Charleston Single House

A Charleston single house is a form of house found in Charleston, South Carolina, with its narrow gable end, often two or three bays wide, facing the street and a longer side, often five bays, running back along the lot. The form suited the long narrow lots laid out in early Charleston, and although popular legend claims single houses were built to avoid a tax based on street facing width, no evidence supports that story. The form appears across historic Charleston in styles including Federal, Greek Revival, and Victorian, but its consistent feature is an interior layout with a front door on the long side opening onto a short central hall, one room toward the street and one toward the rear on each floor. Later single houses added two and three story porches known locally as piazzas, placed on the south or west side to take advantage of local winds, with the true front door reached halfway along the piazza behind what looks like a street level entrance.