why do they call them shotgun houses

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Why do they call them shotgun houses?

Why do they call them shotgun houses? According to lore, shotgun houses got their name due to their linear design—theoretically a bullet shot through the front door could exit the back door without hitting anything. Others speculate the word “shotgun” is derived from the Yoruba word togun, meaning “house” or “gathering place.”

Why is Good Will Hunting called that?

Why title good will hunting? Or, if he’s on the hunt for a person with goodwill. … In both cases, the title is accurate because it reminds us that there are good and bad ways to hunt for meaning in life, and Will is following the good one (most of the time). On another level, the title is just saying, “Give Will a chance because he’s a good dude.”

Why are shotguns considered for home defense?

This is important because it allows you to deal with a wider variety of lighting and environmental variables that can occur when you are defending yourself. Shotguns are easier to handle than pistols because a shotgun, like a rifle, allows for three points of contact between the shooter and the gun.

Why are condensers called that?

Why is the condenser called a condenser? Capacitors and capacitors are components used in electrical circuits that can store charge. this pot was able to store the electric charge in a very small space. it is called a condenser because its function is similar to that of the “mechanical condenser” which converts a large vapor into a smaller ...

What makes a shotgun house a shotgun house?

Shotgun houses are usually one room, or about 12 feet wide, and three or four rooms deep. The front door leads directly into the living room, then there are one or two bedrooms, and the kitchen is in the back. There are no hallways, so it's necessary to walk through one room to get to the next.

Why does New Orleans have shotgun houses?

The linear layout of New Orleans shotgun homes helped residents to withstand the city's brutal summers. Arranging all the doors in a single line through the house helped with cooling the home. Shotguns also have high ceilings — as much as 12 feet on occasion — to allow hot air to rise.

What is the term shotgun house?

: a house in which all the rooms are in direct line with each other usually front to back. — called also shotgun cottage, shotgun shack.

Why does Louisiana have shotgun houses?

The Origins The shotgun house design thrived in New Orleans following two disastrous fires in the late eighteenth century. Building codes required wooden houses to be narrow so that there was room between the houses built on small lots.

Why do shotgun houses have two front doors?

One Door Was Formal, the Other Was Not While one door may have led to a formal area, the other could have been used for day-to-day business. This thinking applied to other visitors as well—homeowners likely wanted to greet guests at a formal entrance.

Why do houses in New Orleans have 2 front doors?

The tour guide described the two sets of double doors immediately behind the staircase as the “brise” (French for breeze, as the Creole would have spoken French). These doors were not for use by people. They were only to let the breeze in.

Why is it called a dog trot cabin?

A dogtrot house historically consisted of two log cabins connected by a breezeway or "dogtrot", all under a common roof. Typically, one cabin was used for cooking and dining, while the other was used as a private living space, such as a bedroom.

What is a cracker house in Florida?

In its simplest form, a Cracker house is a wooden shelter built by the early Florida and Georgia settlers. Lured to Florida by cheap and plentiful land, these pioneers arrived with few provisions and needed to erect shelter quickly and cheaply.

What are homes in New Orleans called?

Creole townhouse Creole townhouses are perhaps the most iconic pieces of architecture in the city of New Orleans, comprising a large portion of the French Quarter and the neighboring Faubourg Marigny. Creole townhouses were built after the Great New Orleans Fire (1788), until the mid-19th century.

Why do homes in New Orleans have such high ceilings?

According to New Orleans Architecture Tours, ceilings averaged a height of 10 to 16 feet. Classy, right? Looks aside, building homes with these high, vaulted ceilings helped move hot air upward, keeping rooms and gathering areas cooler and less stuffy.

What is a camel back house?

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.

Why does New Orleans have so many balconies?

Originally, the balconies on New Orleans apartments and buildings were built of wood, much like modern construction elsewhere in the state. These wooden galleries also reflected a West Indian feel of a location somewhere between the privacy of a home and the public nature of an open yet sheltered space.

When did the shotgun house become popular in New Orleans?

