Triple-decker vs Three-decker

Triple-decker or Three-decker?

  • Triple-decker

    Votes: 40 81.6%

  • Three-decker

    Votes: 9 18.4%
  • Total voters
    49
Per John Keith's request, I asked "the king of Dorchester sales" our mutual friend. Nobody would be more of an expert on the subject than him, he is the top real estate agent in Dorchester for 10 years running, and has been in, renovated, bought, and sold more of these properties than probably anyone would ever wish to.

He also said if you walked into a neighborhood association meeting and used the term "three-decker" it would be grounds for your immediate removal from the meeting and probably the neighborhood ;-)

Triple decker "triple deckah" it is.

And of course, to a buyer it's an "Victorian three-family"
 
"the answer is "triple-deckah". Bye Bye."

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To me "triple decker" rolls off the tongue waaay better than the other. First time I heard "three decker" I think my reaction was disgust.
 
kz1000ps said:
To me "triple decker" rolls off the tongue waaay better than the other. First time I heard "three decker" I think my reaction was disgust.
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Why? Would you tell a Scotsman or an Australian to change his accent? As long as you don't sound ghetto I see no reason to adopt middle-American bland. I like it when people walk up to me as someone did in NYC and said "Hey, your from Boston!" as if I was blessed.

It's all about the complexity of the low vowels- impossible to mimic, though many have tried in many recent films and all end up sounding like assholes.
 
Huh? When did anyone say anything about accents? All I'm saying is the first time I heard the words (not accent) "three decker" put together it was dissonance to my ears.

And for the record, I can't stand the Boston accent!
 
kz1000ps said:
Huh? When did anyone say anything about accents? All I'm saying is the first time I heard the words (not accent) "three decker" put together it was dissonance to my ears.

And for the record, I can't stand the Boston accent!
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And of course, there are actually several different Boston accents. The ones Hollywood goes in for are usually either a bad interpretation of working class dialect, or some phony baloney mid-atlantic accent suitable for Clark Rockefeller to impress Clark Rockefeller wannabes over at the Algonquin Club.
 
kz1000ps said:
Huh? When did anyone say anything about accents? All I'm saying is the first time I heard the words (not accent) "three decker" put together it was dissonance to my ears.

And for the record, I can't stand the Boston accent!
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Well that clears that up, thank you for your opinion. I understand, I have met your type and will try not to be insulted.

Perhaps Padre Mike will pray for you?
 
Wow, ease up on the indignation -- there's nothing to be insulted about. Everything I've said is purely based on how it sounds to my ears. My mom grew up in Beverly and her whole family is still in the area, so I've grown up around that accent and it's always been grating on my ears....

And please, spare me the snide remarks. I'm not passing judgement on anyone, so why are you?
 
That is odd. Today, July 20th, 2009, Steve LeBlanc of the AP wrote a story about the search for the British ship lost in the Battle of Chelsea Creek. He refers to "a landscape dotted with the city's iconic..."- "tripledeckers" in the Herald (and all other AP subscribers), but refered to as "threedeckers" in the Globe version.

Three or triple, they are undoubtably iconic.
 
do any other city's have them? I know other "cities" in new england have them, but do any other major cities have them? I always heard them referred to as triple, but now hear some refer to them as three. It is strange how a building, even if it has three decks, is not a triple or three decker if it has a pitched roof. perhaps the most appropriate name is flat decker. I notice these buildings in just about every city in new england, but have not seen them in vermont and am not familiar enough with connecticut to speak about them there.
 
growing up in fitchburg we called them a three decker,not until I moved to dorchester did I hear them called a triple deckah!
 
Patrick said:
I notice these buildings in just about every city in new england, but have not seen them in vermont and am not familiar enough with connecticut to speak about them there.
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I live in CT and mostly hear triple-decker. In Hartford we also have a different, similar housing type called "perfect sixes" - differentiated because they use brick.

Park%20Terrace%201.JPG
 
so perhaps vt is the only state w/o them in ne? the picture you posted actually looks quite nice, unlike most traditionally 3 decker neighborhoods I've seen.

here's one 3 decker from portland
2585309582_f7b4b553fd.jpg


edit: 4
 
btw-Vermont cities seem to be architecturally closer to NY than Boston. I'm sure that has to do with the Hudson River canal to Lake Champlain. A large percentage of the brownstone in NY came down from VT.

