Home » Travel » Mississippi » MISSISSIPPI FOLK ARCHITECTURE--THE SHOTGUN

MISSISSIPPI FOLK ARCHITECTURE--THE SHOTGUN

© Dorothy Hill

Mississippi takes great pride in its antebellum mansions that have survived time and modernization. They truly are wonders. Although the state did have its plantation aristocracy, the majority of its inhabitants did not fit into that class. Therefore, most homes were not mansions. Instead, a type of architecture appeared in Mississippi and the rest of the South that was different. Last week we talked about the dogtrot. This week we will discuss the shotgun.

The shotgun house is fast disappearing from the landscape in the South. The origin of this style is not known, but some believe it evolved from the West African long house and came to this country by way of Haiti. Typically the house is one room wide and two to four rooms deep. The front and back doors and all doors in between usually line up. If a shotgun was fired through the front door, all shot would exit out the back door without ever hitting a wall.

Most shotgun houses are found in African-American communities or neighborhoods but are not limited to those areas. Since these houses were fairly easy to construct and required little land, this style of construction was used in the late 1800's and early 1900's for tenant houses in many areas.

The most famous shotgun in Mississippi (or the rest of the country, for that matter) is located in Tupelo. It has been carefully restored and is a major tourist attraction because it is the birthplace of Elvis Presley. Two excellent sites for more information about Elvis Presley's birthplace are:

http://rankin.tupeloschools.com/proproj/... The humble "shotgun" birthplace of Elvis could fit in the living room of Graceland! Elvis' life exemplified how, through hope and inspiration, you can be anything you want to be.

http://tupelo.net/main-elvis.html The most significant landmark of Tupelo's modern history is a modest, two-room house where the King of Rock & Roll was born on January 8, 1935. From this humble beginning, Elvis Presley began his meteoric rise to become the world's most popular entertainer.

The copyright of the article MISSISSIPPI FOLK ARCHITECTURE--THE SHOTGUN in Mississippi is owned by Dorothy Hill. Permission to republish MISSISSIPPI FOLK ARCHITECTURE--THE SHOTGUN in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.