Thomas Elfe House
| Thomas Elfe House | |
|---|---|
 Thomas Elfe house 54 Queen St, Charleston, S.C. | |
 | |
| General information | |
| Type | House |
| Construction started | 1760 |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | Wood |
| Floor count | 2 |
The Thomas Elfe house is a property located in the French Quarter at 54 Queen Street in Charleston, South Carolina. It was at one time owned by the well known colonial period furniture craftsman Thomas Elfe, whence its name. It is a colonial Georgian style house and a perfectly scaled miniature of a Charleston single house. The eighteenth century house has been completely restored. It is now referred to as the Thomas Elfe Workshop.
Description[]
The property originally consisted of two structures, one at the street front and the other behind it.[1] It is believed that the rear structure was Elfe's shop and that his home was the separate structure in front.[2] The rear structure is believed to have burned down in the 1861 Charleston fire.[2] Elfe, considered to be the best Charleston furniture craftsman in the eighteenth century,[3]designed this single family house that he had built between 1750 and 1760.[4][5] It is a colonial Georgian style house and a perfectly scaled miniature of a Charleston single house.[6] It is two bays by three bays[7] with the main entrance to the house facings west and the street entrance with parking facing south.[7] The frame house is faced with clapboards that are 9.5 inches wide and exposed 7.75 inches, tapering from three-quarters of an inch to half an inch in thickness.[7] The clapboards are not original to the house and are replacement material of nineteenth century.[7] The house consists of two bedrooms and three bathrooms.[8]
The house foundation has brick piers, and the property lot perimeter is partially surrounded by a brick wall.[7] In the back yard are crape myrtles and a large old live oak tree.[9] The two-story structure has four rooms. It was moved to the back of the lot by thirty feet and restored in 1968 from a badly deteriorated condition due to lack of maintenance.[9][10] The house is now a touring museum open to the public.[11] The house has two brick chimneys.[7] There is cypress cabinetry on the fireplace walls.[8][12] The chimney alcoves have built-in closets and many rooms have china cabinets decorated with antiques. [13] The house features nine-over-nine sashed windows, meaning nine panes of glass per window sash.[9] This feature is well known for older Charleston historic homes.[9]
The Thomas Elfe house is the oldest restored historical residence in Charleston that is open to the public for visiting tours.[4] There are older house structures in Charleston, but they are either private residences or businesses.[14] The guided candlelit tours sometimes feature music of the eighteenth century.[9] The house interior is decorated to represent the period of Elfe's lifetime.[9] The house has been on television programs and has been written up in national magazines.[9] It is in Charleston's French Quarter and within walking distance of the French Huguenot Church and the Dock Street Theatre.[9]
The house suffered little damage in the 1886 Charleston earthquake.[11] The reason surmised for this is that it is built with large heavy beams (3.5 inches X 5 inches) that are mortised and joined together with wooden pegs.[7] It also did not sustain any major damage from Hurricane Hugo, which went through the area in 1989.[11] Elfe sold the house in 1763 to a chairmaker named Richard Hart.[1] There have been many owners from that time to present.[7] The house was restored by the owner of 1967 - 1969 to the way Elfe would have lived in it.[7] Since then it has been referred to as the Thomas Elfe Workshop.[15] The property's last known sale was for a million dollars that happened in 2003.[8]
Historic American Buildings Survey[]
The house is listed in the Historical American Buildings Survey of the U. S. Department of Interior and as a result detailed measured drawings were made and pictures were taken before the restoration.[1][16]
second floor, south room
second floor, north room
first floor, south room
first floor, north room
54 Queen Street elevations
54 Queen Street floor plans
54 Queen Street framing
54 Queen Street plat map
The over-all dimensions of the two story house are 16 feet, 5 3/4 inches by 30 feet, 2 1/4 inches.[7] Its area size is 1670 square feet (260 square meters).[8]
See also[]
- Edmondston-Alston House
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Elfe house. |
Footnotes[]
- ^ a b c Humphrey 1995, p. 4.
- ^ a b Humphrey 1995, pp. 2–4.
- ^ Foster 2005, p. 55.
- ^ a b Dickinson 2001, p. 206.
- ^ "Charlestonian Restores Thomas Elfe Workshop". The Greenville News. Greenville, South Carolina. April 11, 1976. p. 49. Retrieved July 18, 2021 – via Newspapers.com
.
- ^ "Charleston". The Orlando Sentinel. Orlando, Florida. May 18, 1986. p. 114. Retrieved July 18, 2021 – via Newspapers.com .
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Stoney, Samuel G. (1963–1969). "WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA" (PDF). Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscapes Survey. Library of Congress. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-06-05. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
- ^ a b c d 54-Queen-St-Charleston-SC-29401
- ^ a b c d e f g h "City Walking Tour". City Walking Tours, Guides and Tips. 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-06-05. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
- ^ Poston 1997, p. 128.
- ^ a b c Beney 2000, p. 50.
- ^ McLaughlin 1999, p. 149.
- ^ Perry 2007, p. 143.
- ^ "Pink House Gallery". Yelp. 2014. Retrieved June 2, 2014.
- ^ Dahlman 2007, p. 39.
- ^ "54 Queen Street (House), Charleston, Charleston County, SC". Library of Congress. U. S. Department of Interior. 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
Bibliography[]
- Beney, Peter (2000). Majesty of Charleston. Pelican Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4556-0813-3.
- Dahlman, Michael K. (2007). Daniel Island. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738543574.
- Dickinson, Joy (2001). Scarlett Slept Here. Kensington Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-0-8065-2092-6.
- Foster, Mary Preston (2005). Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-1779-7.
- Humphrey, Samuel A. (1995). Thomas Elfe, Cabinetmaker. Wyrick. ISBN 978-0-941711-15-9.
- McLaughlin, J. Michael (1999). The Insiders' guide to Greater Charleston. Insiders' Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-57380-088-4.
- Perry, Lee Davis (2007). Insiders' Guide to Charleston: Including Mt. Pleasant, Summerville, Kiawah, and Other Islands. Globe Pequot Press. ISBN 978-0-7627-4403-9.
- Poston, Jonathan H. (1997). The Buildings of Charleston: Architecture. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-202-8.
- Houses in Charleston, South Carolina
- Houses completed in 1760