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Shotgun
A unique type of gable-front house that is
only one room wide is the shotgun house. It tends to be quite long to
compensate for its narrow width. If you could see inside, you would find the
rooms—usually three or more--lined up single file, one in front of the
other. A legend about the shotgun house is that if you opened up all the
doors, you could shoot a gun through them without hitting any walls.
Architectural historians believe the
shotgun house originated in the West Indies. It was brought to the United
States via New Orleans in the nineteenth-century, and then spread throughout
the country. The shotgun is common in both rural and urban areas, where its
narrow width makes it highly suitable for tight city lots.
There are a few examples in Martinsville.
Most have been altered to make more interior room.
Shotgun: House (date
uncertain), 728 East Harrison Street, Martinsville
In Martinsville, street addresses are
systematically numbered, so that houses in the same position on different
streets have the same number. This atypical number—728—indicates that this
shotgun house was "squeezed in" between its two neighboring houses.
Shotgun: House (c.1895),
472 West Harrison Street
Shotgun: House (c.1880),
227 South Marion Street
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