Hi Tina- servant or slave houses with a central chimney and two doors like yours are not unusual in SC. The depression with bricks may be a well, but if it is spaced evenly between the two cisterns it may also be a dismantled cistern for a demolished structure.
 

If you haven't already you might contact Chris Ohm at the museum there in Summerville. 
 

Carl Steen
 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Tina Devereaux <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Fri, Sep 17, 2010 6:08 pm
Subject: New here, couple of questions


First off, hello! Love the board.

#1.... I have a home built in 1870. It's a very simple "servants cottage" next 
door to, and set pretty far back from, "the big house". The big house has a 
fresh water cistern beneath it. On the other side of me used to be a very old 
home as well, also set far up in front and to the side of my house, and it was 
turned into a malaria hospital (!!!) then later destroyed. However, a newer home 
was built over top of a fresh water cistern, which the top of was barely covered 
with cement. Now, those two cisterns are almost exactly in line with each other.  
I have an area in my front yard, also exactly in line with, and between, the two 
cisterns, that is dipped down quite a bit. One of the former owners of my home 
tried to conceal the spot with several azaleas, but they don't do well there. 
Last summer, as I was pruning the shrubs, I noticed many antique red clay bricks 
laying about in that dipped area.  The area also was quite moist.  I dug around 
in the dirt a bit and discovered mo
 re of the bricks.  My husband told me to knock it off before I uncovered 
something we couldn't handle, hahahahaha!   ****  SO.... my question is the 
obvious:  What do y'all think?  Since my house sits so far back, perhaps there 
was another structure/home there and there WAS another cistern there?  Or maybe 
because of all the red clay bricks it was a bucket-type well?   If there's a 
chance that there's a well there, I will SO reconstruct that sucker!  I have at 
least 200 full size bricks that I have carefully pulled from the ground all over 
the property.  They're so fragile when they're wet that I can break them in 
half, but they strengthen a bit when they dry out.

#2... I discovered, through a 1960's photo I happened to see of my home at Town 
Hall, that my house originally had two identical front doors, about 4 feet 
apart. I asked the clerk to scan the photo and email it to me.  Due to a former 
owner (Mr. Azalea) making a horrible judgment call, MY house is THE only house 
in the ENTIRE Historic District with vinyl siding on it. Sigh.  Fortunately, the 
original clapboards are still underneath and the house sits far enough back from 
the road that you can't really tell. So, after taking a good look at the photo, 
running my hand down the porch wall several times and finding what I was looking 
for, I took a Whiz Wheel and cut the vinyl siding away from my hidden door!! It 
was still there and in beautiful condition, frame and all! Can you believe he 
had just slapped a piece of plywood over the door opening and put the siding 
over it?   ANYWAY.... the home has a center chimney, but is accessible from one 
side only, and that appears to be from
  the "less used" OR maybe "newer" side of the house.  The other side has 
pot-belly stove vents still in place. The flooring on the fireplace side is 
narrow tongue and groove pine, and is in pretty decent shape. The flooring on 
the pot belly stove side is random width pine, which has probably never been 
refinished and only had more lacqure applied to it over the years to seal the 
very wide cracks. It's in pretty bad shape, but I love it. The entire house is 
balloon framed, both sides. But the odd thing is, both sides have huge beams, 
and mortise and tenon joints with tree nails..... as well as a million nails of 
every shape and size, both square head and round!  There is no insulation of any 
kind, except what Mr. Azalea & Vinyl Siding stuffed in here and there.  *****  
So, my question:  Do you think both sides of the house were built at the same 
time, or at different times? And, what in the WORLD are these house with two 
front doors called, and where can I read more about them
 ? Any links you can suggest?  I have found very little info!
 rmation 
through Google.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!  Sorry so long.....  Tina