What is a Charleston Single House?
Well I’m glad you asked!
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.
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.
