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61-489: The Irish Channel Corner Club was organized May 1918 by a group of seven men on the corner of Third and Rousseau Streets, named after the historic Irish Channel neighborhood of the city. With the help of the neighborhood the club became one of the finest in the city until the year of 1932 when the club disbanded because of the Great Depression . After World War II , On April 6, 1947, five men decided to reorganize

122-497: A 1790s community of freed black slaves in Plymouth, Massachusetts; his shotgun interpretation of the extremely limited evidence – two rooms that "may or may not have been unified" – has been challenged as "premature". Vlach's theory behind the earlier African origin is tied to the history of New Orleans . In 1803 there were 1,355 free black people in the city. By 1810 black people outnumbered white people 10,500 to 4,500. This caused

183-413: A description of this shotgun house and Jeff's fondness of it. One of the more widely known references to a shotgun house is in the 1980 Talking Heads song " Once In A Lifetime ". The first line of the song is "And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack". The John Mellencamp song " Pink Houses " was inspired when he was driving along an overpass on the way home to Bloomington, Indiana from

244-962: A distinctive urban life. Other cities, such as Macon, Georgia , experimented with renovating shotgun houses for low-income residents and, though there was indecision whether it would be cheaper to tear them down and build new housing, some were rebuilt. There are many large neighborhoods in older American cities of the south which still contain a high concentration of shotgun houses today. Examples include Third Ward in Houston ; Bywater in New Orleans ; The Hill in St. Louis ; Portland , Butchertown and Germantown in Louisville ; Cabbagetown in Atlanta and Village West of Coconut Grove in Miami where

305-463: A fireplace opening in each room. The kitchen usually has its own chimney. Other than the basic floor layout, shotgun houses have many standard features in common. The house is almost always close to the street, sometimes with a very short front yard. In some cases, the house has no setback and is actually flush with the sidewalk . The original steps were wood, but were often replaced with permanent concrete steps. A sign of its New Orleans heritage,

366-520: A housing boom. As many of both the builders and inhabitants were Africans by way of Haiti, Vlach maintained it was only natural they modeled the new homes after ones they left behind in their homeland. Many surviving Haitian dwellings of the period, including about 15 percent of the housing stock of Port-au-Prince , resemble the single shotgun houses of New Orleans. The shotgun house was popularized in New Orleans, and, as Fred Kniffen documented in

427-570: A new owner will buy both homes of a double-barreled shotgun structure and combine them, to form a relatively large single house. Shotguns are also often combined to renovate them into offices or storage spaces. Elements of the shotgun style have recently been seen in a number of the compact, low-occupancy structures employed in the Solar Decathlon contests held periodically in Washington, DC. While some are erected from panels brought to

488-495: A statewide survey of Louisiana house types in the 1930s, the greatest number are found dispersed from there in a manner that supports the diffusion theory. The style was definitely built there by 1832, though there is evidence that houses sold in the 1830s were built 15 to 20 years earlier. A simpler theory is that they are the typical one-room-deep floor plan popular in the rural south, rotated to accommodate narrow city lots. Such houses were built throughout hot urban areas in

549-429: A very poor class of tenants. After the Great Depression few shotgun houses were built, and existing ones went into decline. By the late 20th century shotgun houses in some areas were being restored as housing others and for other uses. Shotgun houses were often initially built as rental properties, located near manufacturing centers or railroad hubs, to provide housing for workers. Owners of factories frequently built

610-653: Is a neighborhood of the city of New Orleans . It is a subdistrict of the Central City/Garden District Area. Although the original site was located predominantly on the east side of Jackson Avenue, its boundaries as defined by the Historic District Landmarks Commission are: Magazine Street to the north, Jackson Avenue to the east, the Mississippi River to the south and Delachaise Street to

671-706: Is a K-8 charter school operated by the charter management organization ReNEW Schools that is located in the former Live Oak Elementary School Building in the Irish Channel. As of 2012 it has over 600 students. In 2012 the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities stated that the school was one of eight that would participate in the Turnaround Arts program. After Hurricane Katrina , Live Oak

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732-542: Is a narrow rectangular domestic residence, usually no more than about 12 feet (3.5 m) wide, with rooms arranged one behind the other and doors at each end of the house. It was the most popular style of house in the Southern United States from the end of the American Civil War (1861–65) through the 1920s. Alternative names include shotgun shack , shotgun hut , shotgun cottage , and in

