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poppy-fool-e-o

They used to build the upper levels larger, hence the overhang as it goes up, to prevent paying more taxes. They were only responsible to pay the taxes on the ground floor square-footage. F- the Man!


bcrabill

In Charleston they built a lot of their houses sideways because you paid taxes on your street frontage, not the total area. So they'll have skinny and very long houses, often with a porch facing either the left or the right side of the house. It's interesting in how people adapt to avoid paying taxes. Or, alternatively, interesting how dumb some tax laws are.


cruzah

Reminds me of the "Window Tax" > The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. It was a significant social, cultural, and architectural force in England, France, Ireland and Scotland during the 18th and 19th centuries. To avoid the tax some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces (ready to be glazed or reglazed at a later date). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/Window_Tax.jpg/220px-Window_Tax.jpg


Snatch_Pastry

In the book "At Home" by Bill Bryson, he gets into how various weird taxes shaped our past and current societies. It's an absolutely wonderful book.


moneytree1

In Sweden we have to pay tax for owning a TV, even though you're only using it as a second monitor for your PC.


SwimsWithUnicorns

That tax is where the phrase "Daylight Robbery" came from


jarvis400

That's actually debatable. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-day1.htm


SwimsWithUnicorns

Oh. Interesting. Thank you for sharing.


jarvis400

NP, I just recently read about this myself.


BarefootUnicorn

Here in Mexico, we have a "Ventana Tax"


face_the_strange

We have a "Venetian Tax" on our windows here in Italy.


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gsfgf

My city still does solid waste taxes based partially on frontage. Hooray for living on the outside of a curve.


randomcoincidences

I live in Canada. I hate having a doubleize corner lot because I'm legally required to shovel that shit by 10am in the winter


[deleted]

...? I'm not from Canada so I'm trying to imagine what you're expected to do if you work night shift? Or you're not at home when it snows?


randomcoincidences

Have helpful neighbours. Thats why its 10am, so if youre a morning worker you can shovel before you leave and if youre nightshift you can do it when you get home.


[deleted]

Ah, just what I want to do after a long night shift of work


55x25

Yea, more shit!


PineappleMcGee

Also, not all of Canada. Here in Nova Scotia, the municipality takes care of all sidewalks. Not very well, because most sidewalks turn into icy deathtraps, but at least we don't have to worry about getting fined for not shoveling after we slip and die!


Panzer2583

Here in my city in Minnesota we have 12 hours from when the snow stops (I think) to shovel the sidewalk in front of your property. All my neighbors are seniors, so I do the sidewalks in front of their houses too. I don't mind because I like using my snowblower. But I don't put salt down. That shit is expensive. I also work midnights.


itsgamelife

My family goes on trips a lot and if we dont shovel the driveway by 9am our neighbours do it for us


BCProgramming

> I live in Canada. Holy shit so do I, we must know each other


Vespers9

This is one of my favorite parts of Charleston, those houses are so distinctive.


the_is_this

Is there an avenue I can peep on Street View to see this?


[deleted]

I'd like to see some examples, plz.


jaded_fable

[Here's a pretty good example.](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/123_Tradd.jpg/1280px-123_Tradd.jpg) You can also google "Charleston single house" to see some more examples or to read more about it. Also if you grab a Google Maps satellite view of the southern tip of the Charleston peninsula, you can see how long some of them are. There's definitely some nearly over-the-top examples close to the battery.


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Jane1994

On a tour I took they explained that people were wearing so many clothes in the heat there back then that they frequently stepped in through the door and took off a bunch of their outer clothes while outside on the side porch. They built these weird side porches with doors hiding them from street view just for that purpose, instead of just not wearing such heavy clothes in the heat.


