History of the Shotgun House, 1906


This house was built in 1906 at 2807 Guillot Street in the historic State-Thomas neighborhood north of down-town Dallas. It is a typical shotgun house, which is defined as "a house that is one room wide and at least two rooms deep." The name of this style of house may be derived from an African word "to-gun" meaning a place of assembly. Folk etymology, however, attributes the name to the fact that you could shoot a shotgun straight through the house because of its arrangement.


Houses of this type are simple and inexpensive to construct and their economic use of land made them ideal tenant houses. This was one of ten shotgun houses which stood in a row along Guillot Street. Owned by Dr. David Graham Hall, a local physician, this house was rented by a working-class African-American family.

At the shotgun house, visitors may meet Mrs. Freeman, who was born into slavery and now pursues a better life with her husband and children. Mrs. Freeman is a professional seamstress and her husband is a skilled carpenter, so they can afford to have a few luxuries in their small home, including family photographs. She is happy to tell visitors about her daily work and the important role of the African-American community and church in her family’s life.

Because the house is so small, the rooms served multiple purposes; the front sitting room also contains a child’s bed, and the dining table is in the kitchen.

The quilt pattern in the background is called "Maple Leaf". Information about this and other patterns can be found at the World Wide Quilting Page.