793-404: Is a side door allowing access to the kitchen, or a porch along the side extending almost the length of the house. "North shore" houses are shotgun houses with wide verandas on three sides. They were so named because most were built on the north shore of New Orleans' Lake Pontchartrain as summer homes for wealthy whites. The construction of shotgun houses slowed and eventually stopped during

854-403: Is first, then one or two bedrooms, and finally a kitchen in back. Early shotgun houses were not built with bathrooms, but in later years a bathroom with a small hall was built before the last room of the house, or a side addition was built off the kitchen. Some shotguns have only two rooms. Chimneys tended to be built in the interior, allowing the front and middle rooms to share a chimney with

915-572: Is located in Irish Channel. The Japanese Weekend School of New Orleans (ニューオリンズ日本語補習校 Nyū Orinzu Nihongo Hoshūkō ), a Weekend Japanese school program , holds its classes at the Waldorf School. Many early jazz musicians including Tom Brown , the Brunies brothers , Nick LaRocca , and Tony Sbarbaro lived in the Irish Channel. Prizefighter John L. Sullivan trained in the Irish Channel, since much prizefighting centered in New Orleans in

976-684: Is usually supported by decorative wooden brackets, and sometimes contains cast iron ventilators. The rooms are well-sized, and have relatively high ceilings for cooling purposes, as when warm air can rise higher, the lower part of a room tends to be cooler. The lack of hallways allows for efficient cross-ventilation in every room. Rooms usually have some decoration such as moldings , ceiling medallions, and elaborate woodwork. In cities like New Orleans, local industries supplied elaborate but mass-produced brackets and other ornaments for shotgun houses that were accessible even to homeowners of modest means. The double shotgun requires less land per household than

1037-467: Is very similar to the traditional shotgun house, except there are stairs in the back room leading up to the second floor. The second floor, or "hump", contains one to four rooms. Because it was only a partial second story, most cities only taxed it as a single-story house – this was a key reason for their construction. A combination, the Double Camelback shotgun, also exists. A minor variation

1098-461: Is water. The boundaries of the Irish Channel, originally part of the now incorporated Faubourg Lafayette were Tchoupitoulas Street and Magazine Street between Felicity Street and Phillip Street. The east boundary was later moved to Jackson street in the 1930s for the St. Thomas Development which was demolished in the late 1990’s. Most of the original location of the Irish Channel is now considered part of

1159-550: The Indianapolis airport . There was an old black man sitting outside his little pink shotgun house with his cat in his arms, completely unperturbed by the traffic speeding along the highway in his front yard. "He waved, and I waved back," Mellencamp said in an interview with Rolling Stone. "That's how 'Pink Houses' started.". In Bruce Springsteen's song " We Take Care of Our Own ", from the album Wrecking Ball , he refers to shotgun houses, singing "We take care of our own, from

1220-684: The Irish Channel St. Patrick's Day Club and the Irish Channel Corner Club . The local chapter of the Ancient Order of Hibernians also promotes Irish Channel heritage. Parasol's Bar and Tracey's Bar, a block apart on Third Street, are a focal point for St. Patrick's Day parades in the Irish Channel. The area is known for much surviving working class and middle class 19th century residential architecture, including many shotgun houses . The neighborhood included

1281-578: The Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve ). This style was used so frequently that some southern cities estimate that, even today, 10% or more of their housing stock is composed of shotgun houses. The earliest known use of "shotgun house" as a name for these dwellings is in a classified advertisement in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution , August 30, 1903: "Two 3-room houses near

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1342-649: The New Basin Canal , and were generally regarded as expendable labor. Many of these immigrants were misled by shipping companies who led prospective immigrants to believe that New Orleans was close to other Irish enclaves in the United States such as New York City, Philadelphia, and Boston. These Irish immigrants were predominantly Roman Catholic , in contrast to the Protestant Scotch-Irish that were more common as immigrants to most of

1403-636: The South , since the style's length and outside doors at each end allowed for excellent airflow, while its narrow frontage increased the number of lots that could be fitted along a street, as was the case with the shotgun homes in Fazendeville, Louisiana , a historic, African American village that was ultimately razed during the 1960s as part of the creation of the Chalmette National Historical Park and Battlefield (now part of

1464-503: The 1950s and 1960s, but many others did not and remain predominantly white. Regardless of who was living in them, from World War II until the 1980s shotguns came to be widely viewed as substandard housing and a symbol of poverty, and they were demolished by many urban renewal projects. This thinking is no longer so prevalent, with such cities as Charlotte establishing "Shotgun Historic Districts". Shotgun houses have even been praised as quality and cost-effective cultural assets that promote

