Rowhouse

Greg Cantori plans to downsize when he retires. Really, really downsize. His retirement home is 238 square feet — one-tenth the size of the average new American house — and sits in his Anne Arundel County yard. He and wife Renee can hitch it to a truck and take it with them wherever they go. "It's so cheap — that's what's so cool about this," said Cantori, 52, who envisions a surf-and-turf future, alternating between the house and a sailboat. "We bought the house for $19,000.

One woman was killed and another injured in a fire that broke out in a West Baltimore rowhouse early Thursday, according to Fire Department officials. Neighbors in the 1000 block of N. Rosedale St. in the city's Franklintown Road neighborhood said they were alerted to the blaze when they heard screaming and breaking glass sometime after 4 a.m. Fire officials identified the woman who died in the fire as Brenda Gittings-Sewell, 70. Her daughter, Cynthia Sewell, 43, is being treated for burns she suffered over 30 percent of her body.

Baltimore City firefighters quickly brought a basement fire in a Govans rowhouse under control Wednesday morning. Crews responded at 7:25 a.m. to the fire in the 700 block of Beaverbrook Road. No injuries were reported. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

Ellen Reich's business - run out of her Butcher's Hill rowhouse - has international reach. She's the proprietress (she loves that word) of Three Stone Steps, which sells metal art, recycled jewelry and other intriguing items made by artisans in Haiti, the Philippines and other countries. Founded in 2007, the company specializes in "ethically sourced imports," which combines Reich's love of travel with her social-justice background in the labor movement. What prompted you to start the company?

Authorities have identified a woman who died Tuesday night after a fire broke out in her rowhouse in the Mill Hill section of Southwest Baltimore. Barbara Green, 48, was the city's 24th fire fatality this year; the city recorded 19 fire deaths during the same period last year, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a department spokesman. Reported about 8 p.m. in the 2500 block of Dulaney St., the fire was confined to a burning mattress in a second-floor bedroom of an end-of-group dwelling and was quickly extinguished.

A woman believed to be about 50 years old died Tuesday night at an area hospital after a fire broke out in the bedroom of her rowhouse in the Mill Hill section of Southwest Baltimore, said a city Fire Department spokesman. Her name was withheld pending notification of family members, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, the spokesman. She was the city's 24th fire fatality this year, compared with 19 for the same time last year, Cartwright said. Reported at 7:59 p.m. in the 2500 block of Dulaney St., the fire was confined to a burning mattress in a second-floor bedroom of an end-of-group dwelling and was quickly extinguished.

Does familiarity breed contempt or community?If you live in a rowhouse, you know that the answer is a little bit of both. The Sun would like to hear your tales of rowhouse living. Does your neighbor refuse to take his privacy fence down even though it doesn't conform to code? Does your other neighbor's stove vent pump recycled steak fumes into your house?Or do you live in harmony with your neighbors, using the same color trim on your adjoining abodes, mowing each other's lawns and merging postage-stamp backyards into an urban oasis?

A single-alarm fire late Wednesday killed four people, whose bodies were found in separate rooms inside an East Baltimore rowhouse. Their identities, genders and relationships were not immediately available, but at least one was elderly, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a Fire Department spokesman. Cartwright said the incident is the city's first fatal fire this year and that its cause is under investigation. One person was found in a second-floor front room, another in the rear of the house, and the third and fourth in other sections of the house in the 1600 block of E. Oliver St. Reported at 11:10 p.m., the blaze filled much of the dwelling with smoke before firefighters were able to beat back flames.

An early morning two-alarm fire in South Baltimore sent five residents to an area hospital with minor injuries and severely damaged a rowhouse. Baltimore fire officials said firefighters encountered heavy fire when they arrived about 3:30 a.m. to the 1200 block of Battery Ave. in the Riverside neighborhood. Flames and smoke were coming from the first floor of the three-story home. Flames became so intense that the second floor collapsed onto the first. Crews continued to battle the fire throughout the morning; at 8 a.m., it remained a working fire.

Ann Roberts' East Baltimore rowhouse is older than she is, but not by much. Her narrow brick home on East Preston Street has been around, she said, "for a hundred years-plus." Roberts is 90 years old. She is still able to negotiate the stairs in her four-story home and takes pride in keeping her residence in shape. "This is a tough house," she said as she launched into a story of how some years ago it had withstood being hit by a tractor-trailer. "These boys, 16 and 14, stole the truck, were chased by the police, then lost control and came right in the living room."