It's worth mentioning that different cities in Massachusetts tend to have different styles of three deckers depending on local fashion or the era in which they were built. For example Brockton has a number of pitched roof three deckers built in the late Victorian era like Mission Hill in Boston. Some of these actually house two families instead of three with the upstairs having two floors. Other cities like Lowell have few three deckers and the ones they have consist mainly of ones built in the 20th Century at the dawn of the modern era with few bays and less detailing. Ones built in Massachusetts as late as the 1920's, have an art-deco flair with very sharp lines and larger floor plans. They tend to have been fill-in projects in their day instead of being built en masse like their Victorian fore-runners.
 
would we still call a pitched roof apt building a triple decker? I wouldn't, but that's just me. Maybe a "twist" on a triple. but for me, the triple decker only refers to flat roofs. I could be wrong.
 
Good question. Is it a triple decker if it does not have three apartments? I suppose if it looks like one and acts like one then it is one. If it has the "look" and many of the traditional features like porches and a traditional floor plan then it is one. I'd consider the brick ones in CT as being 3-deckers though they aren't made of wood.

Is the one from Portland a 3-decker though it has no front porches and is 4 floors?
 
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Scott said:
Good question. Is it a triple decker if it does not have three apartments? I suppose if it looks like one and acts like one then it is one. If it has the "look" and many of the traditional features like porches and a traditional floor plan then it is one. I'd consider the brick ones in CT as being 3-deckers though they aren't made of wood.

Is the one from Portland a 3-decker though it has no front porches and is 4 floors?
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Our old apartment had three floors, three units, stacked atop oneanother. It had one common porch out front, none out back. it was in between two houses, not other apartments, and it had a pitched rood. the units were not exact, but they were similar, and took the length of the building. I always joked that it was a glorified triple decker, but if we are getting technical, I don't think I would refer to a neighborhood full of these as a triple decker neighborhood. Two me, it doesn't matter how many floors there are; I have seen a "one decker" here in Maine (its odd looking) and I have seen 4 deckers like that in the picture above. The unifying feature, in my opinion, is standardized and simplified floorplans all of the same dimensions, porches or decks are not necessary, and a flat roof. to me, deck refers to the level of the aprtment, and not necessarily an actual deck. odd colors are a plus, too, in the classification. why is that?
 
Note: Three Decker

The Boston Globe said:
City moves to preserve iconic three-deckers
March 24, 2012|By Martine Powers

For Arthur J. Krim, a professor of historic preservation at Boston Architectural College, Boston’s three-deckers - with their light wooden frames, flat or pitched roofs, and stacked porches - are as iconic to Boston as New England clam chowder.

“If you’re going to maintain the character of Boston,’’ Krim said, “you basically need to preserve these three-deckers.’’

In recent years, many of these houses have been foreclosed or left to disrepair. Now, city officials are launching a $3 million initiative to restore Boston’s three-deckers to their former glory.

The “3D Campaign,’’ which will be announced Saturday at the Boston Home Center Housing Expo in Dorchester, will provide loans and grants to help residents buy three-decker houses or renovate their properties. City officials have also joined with local banks, who have pledged to provide $74 million in mortgages to potential buyers.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino said the housing units are precious, not only for their architectural value, but also because building codes and zoning laws prevent new three-decker houses from being built.

“If you drive down Washington Street in Roslindale, aesthetically these houses are very similar, and they have a very distinct design,’’ Menino said. “They’re not like an apartment building or row housing. No other city has this.’’

Three-deckers, also known as triple-deckers, cropped up in the 1880s and 1890s and became a sign of upward mobility for Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants seeking an escape from crowded tenements, Krim said. The houses maximized space, but allowed residents to have windows on all four sides of the house.

Owners were able to live in one unit and rent out the others to defray the cost of home ownership. Or, they used all three units for their family, housing senior members of the family on the top floor and giving the bottom unit to newly married sons and daughters.

But starting in the 1950s, as Boston’s well-to-do fled to the suburbs, many three-deckers fell into disrepair. Krim said he recalls that in the 1970s, Mayor Kevin H. White distributed brochures urging owners to keep up with repairs on their homes.

Now, the foreclosure rate for three-family homes in Boston is more than twice the rate of foreclosures on single-family homes or condominiums, said Sheila Dillon, the mayor’s housing adviser.

The $3 million in the 3D Campaign comes from a mix of funding from the federal Community Development Block Grant Program and the Boston Redevelopment Authority.
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