Wikipedia

Shotgun house

Ashotgun houseis a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than about 12 feet (3.5 m) wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in theSouthern United Statesfrom the end of theAmerican Civil War(1861–65) through the 1920s. Alternative names includeshotgun shack,shotgun hut,shotgun cottage,and in the case of a multihome dwelling,shotgun apartment;the design is similar to that ofrailroad apartments.

A modest shotgun house inNew Orleans'sBayou Saint Johnneighborhood shortly afterHurricane Katrina.Shotgun houses consist of three to five rooms in a row with no hallways and have a narrow, rectangular structure.
Shotgun house in theFifth Wardneighborhood ofHouston, Texas,1973, as pictured in a photo byDanny Lyon.

A longstanding theory is that the style can be traced from Africa toSaint Dominicaninfluences on house design inNew Orleans,[1]but the houses can be found as far away asKey WestandYbor CityinFlorida,[2]andTexas,and as far north asChicago,Illinois.

Though initially as popular with the middle class[dubious–discuss]as with poor families, the shotgun house became a symbol of poverty in the mid-20th century.Urban renewalled to the destruction of many shotgun houses; however, in areas affected bygentrification,historic preservationefforts have led to the renovation of such houses.

Several variations of shotgun houses allow for additional features and space, and many have been updated to the needs of later generations of owners. The oldest shotgun houses were built withoutindoor plumbing,which was often added later, often on the back of the house, sometimes crudely.

"Double-barrel" or "double" shotgun houses are asemi-detachedconfiguration, consisting of two houses sharing a central wall, allowing more houses to be fit into an area. "Camelback" shotgun houses include a second floor at the rear of the house. In some cases the entirefloor planis changed during remodeling to create hallways.[3]

History

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Shotgun houses inLouisville, Kentucky.In cities, shotgun houses were built close together for a variety of reasons.

The origins of both the term and the architectural form and development of the shotgun house are controversial,[4]even more so in the wake of conflicting preservation and redevelopment efforts sinceHurricane Katrina.[5]

The portion of theThird WardofHouston,Texas,north of Truxillo, has many shotgun shacks
A single shotgun inAvalon, Mississippi,was the house ofMississippi John Hurt,now a museum.

New Orleans architectural historian Samuel Wilson, Jr. influentially[5]suggested that shotgun-style houses originated in the Creole suburbs (faubourgs) of New Orleans in the early 1800s. He also stated that the term "shotgun"is a reference to the idea that if all the doors are opened, a shotgun blast fired into the house from the front doorway will fly cleanly to the other end and out at the back.[6][7]

Alternatively, folklorist and professor John Michael Vlach has suggested that the origin of the building style and the name itself may trace back toHaitiand Africa during the 18th century and earlier. Vlach claimed the name may have originated from aDahomeyFonarea termto-gun,which means 'place of assembly'. The description, probably used in New Orleans byAfro-Haitianslaves, may have been misunderstood and reinterpreted as "shotgun".[8]Citing Vlach,James Deetzclaimed archaeological support for an African origin in his dig atParting Ways,a 1790s community of freed black slaves in Plymouth, Massachusetts; his shotgun interpretation of the extremely limited evidence – two rooms that "may or may not have been unified" – has been challenged as "premature".[9][10] Vlach's theory behind the earlier African origin is tied to thehistory of New Orleans.In 1803 there were 1,355 free black people in the city. By 1810 black people outnumbered white people 10,500 to 4,500. This caused a housing boom. As many of both the builders and inhabitants were Africans by way of Haiti, Vlach maintained it was only natural they modeled the new homes after ones they left behind in their homeland. Many surviving Haitian dwellings of the period, including about 15 percent of the housing stock ofPort-au-Prince,resemble the single shotgun houses of New Orleans.[8]

The shotgun house was popularized in New Orleans, and, asFred Kniffendocumented in a statewide survey of Louisiana house types in the 1930s, the greatest number are found dispersed from there in a manner that supports the diffusion theory.[11][12]The style was definitely built there by 1832, though there is evidence that houses sold in the 1830s were built 15 to 20 years earlier.[8]

Battleground Baptist Church and neighboring shotgun-style houses, Fazendeville, Louisiana, 1960

A simpler theory is that they are the typical one-room-deep floor plan popular in the rural south, rotated to accommodate narrow city lots.[1]Such houses were built throughout hoturban areasin theSouth,since the style's length and outside doors at each end allowed for excellent airflow, while its narrow frontage increased the number of lots that could be fitted along a street, as was the case with the shotgun homes inFazendeville, Louisiana,a historic, African American village that was ultimately razed during the 1960s as part of the creation of the Chalmette National Historical Park and Battlefield (now part of theJean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve).[13][14]This style was used so frequently that some southern cities estimate that, even today, 10% or more of their housing stock is composed of shotgun houses.[15]

