[kennend3]

You should spend some time and look at what housing prior to cars was really like as you are very wrong that "dense housing was the norm".

Prior to cars, there were large "estate" houses with separate carriage houses for the horses. These homes often sat on very large plots of land. Prior to that, was old farm houses, where a neighbour could be a KM away?

You seem to be thinking of "row housing" which at least in north america was more a post-WWII design?

[ryukafalz]

> Prior to cars, there were large "estate" houses with separate carriage houses for the horses.

Maybe for the rich? I don't think most people could afford that.

> You seem to be thinking of "row housing" which at least in north america was more a post-WWII design?

They are substantially older than that: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/essays/row-houses/