One of Charleston's most exquisite real estate listings is the Patrick O'Donnell house at 21 King Street, perhaps the city's finest example of the "side hall" construction style popular in Charleston's golden age prior to the Civil War. The side hall concept is a slight modification of the classic "single house", which faced sideways to the street with entry along a full-length porch, or piazza. The side hall motif created a separate entrance on the opposite sie of the house from the piazza, with a stairway that, unlike the single house, did not divide the house. This guaranteed an uninterrupted expanse of shaded exterior as well as contiguous interior chambers that could open into one another for a glorious ballroom spacial concept. No better scenario could ever exist for a formal reception or party, or for its outstanding visual and visceral effect.