The earliest known use of "shotgun house" as a name for these dwellings is in a classified advertisement in theAtlanta Journal-Constitution,August 30, 1903: "Two 3-room houses near the railroad yards at Simpson st. crossing, rent $12 a month to good tenants who pay in advance; price $1,200 on terms or $100 cash, balance $15 a month; a combination of investment and savings bank: these are not shacks, but good shot-gun houses in good repair." While this advertisement seems to present shotgun houses as a desirableworking-classhousing alternative, by 1929 a Tennessee court noted that shotgun houses could not be rented to any other than a very poor class of tenants.[16]After theGreat Depressionfew shotgun houses were built, and existing ones went into decline. By the late 20th century shotgun houses in some areas were being restored as housing others and for other uses.[3]

Shotgun houses were often initially built as rental properties, located near manufacturing centers or railroad hubs, to provide housing for workers. Owners of factories frequently built the houses to rent specifically to employees, usually for a few dollars a month.[3]However, by the late 20th century shotguns were often owner-occupied. For example, 85% of the houses (many of them shotgun) in New Orleans'Lower Ninth Wardwere owner-occupied.[17]

Shotgun houses were most popular before widespread ownership of the automobile allowed people to live farther from businesses and other destinations. Building lots were small, 30 feet (9 m) wide at most. An influx of people to cities, both from rural areas in the US and from foreign countries, all looking to fill emerging manufacturing jobs, created the high demand for housing in cities.[citation needed]Shotgun houses were built to fulfill the same need asrowhousesinNortheasterncities. Several were often built at a time by a single builder, contributing to their similar appearance.[3]

Characteristics

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A pair of single shotgun houses, dating to the 1920s, in theCampground Historic DistrictofMobile, Alabama

The rooms of a shotgun house are lined up one behind the other, typically a living room is first, then one or two bedrooms, and finally a kitchen in back. Early shotgun houses were not built with bathrooms, but in later years a bathroom with a small hall was built before the last room of the house, or a side addition was built off the kitchen.[3][7]Some shotguns have only two rooms.[18][19]

Chimneys tended to be built in the interior, allowing the front and middle rooms to share a chimney with a fireplace opening in each room. The kitchen usually has its own chimney.[citation needed]

Other than the basic floor layout, shotgun houses have many standard features in common. The house is almost always close to the street, sometimes with a very short front yard. In some cases, the house has nosetbackand is actually flush with thesidewalk.The original steps were wood, but were often replaced with permanent concrete steps.[citation needed]

Sketch of a typical camelback, or1+1⁄2-story, shotgun house, with a detailed sketch of a typical decorative wooden door bracket
Floor plan of a typical single shotgun with bathroom

A sign of its New Orleans heritage, the house is usually raised two to three feet (60 to 90 cm) off the ground. There is a single door and window in the front of the house, and often a side door leading into the back room, which is slightly wider than the rest of the house. The front door and window often were originally covered by decorative shutters. Side walls may or may not have windows; rooms adjoining either the front or back door will generally have at least one window even when the houses are built very close together.[citation needed]

Typically, shotgun houses have a wood-frame structure and wood siding, although some examples exist in brick and even stone. Many shotguns, especially older or less expensive ones, have flat roofs that end at the front wall of the house. In houses built after 1880, the roof usually overhangs the front wall, and there is usually agableabove the overhang. The overhang is usually supported by decorative wooden brackets, and sometimes containscast ironventilators.[citation needed]

The rooms are well-sized, and have relatively high ceilings for cooling purposes, as when warm air can rise higher, the lower part of a room tends to be cooler. The lack of hallways allows for efficient cross-ventilation in every room. Rooms usually have some decoration such asmoldings,ceiling medallions, and elaborate woodwork. In cities like New Orleans, local industries supplied elaborate but mass-produced brackets and other ornaments for shotgun houses that were accessible even to homeowners of modest means.[17]

Variations

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The double shotgun requires less land per household than the traditional shotgun and was used extensively in poorer areas because it could be built with fewer materials and use less land per occupant. It was first seen in New Orleans in 1854.[8]

A camelback house, also called humpback, is a variation of the shotgun that has a partial second floor over the rear of the house. Camelback houses were built in the later period of shotgun houses. The floor plan and construction is very similar to the traditional shotgun house, except there are stairs in the back room leading up to the second floor. The second floor, or "hump", contains one to four rooms. Because it was only a partial second story, most cities only taxed it as a single-story house – this was a key reason for their construction.[20]

