Archie Bunker houses

[King of Kensington]

Anyways, from what I can tell, brick edwardians (especially rows and semis) in the US seem to be most common in SE Pennsylvania, in places like Allentown, and parts of West Philadelphia.

That's true. Pennsylvania towns do kind of look similar to Ontario in some ways, more than Upstate New York.

Though Queens strikes me as the "Toronto of America", more than Chicago in fact. Quite similar demographically and in urban form. Similar populations and both developed around the same time. Mix of rowhouses, detached houses and high rise apartments. Queens itself ranges from very urban in western Queens to postwar suburbia in eastern Queens and I find you get that "Queens" feel in a lot of Toronto, in both urban and even a lot of suburban parts.

For me, unpretentious, working class 20th century semis are the criteria for Archie Bunker houses. Which may not be so working class today. I sort of get that feel in the Ossington, north of Bloor and into the Junction area. If the area was already full of middle class gentrifiers by the late 70s (i.e. Riverdale, High Park) it's out. 1940s bungalows are out too.

It's funny how I so associate the All in the Family credits with working class Old Toronto, yet I'm struggling to actually find some clusters of working class, semi-detached Edwardian Four Squares.

 

[adma]

Maybe best to think of it as "Tely Toronto"; or, if various Lampy types were our Archie Bunker equivalents of yore...

 

[JasonParis]

I find them more prevalent in Hamilton.

 

[Long Island Mike]

Archie Bunker's Queens,NY Home Location and the 70s TV show "All in the Family"

That's true. Pennsylvania towns do kind of look similar to Ontario in some ways, more than Upstate New York.

Though Queens strikes me as the "Toronto of America", more than Chicago in fact. Quite similar demographically and in urban form. Similar populations and both developed around the same time. Mix of rowhouses, detached houses and high rise apartments. Queens itself ranges from very urban in western Queens to postwar suburbia in eastern Queens and I find you get that "Queens" feel in a lot of Toronto, in both urban and even a lot of suburban parts.

For me, unpretentious, working class 20th century semis are the criteria for Archie Bunker houses. Which may not be so working class today. I sort of get that feel in the Ossington, north of Bloor and into the Junction area. If the area was already full of middle class gentrifiers by the late 70s (i.e. Riverdale, High Park) it's out. 1940s bungalows are out too.

It's funny how I so associate the All in the Family credits with working class Old Toronto, yet I'm struggling to actually find some clusters of working class, semi-detached Edwardian Four Squares.

K of K and Everyone:

After a prolonged absence from posting here at UT I noticed this topic and as one who grew up watching this 1970s classic
television show based in the NYC Borough of Queens I remembered that this home was located in central Queens and after
some Google searching this house is located at 89-70 Cooper Avenue in the Glendale section. The address mentioned in the
show over time - 704 Hauser Street in Astoria or reasonable thereabouts - was a fictional address created for the show.

I agree with your thoughts that Queens Borough could well be the Toronto of the Eastern Seaboard of the US and those other
mentions of eastern Pennsylvania having similar home types are definitely true in housing stock like these "Twins" and that
Hamilton has some similar "Twins" of these types...On further thought the Middle Atlantic Region of the US in which eastern
Pennsylvania is part of - has similar density twin and row housing in many cities for as far south as the Richmond,Virginia area...

I remember "All in the Family" well and to me some of the things that I remember best about the actors is that Carroll O'Connor
and Jean Stapleton were totally different in comparison to the characters that they played - Archie and Edith Bunker - and that
Rob Reiner - who played their son in law Michael Stivic - who was supposed to be from Chicago - had in ways more of a "New York"
accent then either one of them actually did...All in the Family was a Norman Lear classic sitcom - one of the best of its 70s era time.

For more information see:

www.scoutingny.com/stopping-by-archie-bunkers-house-in-queens

www.michaelminn.net/newyork/buildings/queens/archie_bunker_house

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_in_the_Family

Long Island Mike

 

[King of Kensington]

K of K and Everyone:

After a prolonged absence from posting here at UT I noticed this topic and as one who grew up watching this 1970s classic
television show based in the NYC Borough of Queens I remembered that this home was located in central Queens and after
some Google searching this house is located at 89-70 Cooper Avenue in the Glendale section. The address mentioned in the
show over time - 704 Hauser Street in Astoria or reasonable thereabouts - was a fictional address created for the show.

Welcome back!

Yeah, Astoria is NYC's Greektown though also had a lot of Italians and today has a lot of immigrants from the Middle East as well as yuppies moving in. Glendale I believe was more German/Irish I believe - closer to the Archie Bunker demographic.

I remember "All in the Family" well and to me some of the things that I remember best about the actors is that Carroll O'Connor
and Jean Stapleton were totally different in comparison to the characters that they played - Archie and Edith Bunker - and that
Rob Reiner - who played their son in law Michael Stivic - who was supposed to be from Chicago - had in ways more of a "New York"
accent then either one of them actually did...All in the Family was a Norman Lear classic sitcom - one of the best of its 70s era time.

Not to mention Stivic isn't a Polish name either.

Although Archie Bunker was supposed to be a working class Protestant, he spoke with an old school, working class Irish New York accent (something almost extinct today). Archie being a "WASP" in Queens in the 1970s was totally unconvincing. He was Irish, even though he wasn't. Kind of like how the Costanzas on Seinfeld were Jewish, but aren't.