Shotgun houses first appeared in the early 19th century and peaked in popularity at the beginning of the 20th century. They were built in both rural and urban areas and often became the most common type of dwelling in black neighbourhoods in American cities such as Charlotte, North Carolina, and New Orleans.

Why do homes in New Orleans have such high ceilings?

According to New Orleans Architecture Tours, ceilings averaged a height of 10 to 16 feet. Classy, right? Looks aside, building homes with these high, vaulted ceilings helped move hot air upward, keeping rooms and gathering areas cooler and less stuffy.

What are New Orleans style homes called?

The Creole style, while often thought of as a “French Colonial” style, in fact is an architectural style developed in New Orleans. It represents a melding of the French, Spanish and Caribbean architectural influences in conjunction with the demands of the hot, humid climate of New Orleans.

Why does New Orleans have so many balconies?

Originally, the balconies on New Orleans apartments and buildings were built of wood, much like modern construction elsewhere in the state. These wooden galleries also reflected a West Indian feel of a location somewhere between the privacy of a home and the public nature of an open yet sheltered space.

What is a shotgun house?

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 a gable above the overhang. The overhang is usually supported by decorative wooden brackets, and sometimes contains cast iron ventilators.

Why were shotgun houses so popular?

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 America and from foreign countries, all looking to fill emerging manufacturing jobs, created the high demand for housing in cities. Shotgun houses were built to fulfill the same need as rowhouses in Northeastern cities. Several were often built at a time by a single builder, contributing to their similar appearance.

Why were shotguns built close together?

In cities, shotguns 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, even more so in the wake of conflicting preservation and redevelopment efforts since Hurricane Katrina.

What is a camelback 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.

What are the characteristics of a shotgun house?

Characteristics. Floor plan of a typical single shotgun with bathroom. 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.

Why were shotgun houses used in the South?

Such houses were built throughout hot urban areas in the South, 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. It was used so frequently that some southern cities estimate that, even today, 10% or more of their housing stock is composed of shotgun houses.

How wide is a shotgun house?

A shotgun house is 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 the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War (1861–1865) through the 1920s.

What is a dogtrot house?

A dogtrot house historically consisted of two log cabins connected by a breezeway or "dogtrot", all under a common roof. Typically, one cabin was used for cooking and dining, while the other was used as a private living space, such as a bedroom. The primary characteristics of a dogtrot house is that it is typically one story (although 1.

Who built the Casey House in Mountain Home?

The house was designated as a county seat and courthouse in 1825 by the territorial legislature. Around 1855, Colonel Randolph D. Casey built the Casey House, currently the oldest existing house in Mountain Home.

What are the secondary characteristics of a dogtrot house?

Secondary characteristics of the dogtrot house includes placement of the chimneys, staircases, and porches. Chimneys were almost always located at each gable end of the house, with each serving one of the two main rooms.

What is a breezeway in a house?

The breezeway through the center of the house is a unique feature, with rooms of the house opening into the breezeway. The breezeway provided a cooler covered area for sitting. The combination of the breezeway and open windows in the rooms of the house created air currents which pulled cooler outside air into the living quarters efficiently in the pre-air conditioning era.

Where was the dogtrot house in Alabama?

One of several dogtrot houses formerly used as slave quarters at the plantation of Thornhill near Forkland , Alabama. This photograph was taken in 1934, the dwelling was subsequently destroyed. Note the split-shingle roof and stick-and-mud chimney.

Where is the Thrasher House?

At Louisiana State University in Shreveport, the Pioneer Heritage Center hosts the Thrasher House, a two-room dogtrot house built in 1850 by Thomas Zilks near Castor, Louisiana. The home was moved to LSUS in 1981.

Where is John Looney House?

Alabama. The John Looney House, Ashville, Alabama, in 2010. The John Looney House in Ashville, Alabama, is a rare example of a two-story dogtrot house built in the 1820s.

Why are shotgun houses so popular?

Shotgun houses are well suited to warm climates. Their narrow, front-to-back design, with doors aligned in a row, aids air circulation during the summer. The houses often do not have windows on side walls, as their close proximity to neighbouring houses does not allow for ventilation or light from the side.

