Regional Architecture: Charleston Single House

One of the most enjoyable elements of traveling for me is discovering the differences in building styles that help make homes in various regions so unique. This past week I traveled down to Charleston, South Carolina for a short break, and was delighted to find a feast for the eyes in terms of homes and architecture. Walking the streets of the historic district showcased a wide variety of home styles, the most delightful of which (to me anyway) was the so-called Charleston single house.

Designed to capture as much breeze as possible on the hot and humid summer days, these lovely homes showcase cooling methods in the days long before air conditioning. Charleston single houses are narrow and deep; only one room wide on the side that faces the street, they are focused on the verandas that span the longer side of the house. Known as "piazzas" in Charleston, these lovely porches provide ample outdoor living space and much needed cross-ventilation to help cool air circulate through the house. The piazzas also help to shade the windows of the house from the afternoon sun, again keeping temperatures inside more livable.

To me, the most interesting element of the Charleston single house is that the front door opens not into the house itself, but onto the ground floor piazza. Once on the piazza, there is a true front door into the interior of the house. I have been told that tradition holds if the door to the piazza is open, the family is home to callers, but am not sure how that plays out in our more modern days. I was delighted to see how whimsical some of these front doors were; since the floor of the piazza slopes out from the house for drainage, some of the front door surrounds are equally tilted though the doors themselves are hung plumb and level.

Images: Colleen Quinn

Comments (10)

i love charleston architecture. it's so clever yet so beautiful. i feel so lucky to live around it . . .

It's interesting, if you read about SINGLE HOUSES from an architect-historical POV, you hear about ventilation and other design benefits.

However this is what I've heard from other sources having spent some time in Charleston myself:

Historically, the development of this residential type is tied with property taxes. In Charleston, S.C., where the sideyard house originated, property taxes were based on the length of building frontage, not lot frontage. Therefore, in order to reduce the amount of tax paid on their property, Charlestonians cleverly decided to minimize the building frontage by building higher and deeper on the lot. This results in a rectangular footprint with the short side facing the street towards the front of the property and the longer side of the house facing the side yard.

http://www.tndtownpaper.com/Volume4/the_sideyard_house.htm

Those houses are so beautiful.

Gypsy marie, my hometown, too. :)

Agree with JenPDX but, also, those southern houses knew how to max the cool. :)

The width of a Charleston Single House actually has nothing to do with taxes - it's just a fun not-so-true fact that you get told on carriage tours.

When Charleston was developed, the entire peninsula was divided into very few plats of land. These plats where owned by the same plantation owners who lived on the Ashley and Cooper River plantations. They already had huge estates that required lots of maintenance. Why would they want large plats of land in the city? They then divided their plats (that were about the size of an average city block) into slivers to ensure that everyone had adequate street frontage. This then defined the width of the single house. Some did have the side porch (piazza) that over looked the side yard, but the vast majority's actually looked right into the side of the neighboring single house.

I grew up in Charleston, SC and went to the College of Charleston where I majored in Historic Preservation. It pains me to hear the elaborate tales that are told to tourist.

Gypsy marie + paperkite -
My hometown as well!!!

Charlestonians sure know how to keep cool, since summer temps are in the upper 90's (with 100% humidity) - making it feel more like 110 in the shade! And summer lasts from May through the end of September!

Another reason for the creation of the single house was space was at a premium in the 1700s when much of the city was walled.
The design may have originally be created for fire protection with both front and side entrances/exits.

Regardless, the homes offered privacy by having side and back gardens, comfort and protection.

We drive down to Charleston every chance we get just to breathe the air of refinement in the archictecture. Love it!