Georgian Architecture
Federal Architecture
The one-room-wide houses offered welcome cross-ventilation in the days before air-conditioning. And the piazza was a shaded place to sit. From the porch you could enjoy the view of your side-garden too. This is a truly Southern architectural style.
Another interesting feature of a Charleston Single House is that the front door is on the porch! Yes, go through the front door from the street and you're on the porch, not inside the house proper. It provides needed privacy because the entrance hall is centered on the side of the house.
Neo-traditional developments on the east coast are reviving and spreading this architecture design. It lends variety and interest to new subdivisions that put a high priority on historically-correct architecture. House plans are available from companies like this one.
Despite the simple layout of the Charleston Single House, any visitor to that city will see a great variety in the details of these beautiful historic homes. More house photos to enjoy. The Historic Charleston Foundation's annual Festival of Houses and Gardens is an opportunity to explore Charleston single houses and other fine private residences.
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A typical house of a moderately wealthy person would have four buildings. A detached kitchen, a stable and a privy. See entry for 36 Meeting St.
And see The Landscape of the Enslaved: The rear work yard of the Nathaniel Russell House was adjacent to the line of dependencies noted on this plat of the property from 1870.
The dependencies included the extant kitchen and laundry buildings that was at the center of most domestic chores, as well as a carriage house, stable, and storage area for wood and coal (now gone). The rooms above these indoor work spaces served as living quarters for the 8 to 18 enslaved African Americans who lived and worked on the property. The kitchen and laundry building was connected to the main house as early as 1820 with a one story hyphen.
The work yard would have been used for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to housing and butchering livestock, growing medicinal and cooking herbs, carpentry and drying of laundry.
As you enter the former kitchen and laundry building, take note of the large hearths where enslaved African Americans prepared food for the entire household. Today's famed Lowcountry cuisine has its roots in the combined elements of African, European, and Native American foodways and cultures.
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A description of the garden at the early 19th century Daniel Russel House:
This present day garden design differs substantially from that which existed during the occupation of the property by the Russell Family and their slaves (1808-1857).
In 1819 the Russell garden was described by an English visitor:
...called on the venerable Nathaniel Russell, Esq., residing in a splendid mansion, surrounded by a wilderness of flowers, and bowers of myrtles, oranges and lemons, smothered with fruit and flowers living in a next of roses... I saw and ate rip figs, pears, apples and plums, the rich productions of this generous climate.
The photograph from 1898 shows the "bones" of this early garden with its winding shell paths and planting beds. Archaeological excavations from 2003 and 2006 revealed evidence of this garden located in the area between the front entrance and Meeting Street. Research and artifacts suggest the paths and planting beds in this image are original.
The formal, front garden was in stark contrast to the work space at the rear of the property. Fencing divided the formal pleasure garden from the rear utilitarian spaces, effectively separating black and white worlds.
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And see The Landscape of the Enslaved: The rear work yard of the Nathaniel Russell House was adjacent to the line of dependencies noted on this plat of the property from 1870.
The dependencies included the extant kitchen and laundry buildings that was at the center of most domestic chores, as well as a carriage house, stable, and storage area for wood and coal (now gone). The rooms above these indoor work spaces served as living quarters for the 8 to 18 enslaved African Americans who lived and worked on the property. The kitchen and laundry building was connected to the main house as early as 1820 with a one story hyphen.
The work yard would have been used for a variety of purposes, including but not limited to housing and butchering livestock, growing medicinal and cooking herbs, carpentry and drying of laundry.
As you enter the former kitchen and laundry building, take note of the large hearths where enslaved African Americans prepared food for the entire household. Today's famed Lowcountry cuisine has its roots in the combined elements of African, European, and Native American foodways and cultures.
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This present day garden design differs substantially from that which existed during the occupation of the property by the Russell Family and their slaves (1808-1857).In 1819 the Russell garden was described by an English visitor:
...called on the venerable Nathaniel Russell, Esq., residing in a splendid mansion, surrounded by a wilderness of flowers, and bowers of myrtles, oranges and lemons, smothered with fruit and flowers living in a next of roses... I saw and ate rip figs, pears, apples and plums, the rich productions of this generous climate.
The photograph from 1898 shows the "bones" of this early garden with its winding shell paths and planting beds. Archaeological excavations from 2003 and 2006 revealed evidence of this garden located in the area between the front entrance and Meeting Street. Research and artifacts suggest the paths and planting beds in this image are original.
The formal, front garden was in stark contrast to the work space at the rear of the property. Fencing divided the formal pleasure garden from the rear utilitarian spaces, effectively separating black and white worlds.
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Architect James Gibbs
From Charleston Footprints:
The influence of 18th-century Scottish architect James Gibbs can be found throughout Charleston, although few in this city have ever heard of him or give him credit for his distinctive style.
Gibbs, like many architects of his day, was dedicated to incorporating ancient Roman and Greek styles into his buildings, and became a proponent of Mannerism, which put great emphasis on symmetry and spatial relationships in parts of the buildings.