A combination, the Double Camelback shotgun, also exists. A minor variation is a side door allowing access to the kitchen, or a porch along the side extending almost the length of the house.[3]

"North shore" houses are shotgun houses with wideverandason three sides. They were so named because most were built on the north shore of New Orleans'Lake Pontchartrainas summer homes for wealthy whites.[8]

Decline and legacy

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The construction of shotgun houses slowed and eventually stopped during the early 20th century. The increased affordability of two technological innovations, the car and consumerair conditioningunits, made the key advantages of the shotgun house obsolete to home buyers.[citation needed]After World War II, shotgun houses had very little appeal to those building or buying new houses, as car-oriented modern suburbs were builten masse.[citation needed]Few shotgun houses have been built in the US since the war, although the concept of a simple, single-level floor plan lived on inranch-style houses.[3]

The surviving urban shotgun houses suffered problems related to those typically facing theinner cityneighborhoods in which they were located. Theflightof affluent residents to the suburbs, absentee owners, and a shortage of mortgage lenders for inner-city residents led to the deterioration of shotgun houses in the mid-to-late 20th century. Confusing ownership passed down within a family over several generations also contributed to many houses sitting vacant for years.[3]

Though shotguns are sometimes perceived as being prevalent in poorAfrican Americanneighborhoods, many originally constituted much of the housing stock of segregated white neighborhoods.[citation needed]Many of these neighborhoods became predominantly black during the 1950s and 1960s, but many others did not and remain predominantly white.[17] Regardless of who was living in them, from World War II until the 1980s shotguns came to be widely viewed as substandard housing and a symbol of poverty, and they were demolished by manyurban renewalprojects. This thinking is no longer so prevalent, with such cities asCharlotteestablishing "Shotgun Historic Districts". Shotgun houses have even been praised as quality and cost-effective cultural assets that promote a distinctive urban life.[17]Other cities, such asMacon, Georgia,experimented with renovating shotgun houses for low-income residents and, though there was indecision whether it would be cheaper to tear them down and build new housing,[21]some were rebuilt.[22]

There are many large neighborhoods in older American cities of the south which still contain a high concentration of shotgun houses today. Examples includeThird WardinHouston;BywaterinNew Orleans;The HillinSt. Louis;Portland,ButchertownandGermantowninLouisville;[23]Cabbagetownin Atlanta and Village West ofCoconut GroveinMiamiwhere the last remaining 25 shotgun homes have been designated as historic structures.[citation needed]Their role in the history of the south has become recognized; for example, in October 2001Rice Universitysponsored an exhibition called "Shotguns 2001". This three-day event featured lectures on and artistic paintings of the houses, as well as presentations and panel discussions in a neighborhood of restored shotguns.[24]

In some shotgun-dominated neighborhoods,gentrificationhas led to property values becoming quite high. Sometimes, a new owner will buy both homes of a double-barreled shotgun structure and combine them, to form a relatively large single house. Shotguns are also often combined to renovate them into offices or storage spaces.[25]

Limited revival

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Elements of the shotgun style have recently been seen in a number of the compact, low-occupancy structures employed in theSolar Decathloncontests held periodically in Washington, D.C. While some are erected from panels brought to the site, many such structures consist of enclosed single or multiple units designed specifically for road transports, with multiple modules connected on site, and compact linear structures often employ multiple-use "zones" rather than specifically private areas, while retaining a linear progression of spaces.[citation needed]

In 2011, Louisville's daily newspaperThe Courier-Journalreported that a local nonprofit agency devoted to building and renovating affordable housing was building new shotgun houses in a development in southwest Louisville.[23]

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The shotgun house inTupelo, Mississippi,in whichElvis Presleywas born

The shotgun house plays a large role in the folklore and culture of the south. Superstition holds thatghostsand spirits are attracted to shotgun houses because they may pass straight through them, and that some houses were built with doors intentionally misaligned to deter these spirits.[20]They also often serve as a convenient symbol of life in the south.Elvis Presleywas born ina shotgun house,[26][27]Aaron NevilleofThe Neville Brothersgrew up in one,[28] and according to bluesmanDavid Honeyboy Edwards,Robert Johnsondied in one.[29][30]Shortly before his death in May 1997,Jeff Buckleyrented a shotgun house in Memphis and was so enamoured with it he contacted the owner about the possibility of buying it.Dream Brother,David Browne's biography of Jeff andTim Buckley,opens with a description of this shotgun house and Jeff's fondness of it.[31]

