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Comment by Neil44 | Hacker News Reader

When I did a walking tour there the guide said the very narrow and deep form factor of the houses was to do with the way property was taxed at the time. I imagine they're all protected now what with the look of the city being so important for it's tourism industry.

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This is correct and also why you see the super-wide houses on Herengracht ("Gentlemen's canal") as that is where the wealthy traders lived. They could afford the insane tax.

The canals were access to transportation, so maximizing number of house fronts on the canal was probably a priority. That probably creates the tax situation too. But you see it elsewhere too. My neighborhood in Maryland has long narrow lots along the river.

As a result of its Dutch heritage and to maximize lots facing streets, Manhattan also features long, narrow lots.

The canals were sewer and freight, not regular transportation.

Maybe referring to this?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_tax

> The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house.

I don't know if this tax was levied in the Netherlands, but I've heard of other towns that developed narrow house fronts to minimise this outflow.

Tax was levied on the width of the house.

I thought Window tax was what you have to pay on every PC you buy that you would then scrub and install Linux.

Yes, the window tax did exist in the Netherlands. That is why you sometimes see a stone structure where a window had been. This was a way to avoid the tax.

New Orleans has shotgun houses "for the same reason", although no historians can find the tax code that caused this. My NOLA wife does not appreciate it when I point this out.

(Writing this from a shotgun in St Claude) I thought it was for easier cooling especially with transoms?

Some windows were closed with brick, because of the tax you had to pay on windows.

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