An early morning two-alarm fire in South Baltimore sent five residents to an area hospital with minor injuries and severely damaged a rowhouse. Baltimore fire officials said firefighters encountered heavy fire when they arrived about 3:30 a.m. to the 1200 block of Battery Ave. in the Riverside neighborhood. Flames and smoke were coming from the first floor of the three-story home. Flames became so intense that the second floor collapsed onto the first. Crews continued to battle the fire throughout the morning; at 8 a.m., it remained a working fire.

Many buyers looking for a lovely and quaint place to live in Baltimore City would probably have torn down the crumbling wreck of a house (in a perfect downtown location, however) in favor of rebuilding from the ground up. Not so with Kevin and Shelley Horten, who greet their guests at the side entrance of a completely rehabilitated, end-of-group rowhouse in Federal Hill. "When I first moved to Baltimore, I had never lived in a city," noted Kevin Horten, a 45-year-old vice president of Supplies Unlimited, a building supplier in Southwest Baltimore and an Ohio native.

Most visitors walking along the streets in Baltimore's Federal Hill neighborhood cannot resist peeping into the windows of its restored homes and marveling at the variety of interiors lying behind the rows and rows of brick facades. "All of these houses are so different, really," said Pauline Hildebrandt, a 60-year-old retired real estate agent who has lived with her husband in their three-story Charles Street home since moving from Fairfax County, Va., in 2010. "We didn't have to renovate; everything was here.

Wisconsin transplant Dana Ostrenga has spent the past 14 years on the south side of Baltimore. The 37-year-old NASA scientist lived in Federal Hill and then in Washington Village, also known as Pigtown. When it was time for a change, she didn't want to move far, but she did have a list of requirements. "I wanted a brand-new, turnkey rehab," she said, ticking off the items on her list. "I wanted location, a parking pad, lots of natural light, two stories, a finished basement, three bedrooms, two baths, and I wanted it to be diverse and kid-friendly.

Baltimore City firefighters quickly brought a basement fire in a Govans rowhouse under control Wednesday morning. Crews responded at 7:25 a.m. to the fire in the 700 block of Beaverbrook Road. No injuries were reported. Mary.gail.hare@baltsun.com Text NEWS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun local news text alerts

An 88-year-old woman was killed in a fire at her East Baltimore rowhouse on Sunday afternoon, according to a Baltimore City Fire Department spokesman. Firefighters first responded to the home in the 2200 block of East North Avenue in the city's Broadway East neighborhood about 6:40 p.m. for reports of heavy smoke and fire, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a fire spokesman. After making their way into the home, firefighters found the woman, who was not identified, dead in a central room from what appeared to be smoke inhalation and burns, Cartwright said.

Three people were injured when the awnings of adjoining rowhouses crumbled in Northwest Baltimore on Friday, one in s string of collapses across the region as the weight of massive snowfalls exacted a toll on vulnerable buildings. An antique store in downtown Ellicott City suffered damage, and barns in Anne Arundel and Harford counties fell, killing some animals. On Oakford Road in Baltimore, Marlow Hill, 66, surveyed the twisted metal on the steps of his home and pointed to the blood left when his wife, daughter and brother-in-law were trapped beneath the awnings.

Here's what happened when two mountain bikes were taken from the garage in South Baltimore of a former president's daughter: A police officer responded, but so did a detective, a sergeant, a lieutenant, a major and a lieutenant colonel. The police commissioner — who had earlier criticized his own cops for not informing command when a television sports personality was attacked — was quickly called. But a carful of police brass wasn't the only thing that Jenna Bush Hager and her husband got when at least one burglar broke into their garage in back of their South Charles Street rowhouse on Friday.

A 68-year-old man died trying to escape a Baltimore rowhouse that caught fire early Saturday, officials said. The man's body was found just inside the entryway of the house in the 1500 block of Holbrook St., according to Baltimore City Fire Department Chief Kevin Cartwright. Firefighters responded to the blaze around 2:40 a.m. and found heavy smoke and intense flames coming from the first and second floors. Police identified the victim as Reginald Russell. A preliminary investigation shows that the man died from smoke inhalation and burns, Cartwright said.

Among all the lovely, quirky, industrial, upscale, up-and-coming and historic Baltimore neighborhoods, Danielle LeClair chose Highlandtown for the nearby park — and the parking. A Massachusetts native and nurse practitioner in geriatric dermatology, LeClair moved from Federal Hill four years ago to a relatively quiet street off Patterson Park in East Baltimore. "My highest priority was parking," LeClair said. "It wasn't so bad then, but it's getting worse. " Her real estate agent, Cara Fabian, an associate broker with Cummings and Co. Realtors, found her a completely renovated property, circa 1920, at a cost of $280,000.