially true in London, where some of the wealthiest people in the country owned them in locations such as Belgrave Square and Carlton House Terrace . These townhouses, in the British sense , were the London residences of noble and gentry families who spent most of

11880-570: Was romantically linked at different points in her life with singer/actor Nelson Eddy , ice skater Jimmy Caesar, and German emigre composer Kurt Weill . Littlefield developed breast cancer and died in November 1951, having just completed work on the 1951-52 edition of the Hollywood Ice Revue . She is buried in Philadelphia's Chelten Hills Cemetery. While Littlefield is best remembered for producing ballet Americana, she worked successfully in

11990-470: Was that of Hollantilaisentie (1920) in the suburb of Munkkiniemi , Helsinki, designed by architect Eliel Saarinen . They were initially envisioned as workers' housing, as part of a grand new urban scheme for the entirety of north-west Helsinki, but from the outset became a fashionable middle-class residential area. Later terraced housing in Finland is similarly associated with suburban middle-class living, such as

12100-528: Was the company's rehearsal pianist and musical director. Most of the company's dancers were Philadelphia teenagers who had studied at the Littlefield School. During the Philadelphia Ballet's six-year existence, it presented a wide range of works: a three-act Sleeping Beauty and a three-act Daphnis and Chloe ; ballets with American subjects and music such as Barn Dance , Terminal , Cafe Society , and Ladies' Better Dresses ; one-act narrative pieces such as The Minstrel , The Snow Maiden, and Viennese Waltz ;

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