A Brief History of the Old Charleston Cottage House

The streets and homes of Charleston, SC are a living, breathing thing. Down every alleyway and every street, a story screams from the cobblestones or seeps from the entryways in so many of the structures in and around the downtown area. Charleston has stood through the Revolutionary and Civil Wars and many of the buildings that were standing during those times are still around today to tell us first hand of the past.

What might surprise you is that Jeannie Joyner, an artist from South Carolina, has created a design drawn from her experiences here in town.

While today the doors of homes might feel a little lighter, walking down King Street you’ll notice that there are no small balsa wood entryways. They are lumbering, castle-like massive structures. The Old Charleston Cottage also was designed with oak or mahogany double-doors representative of buildings that have vacillated between residential and commercial in the last 400 plus years.

Most of Charleston’s French Quarter was destroyed by a fire in 1740. The original Dock Street Theater was ruined along with many other buildings. Rebuilt and re-established as the Planter’s Inn (arguably home of the world-famous Planter’s Punch), it returned to the purview of the City of Charleston in 1935 after it was scheduled for demolition. Repurposed yet again into the Dock Street Theater, the clay brickwork peeks through at the casual passersby on the road. The Cottage House mimics these accents that are prevalent throughout so many of the oldest homes in Charleston.

Since most of the houses in the downtown Charleston area are among the oldest in the country, they were originally constructed without central heating and air. During the long, hot, extremely humid summers, many residents would be forced to keep all windows open for air flow in order to avoid roasting themselves to death. But if a rainy day were to come along, the lintels above the windows might provide a few crucial seconds for everything to be shuttered and not ruin the hard wood floors. Or maybe they could leave them open!

On Queen and Meeting Streets, you’ll find that since the houses in the area have almost no yard, the best way to display someone’s green thumb is with a flower box. The residents of these homes and so many in the area fill these boxes with tall, flowing and, cascading flora to show off their individual style while respecting the general feel of Charleston. It’s only right that our painted House would do the same.

Above the windows of the Cottage House, keystones are prominently displayed. These capstones are placed for both decorative and functional purposes on many Charleston homes. They provide support for the weight of the structure above while completing the window header for the intersecting arches. In short, it's pretty but purposeful.

If you were to approach anyone who’s been to Charleston and ask them what is THE Charleston landmark, most would probably tell you Rainbow Row. In the early 20th century, one of the property owners on East Bay Street chose the Caribbean Pink exterior to help cool the house during the Charleston summers. The other owners next door followed suit with vibrant pastel colors of their own choosing, thus giving us what today is referred to fondly as Charleston’s Rainbow Row. Much of the color palette of the Old Charleston Cottage House was chosen to mimic these gorgeous façades.

The earthquake bolts, shutters, hitching posts, shutter latches, even the mail slot is representative of so many houses in the downtown and surrounding Charleston areas. The elements have been added after hurricanes and earthquakes as they have been proven to be necessary editions.

It might be trite to say that, to an artist, the world is their canvas. In this specific case, it’s quite true. Jeannie has amalgamated her own past and the history of her hometown and has created something truly special. She’s imagined a cottage from an idealized yesteryear for generations in the future to share.

What the Old Charleston Cottage House design accomplishes is bridging a generation gone to another that has not yet come into being.

~ Brandon L. Joyner