The Charleston Double House: History, Layout, and Where to See One
Walk down King Street or Church Street below Broad and you will notice that not every old Charleston house turns its shoulder to the street. Some face you squarely, with a door in the center, windows balanced on either side, and sometimes a columned portico stacked two stories high. These are Charleston double houses, the formal cousins of the better known single house.
This guide covers how the double house is laid out, where the form came from, which examples you can visit, and what to check before you buy one.
What Is a Charleston Double House?
The simplest definition comes from the National Park Service's landmark documentation for the Miles Brewton House, which describes the double house as a central hall flanked by a pair of rooms to either side, with the rooms separated by partition walls that hold the chimneys and closets. In short, a double house is two rooms wide and two rooms deep, with a hall running through the middle.
The landmark nomination for the Heyward-Washington House agrees, describing a local Georgian center-hall floor plan with two rooms on each side of the entrance hall and fireplaces on the interior partitions.
How It Differs from the Single House
The Charleston single house is one room wide, set with its narrow end to the street, with a side entrance and a hall between the front and back rooms on each floor. Most single houses gained long side piazzas. We cover that form in detail in our guide to the Charleston piazza and single house.
The double house reverses almost every one of those choices:
Orientation: the main facade typically faces the street, with the front door at the center.
Width: two rooms across the front instead of one, so the house needs a wider lot.
Depth: two rooms deep on each side of the hall, the arrangement architectural historians call "double-pile."
Porches: instead of the long side piazza of a single house, a double house may have a formal front portico, as at the Miles Brewton House, or a piazza added by a later owner, as at the Thomas Rose House.
Georgian Roots and the Eighteenth Century
The double house belongs to the Georgian tradition, the symmetrical, classically ordered architecture of eighteenth-century Britain and its colonies. Charleston builders and owners drew on published pattern books. The NPS documentation for the Miles Brewton House notes that its carved overmantel was probably derived from a plate in Palladio Londinensis, an English builder's guide, and that the house shows a "keen awareness of the Palladian style."
The best documented Charleston double houses date to the decades just before and during the American Revolution. The Miles Brewton House went up from 1765 to 1769, the Heyward-Washington House was completed in 1772, and the William Gibbes House was built from 1772 to 1779. When the National Park Service wrote up the Joseph Manigault House, designed by Gabriel Manigault for his brother, it described that house as the first in the city planned to suit the owner "instead of following the often repeated plans of either the single house or the double house then so popular." The form lasted into the nineteenth century, too: Historic Charleston Foundation notes that merchant John Robinson built what is now the Aiken-Rhett House in 1820 "as a typical Charleston double house."
Where to See a Charleston Double House
Several of the examples below sit within a few blocks of each other, and our South of Broad neighborhood guide covers the streets around them.
Heyward-Washington House, 87 Church Street
This is the easiest double house to tour. The Charleston Museum describes it as "a Georgian-style double house" built in 1772. It belonged to Thomas Heyward, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and the City rented it for George Washington during his week-long stay in Charleston in May 1791. It opened in 1930 as Charleston's first historic house museum.
The South Carolina Encyclopedia notes that the three-story brick double house has four rooms plus a central hall on the first floor, a drawing room and smaller withdrawing room across the front of the second floor with two chambers behind, and more chambers on the third floor. The mahogany-railed staircase rises against the north partition, with a Palladian window at the landing. Out back is a colonial-era kitchen building, which the museum describes as the only one open to the public in Charleston.
Miles Brewton House, 27 King Street
The Miles Brewton House is the showpiece of the type. NPS documentation calls it a double house and singles out its two-story portico, carved from Portland stone with Doric columns below and Ionic above. The portico's marble floor continues into the center hall. The staircase is paneled in mahogany, which the nomination calls "unusually opulent" for a colonial building, and the formal drawing room upstairs has been compared to the famous double-cube room at Wilton in England. The carving is credited to Ezra Waite. Check current access before planning a visit.
Aiken-Rhett House, Elizabeth Street
The Aiken-Rhett House shows what happened to a double house over a generation of wealth. After John Robinson built it in 1820, William Aiken, Jr. and Harriet Lowndes Aiken made it their home in 1833 and began an extensive renovation. In 1858 an art gallery was added, reportedly the first of its kind in the city. Historic Charleston Foundation presents the property "as-found" rather than restored, so you see finishes and work yard buildings that have changed little since the 1850s.
Two to View from the Street
The William Gibbes House at 64 South Battery is a two-story frame house on a high stone basement that the NPS describes as "a Georgian four-room double-pile" plan with an entrance hall through the center. Its upstairs ballroom measures 20 by 34 feet under a coved ceiling. The Thomas Rose House at 59 Church Street, documented by the Library of Congress, has what the record calls "a typical Charleston 'double house' plan" and retains floor-to-ceiling cypress paneling in its main rooms. Church Street continues north of Broad into the French Quarter, so you can keep walking and compare the house forms block by block.