1525-458: The Creole suburbs ( faubourgs ) of New Orleans in the early 1800s. He also stated that the term " shotgun " is a reference to the idea that if all the doors are opened, a shotgun blast fired into the house from the front doorway will fly cleanly to the other end and out at the back. Alternatively, folklorist and professor John Michael Vlach has suggested that the origin of the building style and

1586-488: The Irish Channel, this area was outside of the incorporated city of New Orleans, and the area was known as Lafayette, being formally annexed into New Orleans in 1852 as the 10th Ward. Irish ethnicity dominated despite the multi-ethnicity of the area. Adele Street was the center of activity in the early days of the Irish Channel. St. Alphonsus Church , constructed in 1855 by the Redemptorist Fathers , served

1647-730: The Lower Garden District and the location of historic Irish Channel landmarks such as Adele Street, St. Andrews Street, St. Mary’s Cathedral, St. Alphonsus Church, along with a police station, Walmart, Boettner Park, and the River Garden development. In 2002, prior to Hurricane Katrina , the New Orleans City Planning Commission defined the boundaries of the Irish Channel as Tchoupitoulas Street , Toledano Street, Magazine Street, and First Street. The mostly working-class neighborhood was, as

1708-519: The RSD, gave the school to the ReNEW charter management school group, which specialized in taking control of poor performing schools. ReNEW repurposed the school into Batiste Academy. Gary Robichaux, the executive director of ReNEW, had full control over the school's hiring and firing, and he kept 15% of the previous teaching staff and brought younger teachers to replace them. The Waldorf School of New Orleans

1769-678: The St. Mary's Market Gang, the Shot Tower Gang, the Pine Knot Gang, the Ripsaw Gang, and the Crowbar Gang. The river front area was home to petty thieves and prostitutes, although much of the gang activity of the time centered on the corner of St. Mary Street and Religious Street. Through the early 20th century much of the population worked in the port of New Orleans before modern shipping innovations greatly reduced

1830-520: The US and from foreign countries, all looking to fill emerging manufacturing jobs, created the high demand for housing in cities. Shotgun houses were built to fulfill the same need as rowhouses in Northeastern cities. Several were often built at a time by a single builder, contributing to their similar appearance. The rooms of a shotgun house are lined up one behind the other, typically a living room

1891-475: The case of a multihome dwelling, shotgun apartment ; the design is similar to that of railroad apartments . A longstanding theory is that the style can be traced from Africa to Saint Dominican influences on house design in New Orleans , but the houses can be found as far away as Key West and Ybor City in Florida , and Texas , and as far north as Chicago , Illinois . Though initially as popular with

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1952-747: The club parades in the Irish Channel St.Patrick's Day Parade. In recent years the club has been joined by the FDNY Emerald Society Pipes and Drums, and local parading jazz bands including the Pocket Aces and the Big Fun Brass Band. This article about an organization in the United States is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Irish Channel, New Orleans Irish Channel ( French : Manche irlandaise , Irish : Cainéal na hÉireann )

2013-543: The club, and again with the help of the neighborhood, the club was returned to an active status and marches every Carnival Day. The club currently parades on Mardi Gras Day through the Irish Channel, Uptown , and down St. Charles Avenue with The Pauline Bros. Brass band , who has been walking with the club since 1949. They also parade in the Thoth Parade the Sunday before Mardi Gras Day. In honor of St. Patrick's Day

2074-407: The early 20th century. The increased affordability of two technological innovations, the car and consumer air conditioning units, made the key advantages of the shotgun house obsolete to home buyers. After World War II, shotgun houses had very little appeal to those building or buying new houses, as car-oriented modern suburbs were built en masse . Few shotgun houses have been built in the US since

2135-433: The former St. Thomas Development , now part of the River Garden community. Built on the city's old high ground, the neighborhood escaped the catastrophic flooding of most of the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 (see: Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans ). As of the census of 2000, there were 4,270 people, 1,750 households, and 904 families residing in the neighborhood. The population density

2196-459: The house is usually raised two to three feet (60 to 90 cm) off the ground. There is a single door and window in the front of the house, and often a side door leading into the back room, which is slightly wider than the rest of the house. The front door and window often were originally covered by decorative shutters. Side walls may or may not have windows; rooms adjoining either the front or back door will generally have at least one window even when

2257-417: The houses are built very close together. Typically, shotgun houses have a wood-frame structure and wood siding, although some examples exist in brick and even stone. Many shotguns, especially older or less expensive ones, have flat roofs that end at the front wall of the house. In houses built after 1880, the roof usually overhangs the front wall, and there is usually a gable above the overhang. The overhang

