Wondrous Words Wednesday
Wondrous Words Wednesday is hosted by Bermudaonion’s Weblog. Kathy says: “Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading.”
Brownstone is a word that I’ve read hundreds of times, including twice in one day this past week. The second time was in a book that I plan to read to kids. I realized that, if they asked what it was, I wouldn’t have a satisfying answer. I know that it describes a style of house in New York City. But I don’t know what a brown stone (a rock? A type of brick?) is or what the houses actually look like.
Here are the two sentences, read this week:
From The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The magnificent brownstones are aging and subdivided.
From Visiting Langstonby Willie Perdomo
Langston lived in a brownstone on Langston Hughes Place.
Wikipedia has an informative article about brownstone. The buildings are constructed from a brown stone, a type of sandstone. And the term brownstone is used to describe a rowhouse built of that stone that was constructed in many New York City neighborhoods. From the pictures, I recognize brownstones from movies and television shows set in New York. I see Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks as Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox flirting and fighting in You’ve Got Mail and Bert and Ernie frolicking on Sesame Street.
Photograph by Jay Woodworth, used under Creative Commons License
According to the Wikipedia article, Nero Wolfe, the fictional hero of Rex Stout’s mystery novels, lived in a New York brownstone. That explains why the fan site, The Wolfe Pack, has an excellent essay on Just What is Brownstone? This article addresses some controversy surrounding brownstones: Edith Wharton thought it an ugly stone, sandstone has predictable problems with wear, and a renewed interest in the architecture gives urgency to determining how best to handle these aging buildings.
I remember learning about brownstones when John Lennon was murdered because it was reported that he was shot outside of his brownstone. Such a sad way to learn that term. I would love to live in a brownstone, though!
Isn’t funny how we can read a word a million times a kind of know what it means but realize we don’t actually know it? As I’ve started to pay attention more because of WWW I’ve noticed it happens to me a lot.
Great post, it’s a well known image from movies and television (even to those of us in far flung Australia), but I’d never really thought about it as a term. Thanks.
Wow, interesting information about brownstones! And thank you for the picture! Here’s mine (not my brownstone – my words for the week :P) http://www.southernfiberreads.com/2011/01/wondrous-words-and-wow-100-words.html
Very interesting post, Joy. I knew Brownstones were buildings but I didn’t know what they looked like. Thanks. They’re beautiful.
I think I remember researching the word in its stone meaning. I had not realized it could mean the house as well. Thank you for your post!