One of the more widely known references to a shotgun house is in the 1980Talking Headssong "Once In A Lifetime".The first line of the song is" And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack ".[32]

TheJohn Mellencampsong "Pink Houses"was inspired when he was driving along an overpass on the way home toBloomington, Indianafrom theIndianapolis airport.There was an old black man sitting outside his little pink shotgun house with his cat in his arms, completely unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. "He waved, and I waved back," Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "That's how 'Pink Houses' started.".[33][34]In Bruce Springsteen's song "We Take Care of Our Own",from the albumWrecking Ball,he refers to shotgun houses, singing "We take care of our own, from the shotgun shack to the Super Dome". Springsteen also references "shotgun shack" in "Reason to Believe" from his 1982 albumNebraska,with the line, "In a whitewashed shotgun shack, an old man passes away / they take his body to the graveyard, and over him, they pray."

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See also

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References

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  1. ^abMcAlester, Virginia & Lee (1997).A Field Guide to American Houses.New York: Knopf. p.90.ISBN0-394-73969-8.
  2. ^Gist, Karen Taylor (March 20, 2010)."New Orleans has a love affair with shotgun houses".The Times-Picayune.Archivedfrom the original on 2 October 2018.Retrieved4 July2014.
  3. ^abcdefghThe Shotgun house: urban housing opportunities.Preservation Alliance of Louisville and Jefferson Co. 1980.
  4. ^Tudor, Phoebe (March 1987)."The Development of the Shotgun House".New Orleans Preservation in Print.14(2). Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans:4–5. Archived fromthe originalon 4 October 2016.Retrieved4 July2014.The truth is that even among experts in the fields of architectural history and cultural geography, no one is exactly sure how the shotgun house came to look like it does and get that funny name.
  5. ^abEdwards, Jay D. (Spring 2009). "Shotgun: The Most Contested House in America".Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of the Vernacular Architecture Forum.16(1):62–96.doi:10.1353/bdl.0.0018.JSTOR27804896.S2CID162898009.(registration required)
  6. ^Wilson, Jr., Samuel (1974).New Orleans Architecture.Vol. IV: The Creole Faubourgs. Pelican Publishing. p. 71.ISBN978-1-56554-130-6.Archived fromthe originalon 15 February 2017.Retrieved4 July2014.A projectile discharged from a gun aimed through the front door would presumably travel unimpeded through the house, and emerge from the rear; thus the derivation of the name.
  7. ^abCapps, Kriston (10 June 2021)."In New Orleans, the Shotgun House Goes a Long Way Back".Bloomberg News.Archivedfrom the original on 15 June 2021.Retrieved15 June2021.
  8. ^abcdeVlach, J: "Shotgun houses", pp. 51–57.Natural History86, 1977).
  9. ^Deetz, James(1996) [1977].In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life(expanded and revised ed.). New York: Doubleday. pp.222–223.ISBN978-0385483995.Archivedfrom the original on 3 May 2019.Retrieved14 November2014..IllustrationArchived2014-11-29 at theWayback Machine,The Plymouth Colony Archive Project
  10. ^Schuyler, Robert L. (July 1980)."Review: In Small Things Forgotten, The Archaeology of Early American Life by James Deetz".American Antiquity.45(3):643–645.doi:10.2307/279893.JSTOR279893.S2CID162295751.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-05-29.Retrieved2024-01-11.(registration required)
  11. ^Campanella, Richard (February 12, 2014)."Shotgun geography: the history behind the famous New Orleans elongated house".The Times-Picayune.Archivedfrom the original on 27 December 2018.Retrieved30 April2016.The distribution of shotgun houses throughout Louisiana gives indirect support to the diffusion argument. Kniffen showed in the 1930s that shotguns generally occurred along waterways in areas that tended to be more Francophone in their culture, higher in their proportions of people of African and Creole ancestry, and older in their historical development. Beyond state boundaries, shotguns occur throughout the lower Mississippi Valley, correlated with antebellum plantation regions and with areas that host large black populations. They also appear in interior Southern cities, most notably Louisville, Ky., which comes a distant second to New Orleans in terms of numbers and stylistic variety. If in fact the shotgun diffused from Africa to Haiti through New Orleans and up the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, this is the distribution we would expect to see.