2318-529: The houses to rent specifically to employees, usually for a few dollars a month. However, by the late 20th century shotguns were often owner-occupied. For example, 85% of the houses (many of them shotgun) in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward were owner-occupied. Shotgun houses were most popular before widespread ownership of the automobile allowed people to live farther from businesses and other destinations. Building lots were small, 30 feet (9 m) wide at most. An influx of people to cities, both from rural areas in

2379-589: The large number of attendees. In these early years, churches were built to serve various other ethnic groups. St. Mary's Assumption Church served the German immigrant population of the Irish Channel, while Notre Dame de Bon Secours Church served the French immigrants. The Irish Channel developed a reputation for ruffians early in its history, a reputation that slowly eroded. Much of this centered on conflicts between ethnic groups, eventually congealing as gangs, such as

2440-580: The last remaining 25 shotgun homes have been designated as historic structures. Their role in the history of the south has become recognized; for example, in October 2001 Rice University sponsored an exhibition called "Shotguns 2001". This three-day event featured lectures on and artistic paintings of the houses, as well as presentations and panel discussions in a neighborhood of restored shotguns. In some shotgun-dominated neighborhoods, gentrification has led to property values becoming quite high. Sometimes,

2501-519: The late 19th century. "Anti" O'Rourke was a show man who earned his living as a diver, often diving from steamboats on the Mississippi River . He originated the jack-knife dive, which he termed the "Anti Dive". Francis Xavier Seelos was a Redemptorist priest who served those stricken by yellow fever in the Irish Channel from 1866-7. He was blessed by Pope John Paul II and there is a feast day for him on October 5. Eleanor McMain

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2562-416: The mid-to-late 20th century. Confusing ownership passed down within a family over several generations also contributed to many houses sitting vacant for years. Though shotguns are sometimes perceived as being prevalent in poor African American neighborhoods, many originally constituted much of the housing stock of segregated white neighborhoods. Many of these neighborhoods became predominantly black during

2623-406: The middle class as with poor families, the shotgun house became a symbol of poverty in the mid-20th century. Urban renewal led to the destruction of many shotgun houses; however, in areas affected by gentrification , historic preservation efforts have led to the renovation of such houses. Several variations of shotgun houses allow for additional features and space, and many have been updated to

2684-460: The name implies, originally settled largely by immigrants from Ireland in the early 19th century. However early on the area also had people of other ethnicities, including German , Italian , and African American , living nearby each other. The origin of the name is obscure. However, one school of thought says that the Irish "channeled" into the area, while another says that rain would settle into

2745-452: The name itself may trace back to Haiti and Africa during the 18th century and earlier. Vlach claimed the name may have originated from a Dahomey Fon area term 'to-gun', which means "place of assembly". The description, probably used in New Orleans by Afro-Haitian slaves, may have been misunderstood and reinterpreted as "shotgun". Citing Vlach, James Deetz claimed archaeological support for an African origin in his dig at Parting Ways ,

2806-615: The need for stevedores and similar jobs. There were also local breweries in the area. This had significant economic consequences, with the resulting poverty persisting today. Since about the 1960s, the neighborhood has been majority African American , with substantial minorities of the descendants of the 19th century immigrants and more recent Latino immigrants. Parades and parties are held on and around St. Patrick's Day which are enjoyed by many locals whether they are of Irish ancestry or not. Examples of organizations that parade on St. Patrick's Day and promote other civic activities are

2867-414: The needs of later generations of owners. The oldest shotgun houses were built without indoor plumbing , which was often added later, often on the back of the house, sometimes crudely. "Double-barrel" or "double" shotgun houses are a semi-detached configuration, consisting of two houses sharing a central wall, allowing more houses to be fit into an area. "Camelback" shotgun houses include a second floor at

2928-462: The railroad yards at Simpson st. crossing, rent $ 12 a month to good tenants who pay in advance; price $ 1,200 on terms or $ 100 cash, balance $ 15 a month; a combination of investment and savings bank: these are not shacks, but good shot-gun houses in good repair." While this advertisement seems to present shotgun houses as a desirable working-class housing alternative, by 1929 a Tennessee court noted that shotgun houses could not be rented to any other than