Where were shotgun houses built?

Most shotgun houses were built on brick piers, were heated by a fireplace, and did not include indoor plumbing. The narrow width of shotgun houses cut costs by ...

What were Louisiana's shotgun houses made of?

In Louisiana and other southern states, the caillesevolved into shotgun houses made from wood, rather than stucco, but retained the narrow structure and gabled entrances. This article was most recently revised and updated by Noah Tesch, Associate Editor. Learn More in these related Britannica articles: New Orleans.

Where did the shotgun houses come from?

Vlach noted the abundance of shotgun-like long houses in the West Indies, and traced their essential form to the enslaved populations of Saint Domingue (now Haiti), who had been removed from the western and central African regions of Guinea and Angola.

Why were shotgun houses invented?

He and other researchers have proposed a number of hypotheses explaining the origin and distribution of this distinctive house type. One theory, popular with tour guides and amateur house-watchers, holds that shotgun houses were designed in New Orleans in response to a real estate tax based on frontage rather than square footage, motivating narrow structures. There’s one major problem with this theory: no one can seem to find that tax code.

What is the theory of shotgun houses?

Theory contends that cultures that produced shotgun houses (and other residences without hallways, such as Creole cottages) tended to be more gregarious, or at least unwilling to sacrifice valuable living space for the purpose of occasional passage. Cultures that valued privacy, on the other hand, were willing to make this trade-off.

What did the Times-Picayune say about shotgun houses?

A Times-Picayune writer captured the prevailing sentiment in a 1926 column: “Long, slender, shotgun houses,” he sighed, “row upon row _{] street upon street…all &] alike… unpainted, slick-stooped, steep-roofed, jammed up together, like lumber in a pile.” Architectural historians also rolled their eyes at prosaic shotguns, and did not protest their demolition, even in the French Quarter, as late as the 1960s.}

Why were shotgun houses built in New Orleans?

One theory, popular with tour guides and amateur house-watchers, holds that shotgun houses were designed in New Orleans in response to a real estate tax based on frontage rather than square footage, motivating narrow structures . There’s one major problem with this theory: no one can seem to find that tax code.

What type of roofs did New Orleans shotguns have?

New Orleans shotguns in particular exhibited numerous variations: with hip, gable or apron roofs; with “camelbacks” to increase living space; with grand classical façades or with elaborate Victorian gingerbread. The variety can be explained as a strategy to address market demand with a multitude of options vis-à-vis space needs, fiscal constraints and stylistic preferences.

Where did shotguns occur in Louisiana?

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.

What is a shotgun?

Shotguns are firearms that are neither designed nor intended to fire a single stabilised projectile. They are in fact intended a to fire a load consisting of a number of spherical projectiles,

What does "shot" mean in a shotgun?

The reference to ‘shot’ in shotgun relates to nothing more than its design to launch quantities of spherical projectiles rather than a single aimed bullet from a rifled firearm.

How does shotgun ammunition vary?

shotgun ammunition varies in all sorts of ways, the diameter of the shell casing, the length of the shell casing, the height of the brass and the quantity of gunpowder it can carry, and what you are referring to the size of the pellets inside the shell.

What birds can you use 8 birdshot for?

Most people using 8 birdshot are going for small birds like doves.

What is a bullet?

1. A bullet is a projectile that as a rule is longer in length than its diameter and is fired from a rifled barrel to stabilise it in flight.

Why is it called a buck shot?

Buckshot is called buck to differentiate it from bird shot and is called that because it is used for midsize game like deer.

What is a smaller shot for birds?

You'll note the different sizings of the projectiles. Smaller shot for something like birds: birdshot. And larger shot for, say, deer: buckshot.

Where is the tight four shot group in a rifle?

In example No. 2, the rifleman places a tight four-shot group in the upper left of the target. This is precise (the shots are close together) but not accurate (the shots are far off-center).

What is a pistol?

