Homes designated as 'shotgun houses' in
New Orleans are usually
residences constructed in the late
nineteenth or early
twentieth century, when the
New Orleans city government
taxed property by width alone, rather than by the total enclosed area. A result of the bizarre
Napoleonic code, this legislative
idiosyncracy had two main effects:
(1) The homes of the lower and middle classes were often stunningly narrow, and frequently featured a second story which rose off of the first near the rear of the house. This is called a 'shotgun camel-back house,' and is usually quite long.
(2) The homes of the upper class were often designed to be quite wide as an ostentatious display of wealth.
The architectural inventiveness required to design houses as narrow and long as the former were was considerable, and accounts for much of New Orleans' distinct visual character, particularly in neighborhoods such as the Garden District. The homes there are tall and slender, and penetrate deep into the block, creating labrynthine courtyards.