  12. ^Kniffen, Fred B. (1936). "Louisiana House Types".Annals of the Association of American Geographers.26(4). Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 26, No. 4:179–193.doi:10.2307/2569532.JSTOR2569532.
  13. ^Chapman, Ron. "Fazendeville."New Orleans, Louisiana:New OrleansMagazine, Renaissance Publications, December 28, 2004.
  14. ^"Fazendeville, LouisianaArchived2022-10-13 at theWayback Machine,"in" Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve. "Clemson, South Carolina: Open Parks Network, Clemson University, retrieved online October 12, 2022.
  15. ^Burns, Richard Allen. "The Shotgun Houses of Trumann, Arkansas",Arkansas Review,(April 2002), Vol. 33, Issue 1
  16. ^Moore v. Minnis,11 Tenn.App. 88 (Tenn. App. 1929).
  17. ^abcdStarr, S. Frederick.The New Orleans Shotgun: Down but Not OutArchived2021-03-13 at theWayback Machine.New York Times.September 22, 2005. p. F.7.
  18. ^Marling, Karal Ann (1996).Graceland: going home with Elvis(Excerpt).Harvard University Press.ISBN978-0-674-35889-8.RetrievedAugust 10,2010.
  19. ^Marling, Karal Ann (1996).Graceland: going home with Elvis.Harvard University Press. p.17.ISBN978-0-674-35889-8.RetrievedAugust 10,2010.
  20. ^abHoll, Steven (1995).Pamphlet Architecture 9: Rural and Urban House Types.Princeton Architectural Press. pp.34–39.ISBN978-0-910413-15-2.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-06-17.Retrieved2010-07-01.
  21. ^Duncan, S. Heather (6 March 2006)."Shotgun houses, rehabilitate or replace?"(Paywall).The Macon Telegraph.p. 8.Archivedfrom the original on 9 June 2011.Retrieved3 July2010.Some city planners and even residents themselves debate the value of preserving shotgun houses. This is partly because their architecture is more unassuming than that of [nearby] antebellum homes[...]. [Some said] 'There are very few houses that can't be rehabbed cheaper than building new. And when you tear down and rebuild, you've got to charge more in rent.'
  22. ^"Historic shotgun houses renovated in downtown Macon"(Paywall).Macon Telegraph. April 16, 2008. p. A1.Archivedfrom the original on June 9, 2011.RetrievedJuly 3,2010.Four renovated, century-old shotgun houses are expected to be completed by the end of the month[...]
  23. ^abElson, Martha (June 20, 2011)."Louisville's endangered shotgun houses targeted for preservation".The Courier-Journal.RetrievedJune 22,2011.
  24. ^"Shotgun house design symposium".Rice News.Rice University. 2001-10-09. Archived fromthe originalon 2020-07-28.Retrieved2020-07-28.
  25. ^Roney, Marty (July 2, 2005). "Old shotgun homes given new purpose". Montgomery Advertiser. p. 1.
  26. ^Mason, Bobbie Ann (2007).Elvis Presley: A Life.Penguin Books. p. 11.ISBN978-0-14-303889-4.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-06-17.Retrieved2010-07-01.
  27. ^Marling, Karal Ann (Autumn 1993).Elvis Presley's Graceland, or the Aesthetic of Rock 'n' Roll Heaven,American Art, Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 72–105.
  28. ^Arroyo, Raymond (September 2001)."The Devotion of Aaron Neville".Crisis Magazine.Archived fromthe originalon 2007-10-11.Retrieved2010-06-15.
  29. ^Styles, Sean (2001).Trail of the Hellhound – Delta Blues in the Lower Mississippi Valley: Delta SitesArchived2010-08-26 at theWayback Machine,U.S.National Park Service.Retrieved April 4, 2006.
  30. ^John Hammond Jr. (Host), David Hunt (Prod., Dir.) (1991).The Search for Robert Johnson.Iambic Productions(Television production).Channel 4.Event occurs at 40:08. Archived fromthe original(Flash video, 52:26)on 2012-11-08.David Honeyboy Edwardsindicates a yellow shotgun house where he says Robert Johnson died.
  31. ^Browne, David (2001).Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley.HarperEntertainment. p. 1.ISBN978-0-06-107608-4.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-06-17.Retrieved2020-10-17.
  32. ^Gittins, Ian (2004).Talking Heads: once in a lifetime: the stories behind every song.Hal Leonard. pp.68–69.ISBN978-0-634-08033-3.Archivedfrom the original on 2024-06-17.Retrieved2020-10-17.
  33. ^"Pink Houses: John Mellencamp".Rolling Stone.Archived fromthe originalon August 14, 2009.
  34. ^"Classic Tracks: John Cougar Mellencamp's 'Pink Houses'".Mix.Archived fromthe originalon July 19, 2008.
  35. ^"Algiers Point".Flickr.Archivedfrom the original on 2021-11-02.Retrieved2021-10-13.
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