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Shotgun House |
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The Shotgun house is a narrow one-story dwelling without halls. Each room is placed behind the other in single file. The roof ridge is perpendicular to the street. The traditional description of why these houses are called "shotgun" is that if one fired a shotgun through the front door, the shot would pass through the lined-up doors of each room and out the back door. This description does not really fit most shotgun houses, because the doors of the successive rooms don't usually line up.
Land being scarce in New Orleans, the lots are very narrow, typically about 35 feet. The shotgun design developed as an inexpensive design to fit these narrow New Orleans lots. Shotgun houses were built in lower and middle class neighborhoods. They come in three principal variations:
The double shotgun requires less land per living unit than singles and were used extensively in poor areas. In middle class areas, more single shotgun houses were built. In Bywater, 47% of the shotgun houses are singles.
The rooms of a shotgun house are usually of a good size, approximately 14 feet square and have high ceilings. They usually have some decoration such as moldings, ceiling medallions, and elaborate woodwork.
The street scene provided by a group of shotguns in a row is quite interesting with the projections of overhangs, decorative brackets, and steps.
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| Example plan of a Shotgun Double house. | Example plan of a Shotgun Single house. |
The shotgun double house has four shuttered openings on the street, two doors and two windows. The shotgun single will have one door and window in the front. Most Bywater shotgun houses are flush with the sidewalk with the steps and overhang projecting out onto the sidewalk. The original steps were of wood box like construction. This provided a bench-like platform on each side facilitating the New Orleans practice of "stoop sitting."
Early shotgun houses did not contain a bathroom. An outhouse would be constructed in the back yard, and baths would be taken in the bedroom or other room of the house. In later houses, a bathroom with a small hall would be inserted before the last room of the house.
The first two rooms, called double parlors, are usually separated by double pocket doors. The remaining room-to-room doors are single width and may be double leaf "French" doors or single leaf panel doors.
The front roof of the early shotgun ended in a hip. After the 1880's often a gable was inserted above the overhang. The overhang usually was supported by decorative wooden brackets and contained cast iron ventilators. The front foundation wall included two cast iron ventilators as well.
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Brackets |
Overhang Vents |
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Brackets |
Foundation Vents |
Some Bywater Shotgun Houses are shown below:
The typical Bywater shotgun house is a wooden frame structure, with drop siding on the front and lap siding on the sides and back. Decoration includes fancy brackets supporting the overhang, quoins at each corner and segmented arch shutters covering the door and window openings. It is built on a solid brick foundation wall in the front covered in plaster with two cast iron vents. Brick piers along each side support the rest of the house. These piers are usually not plastered. The fireplaces down the center of a double house provide support as well. The shotgun is typically raised 2 1/2 to 3 feet above ground level in deference to the New Orleans climate. Black slate typically covers the roof of a Bywater shotgun house, but other colors are occasionally found.
Shotgun houses were built from after the Civil War through through the 1920's.
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Last Modified on
Copyright 2003, Tom Graham.
