Alexander Christie House
92 Church Street • c. 1809
The site for this house, which is wide enough to have accommodated a double house (like 87 Church Street, the Heyward-Washington House), shows that single houses were not necessarily preferred because of the narrowness of their lots.
Actually, the original lots in the city were about 100 feet wide, which was the width of this property that Alexander Christie bought in 1805 when the lot had only the house at no. 94 on it, and on which he would soon afterward build no. 92 for himself.
This Adamesque house has a contemporary piazza with segmental arches on its second story (like the ones added to no. 90), and an elaborate Adamesque door enframement on the entrance to the private space.
The piazza door fronts the open passage to the private entrance and serves as an entrance to an ornamental garden in front (on the side) of the house. With good justification, historian Mrs. St. Julien Ravenel called the piazza door a garden gate. Slaves used the driveway to go to and from the back yard and the service buildings at the back of the lot.
This house was largely constructed of characteristic Charleston grey (brown and mottled) brick, but the windows and original center door—where there is now a window—have flat arches of more highly fired red bricks that have been rubbed smooth for a close fit and still greater strength.
Look closely at the center window on the first floor and you can see (as you can in many of downtown Charleston’s older single houses) that it originally held a door to the commercial entrance. The red vertical bricks above the window extend farther out, the brick below the window is newer (and more ruff), and the mortar work is much less refined. The quality of the original masonry, as also evidenced in the string-course of bricks between each floor, was exquisite. •
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Imagine a 10-day Fall festival of Shakespearean plays. In the theatre and in the park. With college and local talent partnering with professional actors. Like the idea? 