A Note on the Nathaniel Russell House
The Nathaniel Russell House at 51 Meeting Street often comes up in the same conversation, but it is not a double house. Historic Charleston Foundation describes it as a Federal period townhome, completed in 1808, with geometrically shaped rooms and a three-story free-flying staircase. It makes a useful contrast with the four-room Georgian plan.
What Living in a Double House Is Like Today
Room Sizes and the Upstairs Drawing Room
With two rooms on each side of the hall, each room typically has its own fireplace on an interior wall. In the grandest examples the best room is upstairs: at the Heyward-Washington House the principal living spaces are on the second floor, and the Gibbes House ballroom shows how large a single room could be. For a modern owner that can mean the finest room in the house sits a flight above the kitchen, so plan how you will use the upper front rooms.
The Center Hall
The hall is the spine of the house. Since it runs from the front of the building toward the back, opening the doors at each end lets air move straight through the middle of the house, and every room opens onto it. The hall also controls how private the house feels: guests enter at the center, and the rooms to either side can be closed off or opened up as needed.
Stair Placement
In the classic examples the main stair sits in the hall, usually toward the rear. The Heyward-Washington stair runs against the north partition with a Palladian window at the landing, and the Gibbes House stair hall sits at the north end, also lit by a Palladian window. That placement keeps the front rooms uninterrupted, but bathrooms and mechanical runs have to fit around a plan never designed for them. When you tour one, ask where plumbing and ductwork were routed and how those runs pass through the interior partition walls that also hold the chimneys.
What Buyers Should Look At
Structure
Have the foundations, the chimney stacks, the framing under the central hall, and any connection between the main house and later wings reviewed by an inspector and, where needed, a structural engineer experienced with historic buildings. Ask about past structural repairs and how they were done.
Past Alterations
Surviving double houses have usually been changed, and the changes tell you a lot. In the 1880s the Fuseler family turned the Heyward-Washington House into a bakery with a first-floor storefront, and a two-story piazza was removed at some point. At the Thomas Rose House, the entrance originally sat on the east facade and was moved to the south side with a new piazza, and in 1929 architect Albert Simons connected the detached kitchen to the main house. The Gibbes House received Adam-style redecoration around 1794, a double marble stair around 1800, and a six-foot extension between 1928 and 1930. Try to sort out which parts are original, which are later layers, and which are recent work that needs a second look. Our guide on how to research a Charleston house history walks through the records that can help.
BAR Review
If a double house sits inside one of Charleston's designated historic districts, plan on design review. The City of Charleston's Board of Architectural Review, established in 1931, reviews new construction, alterations, renovations, and demolitions visible from the public right-of-way in those districts. Minor work such as painting, repairs, and sitework is typically reviewed by staff, and staff decisions can be appealed within 15 calendar days. Before planning a porch, addition, or window changes, confirm the review path with the City's preservation staff.
FAQ
Is a Charleston double house the same as a Georgian house?
Not exactly. Georgian is a style; the double house is a plan type. The examples above are Georgian, but later owners sometimes added newer details, as with the Adam-style redecoration at the Gibbes House.
What is the main difference between a single house and a double house?
Width and orientation. A single house is one room wide with its narrow end to the street and a side entrance. A double house is two rooms wide, two rooms deep, with a central hall, and usually faces the street with its door at the center.
Which Charleston double houses can I tour?
The Heyward-Washington House on Church Street is run by The Charleston Museum, and the Aiken-Rhett House, built in 1820 as a double house, is open through Historic Charleston Foundation. Check each organization's website for current hours and tickets.
Did double houses always have piazzas?
No. Some, like the Miles Brewton House, have a formal front portico. Others gained piazzas later, as at the Thomas Rose House, and some lost them, as at the Heyward-Washington House.
Do I need BAR approval to renovate a double house?
Work visible from the public right-of-way on a property in a designated historic district generally falls under BAR review, with minor items handled at staff level. Confirm the specifics with the City of Charleston before you start.
Conclusion
The Charleston double house is the city's Georgian set piece: a central hall, two rooms on each side, and a front that faces the street. You can walk through one at the Heyward-Washington House, see a much-altered one at the Aiken-Rhett House, and admire the Miles Brewton, Gibbes, and Thomas Rose houses from the street. If you own or are buying one, the features that make it impressive also shape how you live in it and care for it.
When you are ready to look at historic homes in person, browse our neighborhood guides, see our current listings, or reach out to our team to talk through what you are looking for.