Have you ever wondered why the front steps to entrances of many Low Country homes in the south are split?
Southern Belles in the 1700s and 1800s wore big hoop skirts… think Scarlet O’Hara.
They had to lift their skirts to climb up the stairs, lest they trip and fall.
It would have been extremely rude of a gentleman to peek at a lady’s petticoat as she ascended the stairs.
So front staircases were built with a split landing so that the ladies went up one side, and gentlemen on the other.
If the home did not have “petticoat stairs,” the men would ascend the stairs ahead of the ladies.
Incidentally, if a lady’s petticoat were accidentally showing, she would be told “it’s snowing down South.”
The homes on this page all have “petticoat stairs!” And are currently for sale at DeBordieu, a private ocean front residential community in the south, where it snows regularly….. about once every 8 years. HA!
For more information, give me a call at 843-455-4523, or email TroiKaz@DeBordieu.com.
DeBordieu Colony is an oceanfront community located just south of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, (about an hour north of Charleston) featuring private golf and tennis, saltwater creek access to the ocean, a manned security gate, and luxury homes and villas surrounded by thousands of acres of wildlife and nature preserves.
People who have been here say there will never again be a place like DeBordieu. Come see for yourself.