One authoritative source, The NRA Firearms Sourcebook, defines a pistol as "a generic term for a hand-held firearm. Often used more specifically to refer to a single-shot, revolver or semi-automatic handgun."

What is a subcompact pistol?

A subcompact pistol is simply a small, concealed-carry-friendly version of a particular full-size model. For example, the Springfield XD 9mm Subcompact is a 3-inch barrel version of the full-size 9mm XD with 5-inch barrel. There are no standard dimensions per se that constitute a subcompact, and thus sizes vary among manufacturers.

What is a magazine in a firearm?

A magazine holds shells under spring pressure in preparation for feeding into the firearm's chamber. Examples include box, tubular, drum and rotary magazines. Some are fixed to the firearm while others are removable. A cartridge "clip" has no spring and does not feed shells directly into the chamber.

What is an assault rifle?

Department of Defense defines assault rifles as "selective-fire weapons that fire a cartridge intermediate in power between sub-machine gun and rifle cartridges.".

What is accuracy in shooting?

Accuracy is a measurement of the shooter's ability to consistently hit a given target; precision is essentially the tightness of his groups.

When did the term assault weapon first appear?

In fact, according to Bruce H. Kobayashi and Joseph E. Olson, writing in the Stanford Law and Policy Review, "Prior to 1989, the term 'assault weapon' did not exist in the lexicon of firearms. It is a political term, developed by anti-gun publicists to expand the category of 'assault rifles' so as to allow an attack on as many additional firearms as possible on the basis of undefined 'evil' appearance."

What is a dogtrot house?

A cousin of the shotgun is the dogtrot house, typical of the South from the 19th to the early 20th centuries. The open-air hall that runs through its center—call ed a dogtrot—defines the structure, which is generally two distinct cabins joined by one roof.

Why do we have a porch?

The porch shields the front room from sunlight, thus keeping it cooler. Sometimes, houses instead have large wraparound porches. These overhangs protect rooms from the sunlight and allow windows to remain open, and thus let air circulate, even when it’s raining.

How did buildings keep cool?

One way that buildings—from apartment buildings to townhouses and clubhouses—tried to remain cool was through the use of awnings. Similar to porches, awnings allowed for a room to be shaded from sunlight, thus keeping the interior cooler. The awning also protected the interior and allowed for windows to remain open, and thus air to flow, even in the rain.

What is a sleeping porch?

As the name suggests, the structure of a sleeping porch is very much like a balcony —think of it like a three-season sunroom, in a sense. A very good example is at the Gamble House, an Arts & Crafts mansion in Pasadena by Greene and Greene, finished in 1910.

Did city dwellers cool down?

Unfortunately, city dwellers didn’t fare so well when it came to cooling down. “In cities, from tenements to upper-scale brownstones, nothing was really done about heat,” says Salvatore Basile, author of COOL: How Air Conditioning Changed Everything.

What is the space closest to the ground called?

The space closest to the ground is reserved for the low-voltage utilities and is called the communications space . Telephone is usually the lowest on the pole, with cable TV right above it. Telephone lines are generally thick cables and usually have junction boxes on one or both sides of the pole.

Where are cutout fuses installed?

To protect against short circuits, cutout fuses are often installed between distribution lines and secondary equipment, like transformers. Cutouts are easy to spot – they’re wide insulators with a light-colored tube running between contacts. The tube contains a fuse with an explosive charge that kicks the cutout open quickly and dramatically. The dangling fuse body can be removed and replaced with a hot stick, although sometimes there’s still a line fault when the cutout is reconnected:

What is the purpose of ground circuits?

Tied into the supply neutral and extending from the bottom of the supply space to a rod driven into the ground next to the pole, the ground circuit provides a potentially lifesaving path to the earth for any stray current.

Do real people build the grid?

The point is, real people built the grid, and real people keep it alive for the benefit of everyone. So every once in a while, it’s not a bad idea to spend a little time looking up and admiring the handiwork that we so often take for granted.

Overview

History

Characteristics

Variations

Decline and legacy

Limited revival

Popular and Southern culture

See also