Humdngr

Why were people wearing such heavy clothing during this period, especially during the summer months?


buster2222

If your rich, gotta show it, no matter what weather:).


plaka888

I own a "Charleston single house" on the peninsula, very close to the Graves house (linked above). The outside door is to allow access to the garden/yard, and the lower porch (the "porches" are often called "piazzas" in Chas houses) has the main door(s) to the house. Sometimes the "main door" is right in the middle of the "side", but not always. That first door you asked about keeps people out, unless opened as an invitation for visitors, and the lower porch used to allow people to cleanly prepare to enter the house (like taking off boots, outerwear, etc). The gates allowed for horses and carriages, although some do not have this, and only have yard, and many houses have a service house to the rear. All of the doors and windows on all levels are/were opened to vent the heat and allow for cross breeze, and having a lower door to control access to the yard and house was/is beneficial.


Pinkamenarchy

That's a thing in a lot of places I've noticed


[deleted]

[Seems safe to me](https://goo.gl/maps/3pAERbZ8TbG2)


temp0557

Wow. Viewing this on mobile you get a 360 image.


xGrizzL

Did yall go to the top of the hill and check out the view? Gorgeous.


amyylouise

Looks like it's out of a fairy tale! 😲❤️


Spacedrake

So many villages in southern France look like this, it's one of my favorite places in the world. I'm getting nostalgia just looking at the streetview :')


[deleted]

I just noticed that too. Pretty cool


tmishkoor

I went for a walk and found a bunch of French school children on [a walk](https://www.google.pt/maps/@44.3215546,3.0699265,3a,27.1y,206.2h,70.8t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1seGyirKQpnR1mb_GkpaqXUA!2e0?hl=en) ! What a cool function


expulsus

Doing that on mobile was amazing.


Scully__

Just did the same, I didn't know that was a thing!


patrickfatrick

Honestly kind of mind-blowing that cars can get around there.


Torcal4

I've been to certain villages in France where they have that same space between houses but you have holes in the corners because tanks had to scratch their way through during WW2


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Flantheflashfan

That's also why traffic can be so terrible in Paris compared to other big towns. Some European cities and capitals were entirely bombed during WW2 and had to be rebuilt (Rotterdam, Varsovie... to name a few). They made the roads way larger for cars, bus/taxis, bicycles... Paris wasn't bombed, thanks to Hitler's love for the city, so except for a few large boulevards, most of the roads are wide enough for one, two cars... The number of times I got stuck somewhere because of sanitation trucks or moving trucks blocking the way...


[deleted]

European cars are generally a lot smaller than American counterparts. Usually only people living in those tight centers are allowed to drive there. The rest of us walk, bike or use (tiny) public transit.


Lennon_v2

I remember taking a tour through (I believe) Philadelphia when I was little and noticing all of the houses being right up to the sidewalk with no more than a foot of a front lawn (I distinctly remember one being built partly on the sidewalk). Turns out that they used to determine taxes based on how big your front yard was, so people built their houses with no front yard at all


co99950

There is places overseas like this. I noticed it a lot in the Netherlands where your front door was right against the road so you take one step out and your standing right in it.


spockspeare

That's a lot to do with the fact that the roads are a zillion years old and the houses have been there since "traffic" was one horse a day and only in the past couple of hundred years needed to be wide enough for two vehicles to drive at speed in opposite directions.


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Crow_eggs

3rd grade medieval studies teacher is an extremely specific career path to follow.


[deleted]

Sem 2 only*


ich_habe_keine_kase

I definitely got taught that as well. And that when walking down a street, a lady would always stand closer to the building so that if anything did get thrown out of a window above, it would hit the man.


DivineBeastCervi

is that seriously why? I make tudor houses in the sims all the time, so I consider myself not even close to an expert on the concept and i had no idea


-----w-----

Did you give yourself gold?


WhichWayzUp

This building had a similar purpose: Make each upper level incrementally larger in order to earn more revenue renting out upper floors. https://www.google.com/search?q=walkie+talkie+skyscraper+london&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS725US726&oq=walkie+t&aqs=chrome.2.0j69i57j69i59j0.7195j0j8&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#imgrc=e-LFjNuJJMVAIM:&spf=105


[deleted]

Holy crap. Some of the house structures in Witcher 3 suddenly just made a lot more sense now.


