Stockton awarded Golden Pen

Robert P. Stockton has won the July Golden Pen Award for his letter to the editor, "A Charleston single house it is not."

Mr. Stockton, an architectural historian who teaches at the College of Charleston, wrote the letter after The Post and Courier, in reporting the $7.2 million sale of the Patrick O'Donnell House at 21 King Street, referred to it as "an elegant rendition of a Charleston single house."

Mr. Stockton wrote: "Expensive and elegant the Italianate mansion certainly is, but a single house it is not. The O'Donnell House is 'an elegant rendition' of a side hall house."

The letter provided an architectural lesson about the differences between a single house ("based on a vernacular English urban house form — one room wide, rectangular in shape and multi-storied — that was built from the Middle Ages into the 17th century") and a side hall plan ("invented in 17th century London by developers who found it the most logical plan for use in 'terraces,' the English term for row houses").

The letter concluded: "While I am venting, let me go after another pet peeve, the pronunciation of the word 'piazza.' In England and in Charleston (and Newport, by the way), the traditional pronunciation has always been 'pee-AZ-uh,' with the middle 'a' pronounced as in 'axe' or 'action.' Since we have become so Spoleto-ized and Guccified, it has become common to pronounce the middle 'a' as in 'father' or 'palm,' which is affected, artificial and just plain wrong. As if that were not bad enough, some idiots have begun to use the Italian pronunciation, 'pee-AT-za,' which means open square, not porch, you ninnies. Whew!"

Golden Pen winners are invited to an annual luncheon with the editorial staff.