Built To Last

This Old House lends a hand on the renovation of an 1840s “single house” in Charleston, South Carolina, with the goal of preserving its unique character while creating a comfortable family home.

- Jefferson Kolle

There’s no shortage of old houses to fix up in Charleston, South Carolina, but it can feel like a Goldilocks search trying to find one that’s “just right.”

Scott and Kathleen Edwards hunted for almost two years before they came across exactly what they were looking for: a house in the Ansonborough neighborhood, with its lively restaurants and shopping, that hadn’t been recently modernized.

They first moved to the city from Michigan almost 25 years ago, then raised their children in the suburbs. Three years ago, they rehabbed a house downtown as a long-term rental, and found themselves bitten by the renovation bug. With their then 18-year-old daughter off at college and their son not far behind, they liked the idea of moving back to the city, to a house with history.

After losing one place to another bidder, they bought a for-sale-by-owner property from an estate. The house had been in the same family for 80 years. “It was just what we were looking for,” says Scott. “Not much, if any, work had been done in a long time.”

The house’s lines were a draw too. “The moldings and trim are simple and clean, almost minimalist,” Kathleen says. “But there’s also an elegance that attracted us.” Being chosen by This Old House for its 39th television season made it more perfect still.

The couple knew all along that they wanted a brick house—something Ansonborough is known for, with many built after the fire of 1838. According to a local newspaper report at the time, the fire leveled “at least one-fourth of the centre of our beautiful and flourishing city.” Afterward, the state’s general assembly gave construction loans for fire-resistant masonry buildings.