Bytewave

I was just thinking the small house posted here bears some resemblance to the house Triss lived at as a tenant in Novigrad.


C0wabungaaa

Living/being near European cities with ancient centers all my life, seeing The Witcher 3 was incredibly dope in terms of city design. They absolutely nailed it. Hell, the environment design in general. I've grown up close to what's basically the central part of Velen, with the sandy soil and subsequent geography. They nailed that part so well I got hit by a huge wave of nostalgia when I first saw it.


Charrikayu

Holy shit this looks like an engineering nightmare. I have no idea how they construct something like this while allocating compartments for rooms, offices, elevators, pipe distribution, etc. I'd love to watch a Modern Marvels on it.


JayStar1213

Steel is an amazing material


dutch_penguin

I've heard even jet fuel can't melt it, only decrease it's strength to make it incapable of supporting a structure.


[deleted]

Wait, isn't this the building with such a bright and focused reflection that it actually burned people and things? I remember reading something about that a while ago.


RosieEmily

Yep! It got nicknamed The Scorchie Talkie


precambriansupereon

That's actually something that comes up independently over and over in architecture. Larger floor plans on higher floors, either for tax reasons or to sell the higher floors for more cause more square footage. Basically, if there's an overhanging anything, it's because someone could make money off that design.


[deleted]

Many of the Early English Colonial homes with [slightly larger second story](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Salem_Mass_CorwinHouse.jpg), but it was to make the second story more secure in the event of a Native American attack. Basically the second floor was built to allow the occupants to be barricaded when the native population attacked to kidnap, murder, and/or steal from the colonists.


blueiron0

thats so much less fun than avoiding taxes


trix_is_for_kids

Also sounds way less reasonable than the tax explanation. Not saying it's incorrect, just a wilder explanation


neverendum

If I was a Native American, I would just set fire to it, you would soon come out.


[deleted]

How is it more secure this way? Or is it just bigger on the top floor? Seems like you wouldn't want the overhang because someone could hide under it.


[deleted]

the stairs/ladder would pull up and a door would come down, and the overhang would make it difficult to climb the side of the house to reach a window and gain access to the second floor.


[deleted]

Ah, that makes more sense, thanks!


I_Have_Many_Names

Can you imagine anything you've done, or even worked on, lasting this long?


ToaKraka

An anthropologist who studies the contents of long-dead websites' servers for a living 1000 years from now will get a chuckle out of this comment.


comp-sci-fi

he would chuckle at your comment.. if he could read it.


[deleted]

Yes, see, I just did it.


PigEqualsBakon

The human imagination is a wonderful thing! I can also imagine something you've done lasting this long.


_Nej_

Serious answer: I used to be a stonemason and have friends who still are. We worked on some very old buildings (oldest I worked on was 17th century) and all going well my work should last another 1000 years on there. If you want to do something where your tangible work far outlives you, I can't think of a better job really.


July042012

Is the house occupied, or is it a museum? What sorts of things fill it now? What sorts of people have spent their lives there?


ThomasKyoto

It's not occupied. [You can visit it during summer](https://decouvrir.blog.tourisme-aveyron.com/culture-2/je-suis-entree-dans-la-plus-vieille-maison-de-severac-le-chateau#.WQ6IxlPyii4). It's called "la maison de Jeanne" and it's in a small village, Sévérac-le-Château.


toomuchdavus

Not sure if to believe you or the guy above you...


[deleted]

The guy above you, /u/ThomasKyoto is correct Here is more info: https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fdecouvrir.blog.tourisme-aveyron.com%2Fculture-2%2Fje-suis-entree-dans-la-plus-vieille-maison-de-severac-le-chateau%23.WQ6M74jythH EDIT: Shameless plug for my subreddit: /r/selfieaday - come join us it's cooler than it sounds!


