House and Garden 
PORTICOED HOUSE, CAMDEN 
technically accurate. On the whole the 
house is good Georgian, and the doorways 
with their fanlights, the window casements 
and general enrichment of woodwork all 
show a careful conformity to style. Only 
the double-deck gallery is there to classify 
the house as essentially Southern. In the 
detailed view given of the lower veranda a 
custom peculiar to old Charleston is inter¬ 
estingly illustrated—that of weather-board¬ 
ing one end of it if it happens to overlook 
two streets, thus securing a form of privacy, 
but windows were cut in this weather-boarded 
end for a free circulation of air when needed, 
or in order that the passer-by might be more 
closely examined should one become curious. 
Another instance, where the builder has 
attempted to combine certain forms of 
classicism with West Indian ideas, is fur¬ 
nished by the Williams House, Camden. 
Here the construction is clearly early Geor¬ 
gian in some of its features, notably its door¬ 
ways; but its verandas are repetitions of 
those seen elsewhere. 
Another form of classicism seen in South 
Carolina was that in which the Greek revi¬ 
val manifested itself—houses with attempted 
Grecian porticoes or loggias, upheld by 
columns which were usually Doric, or modi¬ 
fications of that idea such as Southern mills 
of that period were capable of producing. 
These were sometimes models of domestic 
elegance, but quite as often grotesque objects 
illustrating the obvious truth that man is not 
always master of his fate, in architecture. 
Sometimes these classic houses were copies 
of the Temple of Theseus, having columns 
extending around all sides, and tiny iron bal¬ 
conies projecting from the second storey 
windows—for second-storey verandas must 
be had in one form or another. Take the 
illustration of the porticoed house of Camden. 
In it you have a perfect example of the 
portico or loggia with its inevitable second- 
storey veranda encompassed within the 
Doric columns. On the whole this house 
possesses a certain dignity the result of good 
proportion and good position. In the Cam¬ 
den house, on page 199, we have the same 
general effect in front, as if the builder con¬ 
ceded that much to proper style while reserv¬ 
ing a two-storey veranda on the side for solid 
comfort; an arrangement which, however, we 
must confess, appears slightly incongruous. 
202 
