Old House, New Future: The Quiet Revival of the Shotgun House

Shotgun houses (“shotguns”) are the most widely acknowledged expressions of African-American architectural design in the United States. They are New World constructions, rooted in indigenous African architectural and spatial traditions and influenced by American Indian and European building techniques. The name describes a wide variety of narrow homes where the rooms are aligned in a single row without the use of an interior hallway. Prior to the 1950s, shotgun homes were one of the predominant housing types in the United States. Today, only a few examples of shotgun houses and shotgun neighborhoods remain in cities across America. Many of these are in a state of disrepair. The place of shotgun architecture in local and national social history not only justifies proactive preservation efforts to save and restore the remaining few but, encouragingly, the shotgun house has benefited from a recent resurgence of interest. This new spotlight on the shotgun house has revealed exciting new prospects and possibilities for reviving old shotgun communities and repositioning the shotgun as a suitable, affordable and environmentally-friendly solution for contemporary housing needs.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Tate, Belinda A.

• Shotgun House

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/14672

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/14672