BLYTHE BUILDING COMPANY — ARCHITECT: ALLISON RAMSEY
Porch Living
I
n the days before air conditioning people congregated in the breezy air of their front porch, sweet tea in hand, refugees from the searing heat of their indoor space. Rocking chairs were the lounge chairs of their day and many a young love had their first kiss in a porch swing, just out of family earshot of the open house windows. 14
Then came electricity and air conditioning, which cools air and lowers humidity. Houses were spaced further apart for privacy so there was less connection to next door neighbors. Front porches became a greeting space for entering the house and back porches took over the connection to the outdoors, giving us access to the pool, the grill and the patio. “It’s more of an architectural enhancement to the façade of a house,” says Jim Evatt, owner of Palmetto Construction
2019 Columbia Homes Magazine | biacolumbia.com
and Renovations. “We’re not asked to build lot of front porches.” The word porch derives from the Latin “porticus,” the columned entry to a temple. Porches were absent in European architectural traditions but were added in the U.S., particularly in warmer climates. Designer Andrew Jackson Downing popularized porches in an 1841 book linking houses to the landscape just as industrialization was giving people free time and a burning desire to reconnect with nature.
