Stoop (architecture)

Originally brought to the Hudson Valley of New York by settlers from the Netherlands, the word "stoop" is part of the Dutch vocabulary that has survived there from colonial times until the present.

[2] It has been well documented that the stoop served the function of keeping people and their homes separated from horse manure, which would accumulate in the streets at high rates.

[3] Traditionally, in North American cities, the stoop served an important function as a spot for brief, incidental social encounters.

Homemakers, children, and other household members would sit on the stoop outside their home to relax, and greet neighbors passing by.

In her pivotal book The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Jane Jacobs includes the stoop as part of her model of the self-regulating urban street.