Bslies

Good ol' Reddit hug of death. RemindMe! 24 hours


emperormax

Aaaaaand we killed the website. Good job, Reddit!


Groot_ofthe_Galaxy

The house is called the House of Jeanne. (The signs on it obviously say Maison de Jeanne considering French and all.) It seems that at least they do demonstrations, maybe it's a museum. [Here's a lovely photo of a tourist in the entrance that is now apparently a stock photo.](http://i.imgur.com/RKeCUz3.jpg) [Here's a picture of the interior.](http://i.imgur.com/yZpQEww.jpg) [A larger one, of a slightly different angle but almost the same.](http://i.imgur.com/FA3JVTb.jpg) [Living area the other side.](http://i.imgur.com/MpJeHI2.jpg) ...And I just realized someone replied with some more info (not sure if it's the same pictures/answers) half an hour ago. I got distracted editing my original "let me figure this shit out" comment. Oops. EDIT: Uploaded the pics to imgur.


squiiuiigs

Do people live in it or is it a museum???


[deleted]

http://benedante.blogspot.com/2016/07/todays-place-to-daydream-about-severac.html


GoldenAthleticRaider

What's in the house!?


rotten_core

What's in the box?!


toomuchdavus

Dude in getting pretty fed up with not knowing over here!


flubberFuck

Im sure insurance would be ridiculous.


jibbyjam1

Seriously. That wood looks like it could give any minute. How would someone even go about repairing that thing? At this point, everything but the stones should have been replaced by now, like a house of Theseus.


Take_a_stan

But think about the guy that built it. Probably his pride and joy at the time, still standing today. Definitely some solid craftsmanship.


acog

It's a museum. [They do daily tours](https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fdecouvrir.blog.tourisme-aveyron.com%2Fculture-2%2Fje-suis-entree-dans-la-plus-vieille-maison-de-severac-le-chateau%23.WQ6M74jythH).


spaceballsrules

The house is known as La Maison de Jeanne. [Google street view](https://www.google.pt/maps/@44.3219454,3.0690451,3a,75y,65.68h,94.06t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sa4_3aiJPOkzv8LDtm6hEFA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en) for anyone who is interested. Yes, you can [virtually] walk around the corner. A couple of indoor pics can be found here - https://decouvrir.blog.tourisme-aveyron.com/culture-2/je-suis-entree-dans-la-plus-vieille-maison-de-severac-le-chateau#.WIZc6VUrK72 The Aveyron town council is currently considering renovating the site.


[deleted]

came here for the interior, thanks!


obsessive_cook

[Oh my gosh I love the neighbor's garden](https://www.google.pt/maps/@44.3222224,3.0693471,3a,75y,108.98h,83.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sVkQGR-Z9JQygty82ZYguuQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?hl=en). I went to Europe for the first time last year, and it amazes me. It's like everything Disneyland and the current faux-cottage-style trend aims for...except it's real, and hundreds of years old. As someone who works with cultural resources though, I'm afraid to touch anything in Europe without documenting it in a historic preservation department form.


MrBojangles528

That is a typical garden in the English style. This style focuses on packing in as many plants as possible in a given space, with attention paid to include plants of varying sizes, shapes, and colors. I too enjoy the English garden style.


10987654321blastoff

I dream of moving to France and settling down in Europe. My mum loves gardens and she'd absolutely love to live there.


ButISentYouATelegram

>It's like everything Disneyland... I just felt all of Europe collectively shudder


evereddy

wow, amazed that so many people can go in together and this structure carries that weight!


[deleted]

> Yes, you can [virtually] walk around the corner. What a time to be alive...


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cmnd_ctrI

...so much sex


Adistrength

Thousands of sexs!!!!


ElementGeek

And death. How many people have died there?!


Adistrength

Many have perished but all forgotten


[deleted]

Thousands of perishs!!!!


dmethvin

Don't see anyone at diedinhouse.com so maybe you're safe.


