7 Features That Only Classic Southern Homes Have

You don’t have to live south of the Mason-Dixon line to love classic Southern homes. Defined by history, charm and generations of heat survival, Southern-style houses feature distinctive design elements. While most people know about wrap-around porches or high ceilings, it typically takes a Southerner to know terms such as “sleeping porch” and “hospitality door.”

Sleeping Porches

Also called a Florida room, a sleeping porch hearkens back to the days before air conditioning when a porch offered overnight relief from summer heat. Essentially a three-season room, this space typically has walls and windows but no insulation or heating.

Haint Blue Porch Ceilings

From Savannah, Georgia to Charleston, South Carolina, Southern porches often feature blue ceilings. Known as haint blue, this blue-green shade is more than charming. It gets its name from its legendary ability to ward off “haints,” or spirits of the dead.

It is believed the practice originated with the Gullah Geechee, enslaved people living in parts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

Elevated Foundations

Coastal parts of the South often feature homes with elevated foundations, built on stilts to avoid potential flooding. Houses along the Gulf of Mexico coastline are especially susceptible to issues like storm surge during hurricanes.

Another bonus to elevated foundations? On hot summer days, a breeze beneath the first floor offers slight cooling.

Charleston Green

Found on trim, doors and shutters throughout Charleston, South Carolina, the color “Charleston Green” reportedly dates back to post-Civil War. When Northerners sent black paint to rebuild the city, color-loving locals added yellow and green to make it their own.

Joggling Boards

Speaking of Charleston Green, it’s a popular color choice for joggling boards, those South Carolina Lowcountry rocking benches that are essentially long, bowed boards held between two wood stands. Built out of sturdy yet flexible Southern pine, they originated in the early 1800s and quickly became popular throughout the region.

Hospitality Doors

In Southern cities, especially Charleston, front porches may feature what’s known as a hospitality door — intended as a social cue to friends and neighbors. If the door was open, you knew you were welcome to drop by. Learn more about the charm of hospitality doors.

Eyebrow Houses

A distinguishing mark of Key West, Florida, eyebrow houses are 1800s-era homes where the gabled roof shades almost the entire second story of windows, lessening exposure to the sun’s heat.

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