His classic work was St. Martin-In-The-Fields in London, which set the standard for American Anglican church architecture. Gibbs broke from earlier English tradition and placed his steeple behind the grand portico of the church to accentuate the spatial relationship between the upper and lower details of the building, and this steeple-portico arrangement can clearly be seen in St. Michael’s church in Charleston. It’s obvious that Gibbs’ 1728 book of architecture was used to copy the design for St. Michael’s exterior, and ironically, over at St. Philip’s church, the interior is a dead-ringer for St. Martin-In-The-Fields.
One of Gibbs’ trademark details is the space between elaboration in arches that is clear in St. Philip’s interior. This look of separate block details surrounding doors and windows is actually named after the famous architect, and is called a “Gibbs Surround”.
Look at classic buildings throughout historic Charleston, and you will find yourself literally “surrounded” buy the influence of James Gibbs, who, by the way, never visited Charleston.
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Charleston Footprints: Gareden Tours Charleston
Charleston is flourishing with dramatic color early again this year. The Flowering Cherry Japanese Magnolia, and our state flower, the Yellow Jessamine, have been out for weeks. The Azalea, Red Bud, and Lady Banksia Rose are in full glory, and there are various flowerings of Crabapple, Pear, Rose, Galanthus, Tea Olive, Lugustrum, Photinia, and Star Magnolia.
This should come as no surprise in a city where such famed botanists as John Drayton, Alexander Garden, Andre Michaux, Joel Poinsett, and Philippe Noisette once lived, and where so many non-native species – such as the Azalea, Camellia, Crepe Myrtle, Mimosa, and Poinsettia found a comfortable home.
This week, the Historic Charleston Foundation begins its 66th annual tour of homes and gardens, which is one of Charleston’s most anticipated events, as dozens of historic private homes and gardens are made available for viewing for ticket holders. Charleston is famous for the “English Garden”, dating to the days when English gardeners came to America to lay out grand natural spaces to accentuate the beauty of the architecture , and considered an extension of the house, the old gardens were designed with separate “rooms” of differing colors, paths, levels and fountains.
Charleston Footprints: Gareden Tours Charleston
Charleston is flourishing with dramatic color early again this year. The Flowering Cherry Japanese Magnolia, and our state flower, the Yellow Jessamine, have been out for weeks. The Azalea, Red Bud, and Lady Banksia Rose are in full glory, and there are various flowerings of Crabapple, Pear, Rose, Galanthus, Tea Olive, Lugustrum, Photinia, and Star Magnolia.
This should come as no surprise in a city where such famed botanists as John Drayton, Alexander Garden, Andre Michaux, Joel Poinsett, and Philippe Noisette once lived, and where so many non-native species – such as the Azalea, Camellia, Crepe Myrtle, Mimosa, and Poinsettia found a comfortable home.
This week, the Historic Charleston Foundation begins its 66th annual tour of homes and gardens, which is one of Charleston’s most anticipated events, as dozens of historic private homes and gardens are made available for viewing for ticket holders. Charleston is famous for the “English Garden”, dating to the days when English gardeners came to America to lay out grand natural spaces to accentuate the beauty of the architecture , and considered an extension of the house, the old gardens were designed with separate “rooms” of differing colors, paths, levels and fountains.
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Charleston Footprints: Cupolas
The cupola is a distinctive architectural detail on several of Charleston’s Revolutionary-era buildings. The small. circular structure gets its name from Italian “little cup”, and was a popular Venetian ornamentation made popular in Neo-classical designs based on Andrea Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture.
The cupola is designed for a dual purpose – to give a building beauty and to help ventilate the structure. The crowning little cup adds a delicate dimension to the architecture, and by opening cupola windows, warm air is released from within. Here in Charleston, the combination of looking good and keeping cool was always a major influence on architecture, and cupolas began to appear shortly before the Revolution in buildings such as the Old Exchange, the Josiah Smith house, and the John Ashe house. The cupola at the Ashe house once overlooked docks along South Bay, now South Battery and Murray Boulevard, and legend says that a light was used as navigation for ships.
Charleston Footprints: Cupolas
The cupola is a distinctive architectural detail on several of Charleston’s Revolutionary-era buildings. The small. circular structure gets its name from Italian “little cup”, and was a popular Venetian ornamentation made popular in Neo-classical designs based on Andrea Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture. The cupola is designed for a dual purpose – to give a building beauty and to help ventilate the structure. The crowning little cup adds a delicate dimension to the architecture, and by opening cupola windows, warm air is released from within. Here in Charleston, the combination of looking good and keeping cool was always a major influence on architecture, and cupolas began to appear shortly before the Revolution in buildings such as the Old Exchange, the Josiah Smith house, and the John Ashe house. The cupola at the Ashe house once overlooked docks along South Bay, now South Battery and Murray Boulevard, and legend says that a light was used as navigation for ships.
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Charleston Footprints: Quoins
The quoin also gives a building a very distinctive, decorative look, and as classic architectural styles influenced Western Europe by the 17th century, quoins became all the rage. This idea came to Charleston in a variety of forms by the 1720’s, with new Georgian styles in buildings that usually mimicked the stone corner with sections of brick that were built to protrude, then covered with stucco to resemble a solid block.
Some expensively-built buildings, such as the 1801 City Hall (built as a Federal bank), feature true stone quoins, but the vast majority of quoins around the city are brick beneath, stucco on top.
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