- Local time
- Yesterday, 19:17
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2001
- Messages
- 28,846
The question came up regarding "shotgun xxxx" and I can explain it easily. In New Orleans during the post-Civil War era and up through the great Depression that ended just before WW2, there was a style of housing called a "Shotgun Double" - built almost assembly-line style, in which you had two sets of living quarters side by side. These houses had no distinct hallway, but every door lined up with every other door. You usually had a living room/dining room combo in front, a kitchen, and maybe two bedrooms. Bathrooms were on the sides of the bedrooms so not in-line with the aforementioned doors. With all of the doors open, you could look straight through the front door and out the back door from the front porch. The colloquial description was that you could fire a shotgun through the front door and the shot would go out the back door and not hit any walls.
This style of housing was built during a time when such things COULD be built cheaply and when lots of folks didn't aspire to huge mansions. The most common form was the shotgun double though shotgun singles also were built. In fact, I lived in one for a while after I graduated with my Doctorate because, while I didn't take out a tuition loan and thus had no significant debts, I also had no extra money to speak of. It was livable as long as I didn't want to throw parties - which I didn't. Parties in a shotgun house were either yard parties or front-porch parties.
That "shotgun kitchen" is merely a kitchen where everything is off to one side or the other, nothing down the middle (except people maybe). But it IMPLIES that it is not square but rather is elongated and "skinny".
This style of housing was built during a time when such things COULD be built cheaply and when lots of folks didn't aspire to huge mansions. The most common form was the shotgun double though shotgun singles also were built. In fact, I lived in one for a while after I graduated with my Doctorate because, while I didn't take out a tuition loan and thus had no significant debts, I also had no extra money to speak of. It was livable as long as I didn't want to throw parties - which I didn't. Parties in a shotgun house were either yard parties or front-porch parties.
That "shotgun kitchen" is merely a kitchen where everything is off to one side or the other, nothing down the middle (except people maybe). But it IMPLIES that it is not square but rather is elongated and "skinny".