Final answer:
The 'shotgun house' is a simple, narrow, single-story structure with a straight line of rooms, the name of which has two theories regarding its origin. It gained popularity in the United States through diffusion from South Louisiana and Florida, and became a part of popular culture as it spread to other areas, including as company housing.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term “shotgun house” originates from a specific architectural design with a unique historical background. Its name possibly comes from the characteristic that if you open the front and back doors, theoretically, you could shoot a shotgun straight through it. Another theory for the name is the misinterpretation of the African-Haitian word for house, “togun”, which was anglicized to “shotgun.”
Shotgun houses are typically narrow, single-story structures with rooms arranged one behind the other in a straight line, making them easily recognizable. They are notably one room wide and three to five rooms deep. The style was initially brought to the United States by African-Haitians and became prominent in South Louisiana and Florida before spreading to various other regions.
These houses were well-suited for the European long lot cadastral system used in French Louisiana, which influenced their spread and popularity. As African-Americans migrated, and with the rise of industrialization, the shotgun house design was used for company housing due to its versatility and utility, thus entering popular culture and becoming a significant part of architectural history in America.