Editing Second Empire Architecture (section)

== Residential Applications ==

Second Empire style adapted readily to Philadelphia's rowhouse form, with mansard roofs adding fashionable French flavor to the city's characteristically attached dwellings. The mansard's practical advantage—additional usable space within roof height limits—proved attractive to builders and buyers seeking maximum house for their investment. Rows of Second Empire houses appeared throughout developing neighborhoods during the 1860s and 1870s, their steep-sided roofs and elaborate dormers creating streetscapes of distinctive character.<ref name="tatum"/>

Philadelphia's Second Empire rowhouses display various treatments of the mansard roof: straight slopes with single dormers, curved profiles with double dormers, and elaborate cresting that silhouettes against the sky. Facades below the roofline often remain relatively simple, concentrating ornament on door surrounds and window hoods while the mansard provides visual drama. These houses survive throughout the city, though many have lost their original iron cresting and some have had dormers altered. Where intact, Second Empire rowhouse blocks create coherent streetscapes that document the style's widespread popularity.<ref name="moss"/>