I have a friend whose house in Dickeyville Md.was built in 1854. It's a classic eastern house from the period, set back only about 3 feet from the sidewalk, which immediately abuts the street, room enough just for steps going up to the full-width porch, where people would sit and talk to those walking by. In part of the basement you can see the foundation, a wall of rocks, held together by I'm not sure what. The bathroom upstairs, built much later, has a 3 or 4" step up, like hotels I've been in, so they can route the drains without ripping out the entire floor.
But what's really intersting is that it has two street numbers, one that she uses and one for the other door which is at the other end of the house. Now the right hand door just goes straight into the living room, while the left-hand door goes into another small room behind which is the kitchen. But at one time it was a two-family house. That's not unusual either, but it only has one stairway going to the second floor.
From the right side of the house, there is a small set of about 2 steps leading to about 3 pie-, wedge-shaped steps that go ta landing, which has a doorway leading to the left-side of the house. There is a drop off there, but it's clear there once were 5 steps on the left-hand side leading to the same landing.
In other words, both families share one stairway leading to the 2nd floor.
Have you ever heard of this before? Is there a name for it?