ORIGINS OF THE SHOTGUN HOUSE According to Jay Edwards of LSU, “theories of the origins of the shotgun lie deeply enmeshed in larger cultural debates on race and authority in the city. Some see the shotgun as a response to constrained urban lots while others see the building type inextricably linked to the city’s substantial nineteenthcentury African American population.”100
fig. 71: Single Shotgun House, 3913 St. Claude Avenue, Upper Ninth Ward
Edwards describes how the origins of the shotgun houses are not apparent architecturally, and to fully understand their design one must understand the culture from which they originated. Dell Upton supports Edward’s view: “The significance of shotgun houses in New Orleans and on the Gulf Coast lies in the specifics of where, when, and for whom they were built. Their simple presence means little — it is their place in the larger mix of local, regional, national and international practices that is significant. To reproduce shotgun houses in great numbers seventy years after they lost their place in the local repertoire would create a picture-post card New Orleans, not a living landscape.”101 Dell Upton explains that shotgun houses cannot be merely reproduced, despite the efforts to rebuild in post-Katrina New Orleans – their significance lies within their cultural legacy. DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS Figure 71 is a photo of a single shotgun house located at 3913 St. Claude Avenue, between Alvar and Bartholomew streets in the Upper Ninth Ward. The photo was taken by Michael Eastman in spring of 2005, a few months before Hurricane Katrina.102 Figure 72 displays the various types of ornamentation on shotgun façades.
fig. 72: Brightly Painted Shotgun Houses 102