The Federal row home was small in scale and ornamented sparingly. This era's row homes were generally two and a half storeys tall, three bays wide, with a pitched roof with dormers and a raised basement of brick or brownstone block. The front entrance was often framed by a flat-roofed porch supported by Ionic or Doric columns. Window sizes were relatively large, usually eight to ten feet high by six feet wide. The interior woodwork was typically painted white. The term "Federal" indicates that the house was built under the auspices of the United States Government. These houses were most commonly found in urban areas where there was a high demand for housing units. In fact, many cities had laws requiring certain percentages of their dwellings to be constructed as row houses. Generally, these houses were owned by non-profit organizations such as churches or charities, who were given land on which to build by local governments in exchange for building the required number of housing units. Federal style houses began to appear around 1820. They are characteristically larger than early American row houses, with two and three story versions common. Also unlike early American row houses, which were usually built from locally available materials (brick or stone) with some wooden elements (doors, windows, etc.), Federal row houses are almost always made of brick or stone, with only the foundation and exterior walls being made of wood.