Thomas Elfe House

The property originally consisted of two buildings, one along the street front and the other on the back part of the property. [1] It is believed that the rear structure was Elfe's shop and that his home was the separate structure in front.[1] Elfe, considered to be the best Charleston furniture craftsman in the eighteenth century,[2]designed this single family house that he had built in 1760.[3] It is a colonial Georgian style house.[4] The over-all dimensions of the two story house are 16 feet, 5 3/4 inches by 30 feet, 2 1/4 inches.[5] It is two bays by three bays.[5] The main entrance to the house faces west, the street entrance for parking faces south.[5] 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.[5] The clapboards are not original to the house and are replacement material of nineteenth century.[5] The house consists of two bedrooms and three bathrooms.[6] Its size is 1670 square feet (260 square meters).[6]

The house suffered little damage in the 1886 Charleston earthquake.[4] 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.[5] It also did not sustain any major damage from Hurricane Hugo, which went through the area in 1989.[4]

The Thomas Elfe house is the oldest restored historical residence in Charleston that is open to the public for visiting tours.[3] There are older house structures in Charleston, but they are either private residences or businesses.[7] The guided candlelit tours sometimes feature music of the eighteenth century.[8] The house interior is decorated to represent the period of Elfe's lifetime.[8] The house has been featured in a program for House and Garden TV and has been written about in national magazines, like Early American Life Magazine.[8] It is within walking distance of the renowned French Huguenot Church and Dock Street Theatre in Charleston's French Quarter.[8]

The house foundation has brick piers, and the property lot perimeter is partially surrounded by a brick wall.[5] In the back yard are crape myrtles and a large old live oak tree.[8] 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.[8][9] The house is now a touring museum open to the public.[4] The interior represents Elfe's influence with such things as architectural features to make the rooms look bigger than they really are.

The house has two brick chimneys.[5] There is cypress cabinetry on the fireplace walls.[6][10] The chimney alcoves have built-in closets and many rooms have china cabinets decorated with antiques. [11] The house features nine-over-nine sashed windows, meaning nine panes of glass per window sash.[8] This feature is well known for older Charleston historic homes.[8]

Elfe sold the house in 1763 to Richard Hart, a chairmaker.[1] There have been many owners from that time to present.[5] The house was restored by the then present owner of the time in 1967 - 1969 to represent the eighteenth century as Elfe would have lived in it.[5] The property last sold in 2003 for a million dollars.[6]

The house is listed in the Historical American Buildings Survey of the U. S. Department of Interior.[12]

Thomas Elfe house in 1963. (before restoration)

Thomas Elfe house in 1978. (after restoration)

• 
  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

• Edmondston-Alston House

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Thomas Elfe house.

• A Visit to Thomas Elfe’s House

• Beney, Peter (2000). Majesty of Charleston. Pelican Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4556-0813-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Dickinson, Joy (2001). Scarlett Slept Here: A Book Lover's Guide to the South. Kensington Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-0-8065-2092-6.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Foster, Mary Preston (2005). Charleston: A Historic Walking Tour. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7385-1779-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Humphrey, Samuel A. (1995). Thomas Elfe, Cabinetmaker. Wyrick. ISBN 978-0-941711-15-9.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• McLaughlin, J. Michael (1999). The Insiders' guide to Greater Charleston. Insiders' Publishing, Incorporated. ISBN 978-1-57380-088-4.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• 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.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Poston, Jonathan H. (1997). The Buildings of Charleston: A Guide to the City's Architecture. University of South Carolina Press. ISBN 978-1-57003-202-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)