Charles Graves House

Last updated October 04, 2019

The Charles Graves House is a three-story brick residence constructed for Charles Graves at 123 Tradd Street in Charleston, South Carolina. The roof has a hip in it and the details exhibit styling of the Federal architecture period.

Charleston is the oldest and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston–Summerville Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint of South Carolina's coastline and is located on Charleston Harbor, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean formed by the confluence of the Ashley, Cooper, and Wando rivers. Charleston had an estimated population of 136,208 in 2018. The estimated population of the Charleston metropolitan area, comprising Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties, was 787,643 residents as of 2018, the third-largest in the state and the 78th-largest metropolitan statistical area in the United States.

Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between c. 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815. This style shares its name with its era, the Federalist Era. The name Federal style is also used in association with furniture design in the United States of the same time period. The style broadly corresponds to the classicism of Biedermeier style in the German-speaking lands, Regency architecture in Britain and to the French Empire style.

The interior follows the normal Charleston single house plan. There is a three-story stair hall in the center with a single room on either side. Most of the original Federal details have been retained. The entrance on the central portion of the side of the house exhibits Federal influence. It has a molded architrave as well as in the transom that is tall with tracery that is both neoclassical and fine. A two-story piazza with Tuscan columns, ceiling panels, and plain balusters is on the west facade. The house has brick covered in stucco that looks like stone, a string course made of bricks, quoining, and decorative brick work that looks like dentils. The original kitchen building is tied to the main house by a later addition.^[1]

A Charleston single house is a form of house found in Charleston, South Carolina. A single house has its narrow side with a gable end along the street and a longer side running perpendicular to the street. The house is well-suited to long, narrow lots which were laid out in early Charleston. Despite the popularity of the story, single houses were not built to avoid taxes that were, according to the tales, based on the width of the house; no evidence supports anything about such fanciful myths.

In Classical architecture an architrave is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of the columns.

Transom (architectural) transverse horizontal structural beam, bar of crosspiece; also short for transom window/ transom light

In architecture, a transom is a transverse horizontal structural beam or bar, or a crosspiece separating a door from a window above it. This contrasts with a mullion, a vertical structural member. Transom or transom window is also the customary U.S. word used for a transom light, the window over this crosspiece. In Britain, the transom light is usually referred to as a fanlight, often with a semi-circular shape, especially when the window is segmented like the slats of a folding hand fan. A well-known example of this is at the main entrance of 10 Downing Street, London.

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References

↑ "123 Tradd St. - Charles Graves House". Historic Markers Program. Preservation Society of Charleston. Archived from the original on March 14, 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2013.

Coordinates: 32°46′27″N79°56′05″W / 32.774131°N 79.934657°W / 32.774131; -79.934657

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[1] "123 Tradd St. - Charles Graves House". Historic Markers Program. Preservation Society of Charleston. Archived from the original on March 14, 2011. Retrieved November 8, 2013.