Charleston Single House
From Archiplanet
 | Charleston Single House |
| Designer | Vernacular |
| Location | Charleston, South Carolina, USA |
| Date | 1800 to 1900 |
| Building Type | house |
| Climate | hot, humid |
| Context | semi-urban |
| Architectural Style | Charleston U.S. Vernacular |
| Street Address | 54 Meeting Street |
| Notes | Elegant adaptation to building lot proportions and local climate and tradition |
| At Great Buildings | http://www.GreatBuildings.com/buildings/Charleston_Single_House.html |
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Named for the plan of the house, the Charleston Single House building type consists of a one room-wide house that is traditionally two rooms deep with a stair hall built at the main entrance to the home from an outdoor porch (piazza). Single Houses are traditionally two stories high, but larger examples are seen throughout Charleston. The piazza entrance to the home resembles a traditional main entry, but actually leads to the piazza where the main entrance is found.
The single house is usually sited asymmetrically along or very near one side lot line devoting most of it's unbuilt lot area to a single side yard. The house is "open" to its own side yard with facing porches and large windows. Conversely a single house is "closed" or hermetic with fewer and smaller windows on the side facing its neighbor's side yard so that each house has privacy in its designated outdoor space even when houses are built very close together. Today side yards are often used for parking one car or two cars in tandem with the space sometimes doubling as a courtyard when the cars are removed.
Single houses can be subdivided into two flats or as many as four apartments. Access to the second floor unit(s) may be via an exterior staircase from the lower to upper piazza.
This house type was an adaptation both to allow air to flow through the entire length of the house and piazzas (especially effective if the house is properly oriented to catch the wind).
As Charleston grew into a tourist hub, the Charleston Single House building type became the subject of numerous myths and legends. Among these myths are the reputed fact that the Single House was built as an adaptation to the method of taxation based on street frontage, or that the building type was derived from vernacular structures of Barbados; a lucrative sugar producing country throughout much of the 17th and 18th centuries, where many early Charleston families kept sugar plantations. These facts are popular among Charleston tour guides but are not accurate.
The Charleston Single House building type is found exclusively in Peninsular Charleston, SC. The building type was built throughout the 17 and 1800s, but abruptly began disappearing some time in the 1890s. It is said that at its peak, the Charleston Single House dominated Charleston with around 4,000 single houses in existence. Today that figure is estimated to be around 2,700.
There also exists a double house type, although this type is less well-known and less distinctive.
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Commentary
"For maximum outdoor living space, the Single was sited far to one side of the lot. Unlike most houses today, in which a wide facade faces the street, the two long sides of the Charleston ran from front to back. On one side, the house was augmented by a long veranda, or piazza, often topped by balconies. The veranda and balconies sheltered doors to the rooms. Thus, the doors could be left open in the heat of the day and even in rain storms. Windows located on the opposite long wall promoted cross ventilation."
—Jim Kemp. American Vernacular: Regional Influence in Architecture and Interior Design. Washington, D.C.: The American Institute of Architects Press, 1990. p76.
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References
"Southernness in Architecture", by Charles Moore, ArchitectureWeek No. 207, 2004.0901, pC1.2.
Jim Kemp. American Vernacular: Regional Influences in Architecture and Interior Design. Washington: American Institute of Architects Press, 1990. exterior photo from street, p76. exterior photo of door, p212.
Kenneth Severns. Charleston, Antebellum Achitecture and Civic Destiny. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1988. exterior perspective view from the street, p8.