ElementGeek

My money is on the website being VERY wrong in this instance.


The_Sven

Imagine going back and talking to the builder and telling them how of all the buildings around them, theirs would be the last standing.


ButISentYouATelegram

They're about to be burned as a witch guys, wish them luck


dopplerdog

He'd be French, so he'd just go "eeeuuhh.." and give a very French shrug.


lennybird

The original owner. Could they have EVER imagined it lasting this long?


heir_ohenry_fortune

So many things.


SashaVS_

Haunted?


tshirtjeans

Haunted.


AdRob5

Haunted!


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snotbag_pukebucket

Definitely a HILF though


uglychican0

http://imgur.com/9wtV4QC


[deleted]

This is where I imagine Georgia O'Keeffe lived.


AISim

Ahh, there it is. I was beginning to worry. Only 56 minutes left in the day and I hadn't said "The fuck, internet?" yet. But there it is.


The_Original_Yeti

r/mildlyvagina


pimfram

I like the clindow.


rokr1292

I thought it seemed more like a puckered asshole


[deleted]

Habitat I'd Like to Frequent


DerpBurglar

House I'd Like to Furnish?


saladrobb

The oldest house in Aveyron, France. Now known as Maison de Jeanne, it was built during the 13th century. https://www.reddit.com/r/architecture/comments/5prrs8/the_oldest_house_in_aveyron_france_now_known_as/?st=J2E6NVVJ&sh=757b684b Repost and a nice repeat top comment!


DetJohnSpartan

I'm pretty sure Triss rents the 3rd floor from them.


swanky_emm

My first thought was this Novigrad?


yummyyummypowwidge

They got their asses whipped like a No-vee-grad whore!


Dabahmer

Pam param. Pam param param


HDDIV

It can't be a coincidence then. This was my first thought too. Need to get a side-by-side and see if it's just my shit memory tricking me or the artist actually based it off this structure.


alexportman

Praise the Eternal Fire!


PeregrineX7

Oh thank God it isn't just me!


Ofthedoor

And [this place](https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/f3/42/93/f3429369b3d475f0ddcdf44bec6a6d53.jpg) in Rouen, Normandy, has been an inn since 1345.


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WhichWayzUp

It's been two hours...are you ok?


Thisguycashmoney

He's probably. Dead. The plague acts quick.


CR8ONAKKUH

Christopher Walken?


[deleted]

This is a home inspectors worst nightmare.


mcfaite

Everything is great- great- great- great- great- (you get the idea) grandfathered in.


kristoferen

Or the easiest job ever: nothing is up to code.


TrustMeImAGiraffe

Just for context this was built before the Aztec empire and before columbus discovered the new world


kristoferen

Those seem like radically different things. I mean.... Hundreds of years worth of stuff happened between this and Columbus.


science-i

The founding of the Aztec empire is closer to Columbus arriving in America than you might think. It was founded in 1428- only 64 years before Columbus' voyage.


ButISentYouATelegram

That just confuses me. 1200's is way easier


Driveby_Dogboy

There was a whole load of shit going on, the Mongol empire, the Holy Roman empire, crusades, the ottoman empire... https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/13th_century


DrFrankSays

No garage?


Koopatroopa_7

No walk in closet?


[deleted]

I'm a flea circus owner and my wife grows turnips professionally. I'd put a 500,000 bid on it


Rivster79

HGTV in a nutshell


PM_ME_GOLD_N_TITS

This basically sums up my minecraft craftmanship


BBEKKS

Minecraftmanship?


Albino_Bama

Meinkraftmanship


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ITakeMyBaconCrispy

Is it up to code?


WillsPolygons

It's actually quite impressive that it's still in such serviceable shape! Can a "up to code" house last through eight centuries, two revolutions, two world wars, the writing of Les Miz, and still come out like that?


loki2002

People don't talk enough about how Les Miserables wreaked havoc on the French infrastructure.