2989-454: The rear of the house. In some cases the entire floor plan is changed during remodeling to create hallways. The origins of both the term and the architectural form and development of the shotgun house are controversial, even more so in the wake of conflicting preservation and redevelopment efforts since Hurricane Katrina . New Orleans architectural historian Samuel Wilson, Jr. influentially suggested that shotgun-style houses originated in

3050-440: The religious and cultural needs of this Irish immigrant population for many years. In 1874, a painting of Our Lady of Perpetual Help was brought to St. Alphonsus and a National Shrine established. For generations Irish school children as well as parishioners and visitors would participate in novenas to Our Lady at St. Alphonsus church. These services were so well attended that the city placed additional street cars in service to carry

3111-478: The rest of the Southeastern United States . In addition to the Irish Channel, many Irish immigrants also settled at Irish Bayou , in present-day Eastern New Orleans . Irish immigrants found New Orleans a better cultural match than most Southeastern areas of the United States due to the large predominant Roman Catholic European population already there. At the time of early immigration to

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3172-469: The site, many such structures consist of enclosed single or multiple units designed specifically for road transports, with multiple modules connected on site, and compact linear structures often employ multiple-use "zones" rather than specifically private areas, while retaining a linear progression of spaces. In 2011, Louisville's daily newspaper The Courier-Journal reported that a local nonprofit agency devoted to building and renovating affordable housing

3233-562: The south. Elvis Presley was born in a shotgun house , Aaron Neville of The Neville Brothers grew up in one, and according to bluesman David Honeyboy Edwards , Robert Johnson died in one. Shortly before his death in May 1997, Jeff Buckley rented a shotgun house in Memphis and was so enamoured with it he contacted the owner about the possibility of buying it. Dream Brother , David Browne's biography of Jeff and Tim Buckley , opens with

3294-427: The streets of this predominately Irish neighborhood at the time. Significant emigration from Ireland to the United States occurred during the period 1810 - 1850, with a particularly large wave to New Orleans during the decade of the 1830s. The point of debarkation was Adele Street, where many immigrants, penniless, took up residence in simple cottages ( shotgun houses ). These Irish immigrants arrived primarily to dig

3355-418: The traditional shotgun and was used extensively in poorer areas because it could be built with fewer materials and use less land per occupant. It was first seen in New Orleans in 1854. A camelback house, also called humpback, is a variation of the shotgun that has a partial second floor over the rear of the house. Camelback houses were built in the later period of shotgun houses. The floor plan and construction

3416-423: The war, although the concept of a simple, single-level floor plan lived on in ranch-style houses . The surviving urban shotgun houses suffered problems related to those typically facing the inner city neighborhoods in which they were located. The flight of affluent residents to the suburbs, absentee owners, and a shortage of mortgage lenders for inner-city residents led to the deterioration of shotgun houses in

3477-502: The west. Irish Channel is located at 29°55′23″N 90°04′55″W  /  29.92306°N 90.08194°W  / 29.92306; -90.08194 and has an elevation of 7 feet (2.1 m). According to the United States Census Bureau , the district has a total area of 0.83 square miles (2.1 km ). 0.50 square miles (1.3 km ) of which is land and 0.33 square miles (0.9 km ) (39.76%) of which

3538-596: Was 8,540 /mi² (3,285 /km ). As of the census of 2010, there were 3,373 people, 1,665 households, and 649 families residing in the neighborhood. A historically working-class neighborhood of New Orleans, the Irish Channel is home to a number of notable landmarks, including: The Irish Channel is zoned to schools in the New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS) and the Recovery School District (RSD). The Batiste Cultural Arts Academy

3599-482: Was a social activist in the Irish Channel in the early part of the twentieth century, leading Kingsley House to become a center for progressive movements . New Orleans restaurateur Richard Brennan of the Commander's Palace was born and reared in the Irish Channel. Paul Sanchez , singer-songwriter and founding member of Cowboy Mouth , grew up in the Irish Channel. Shotgun houses A shotgun house

3660-551: Was a school directly operated by the RSD. In 2009 about 75% of the fourth graders at the Live Oak Elementary School failed the LEAP test. In 2010 the school had a performance score of "40" which was below the "65" that was the level considered "academically unacceptable." Cindy Chang of The Times-Picayune said former Live Oak Elementary School was performing so poorly that Paul Vallas , the superintendent of

3721-426: Was building new shotgun houses in a development in southwest Louisville. The shotgun house plays a large role in the folklore and culture of the south. Superstition holds that ghosts and spirits are attracted to shotgun houses because they may pass straight through them, and that some houses were built with doors intentionally misaligned to deter these spirits. They also often serve as a convenient symbol of life in

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