Jones in hers, and called to her. She 

 answered me very kindly, and I went 

 over and staid an hour with them 

 very agreeably. Oh! how I hate 

 coldness, and love a cordiality of 

 acquaintance." 



When porches came under 

 attack because they were considered 

 conduits for fire, Wilmingtonians 

 rallied to their defense. In 1790, 

 they petitioned the state House of 

 Representatives to revoke sections 

 of a law designed to rid the city of 

 "the many incroachments made on 

 the streets ... by erecting piazzas, 

 porches, platforms and other 

 buildings thereon." Not only useful, 

 porches "in this hot Climate, are 

 essentially necessary to the Health 



and convenience of the Inhabitants," 

 they said. 



The heat, in fact, drove North 

 Carolinians to their porches. When 

 they designed their houses, they 

 included piazzas from the start. The 

 engaged porch, which is integrated 

 into the house under the main roof, 

 is a distinctive feature of North 

 Carolina's coastal architecture, says 

 Southern. "I expect you'd find it 

 farther south, but it's not seen much 

 north of North Carolina." 



In Wilmington, the Burgwin- 

 Wright House, circa 1770, provides 

 an example of the engaged porch. 



Nearby, the row houses in the 

 800 block of Orange Street, each 

 with its own porch, offer a unique 

 perspective on the close-knit bonds 



formed across the railings, says Ed 

 Turberg, owner of Edward F. Turberg 

 Restoration in Wilmington. 



"Built in the early 1900s, every 

 house has a front porch," he says. "If 

 you sit in any house, it's as if you're in 

 a balcony of an opera house, and it's 

 just a wonderful feeling." 



The porch, viewed as an outdoor 

 living room, became an indispensable 

 part of the house rather than an 

 afterthought in North Carolina's hot 

 climate, where ventilation was 

 paramount, says M. Ruth Little, an 

 architectural historian with Longleaf 

 Historic Resources in Raleigh. 



"It was in the original mental idea 

 of what a house was," she says, 

 noting that even today, socializing on 

 the porch — with all its subtle unspo- 

 ken rituals — continues across the 