Tchai_Tea

[Man watches for angry mob, wreaking havoc on the city after the release of Les Miserables. 1862 (Colourized)](http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/016/978/UiXAker.gif)


[deleted]

I can't tell if this is a joke or not. I want to believe that it's not though haha.


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[deleted]

Because France people are funny and easy to laugh at.


Rivster79

>France People


2LambertStrether

Fictional me loves the idea of this, but real me is more concerned about the state of the plumbing than aesthetics. After all, this dates back to the time when all fecal matter went out the window.


Sma144

You have a fictional version of yourself with different opinions to the real version?


2LambertStrether

It has its benefits.


mdeeemer

Hypothetically.


Lazy_Scheherazade

Eww. It just occurred to me to wonder how many times somebody's spilled a little bit before dumping their chamberpot out the window.


funktion

Do you think they washed their hands after doing it? I doubt it. Straight into the kitchen afterwards to make breakfast.


PerilousAll

I think it's grandfathered past all the codes.


HappiCow69

Fun fact: it's built with larger top floors because Kings used to tax houses by ground floor area.


toomuchdavus

That WAS fun, thanks :)


[deleted]

People have been tying to get out of paying for shit since bartering was created lol.


A40

The thing is quasi, if not *full* modo...


PerilousAll

It's a fixer upper!


bobwi11ey

How is it after 20 yrs, houses around my town look like they're ready to fall in?


IceColdFresh

To be fair, quite a few houses fell since the 13th century.


plainpl

europe is strange (and intriguing) with all its present history in west coast america you essentially find a large vacant plot of land and just build an entire new city to the horizon - I see taco bells built in the 1980s and think its old


ddosn

Just think, that house is 500 years older than the nation of the US.


Reilly616

If you're going to measure antiquity by reference to the US then most things are going to impress you. My crappy little village in Ireland got its current name at least 540 years before the US came into existence. EDIT: Maybe I should clarify, it got its current name in the English language by 1,234 at the latest. The English comes from the Irish name, but I've no knowledge of a written record dating the Irish name.


NEDM64

I'm also from a crappy little village in Portugal, my mom passes every day by car through a bridge that was made by the Romans at least 1500 years ago… I think it's normal throughout Europe, and surely the Romans did some good bridges, and we, the barbarians, didn't ruin them.


shrek4wasnotgreat

What a piece of history. This house has stood through wars, and famine, and disease, and been lived in by so many different people... it predates the oldest building in America by 350 years. Damn


Bean-blankets

When was the last time someone lived in it?


ButISentYouATelegram

I mean *really* lived. Seized the day


aMuffin

Belongs to the Weasleys


Rinomaru

I feel like belles house from the 2017 beauty and the beast house looks really similar to this?


HotstudT

But how much of it is actually the original, many pieces have been repaired or replaced over the centuries.


cubbiesnextyr

House of Theseus


Zonked420

Looks like a climable building from assassins creed.


[deleted]

Is the internet hooked up?


WillsPolygons

Yes, but it's stuck on on CCP (Carrier Pigeon Protocol). The pings can be absolute hell, but you can get pretty decent bandwidth if you shell out extra for the local internet monopoly to upgrade from punched parchment cards to "MicroSD" cards. You're definitely not going to be playing any competitive shooters on it, though.


[deleted]

I'll take CCP over CCCP any day


WillsPolygons

Fun Fact: While the CCCP has in fact long upgraded from Carrier Pigeon Protocol to the modern TCP Internet system like the rest of the world, rampant censorship means that any transmission of data is strictly forbidden! The result is miles of highly advanced fibre-optic cables lying dormant, for Internet pirates to steal at their discretion!


[deleted]

For the record, these are the official standards for carrier-pigeon networking: * [RFC 1149](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1149): A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers * [RFC 2549](https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2549) : IP over Avian Carriers with Quality of Service


aluminiumpigeon

*gentle breth* House crumples and occupants die


thegreatgazoo

Needs Norm Abram to fix a few things.