Shotgun House

A "shotgun house" (or "shotgun shack") is a typically small house in which all of the rooms are arranged in a single line from one end to the other.  It's a bit like a railroad apartment only without the hallway running alongside.  They've become associated with the lower economic class, although they used to be popular middle class housing a hundred years ago.


Supposedly, or at least apocryphally, they got their name from their straight floor plan, one which would allow a (shot)gun to be fired straight through from one end to the other.  A more likely possibility is that the name is related to another sense of the word "shotgun," one that the OED defines as "made or done hastily or under pressure of necessity," as in "shotgun legislation" or "shotgun resignations;" probably at least somewhat related to the "shotgun wedding."  Still another theory derives it from a vaguely homophonic African term (the design probably originated in Africa) meaning "assembly place," although I personally find that explanation a bit dubious.


Two such houses, built alongside each other and sharing a single dividing wall, are naturally referred to as "double-barrelled."  A partial second story is also sometimes added, creating the "camel-back" shotgun house.