We're back in McAdoo Heights today to show you a little piece of history. The above home, located at 1918 Golden Gate Drive is significant because, it is said to be the last remaining shotgun house in all of Greensboro that is still used as a house (reference). This red shingled shotgun, with the white addition in the front, perched above a cement retaining wall, is easily unnoticed as one drives down Golden Gate Drive.
Shotgun houses were the most popular type of house in the southern states of the USA from the time of the Civil War until the 1920's. Shotgun houses are houses that are usually 12' or less wide and the rooms are built one behind the other without and hallway. Typically, you go from the front porch to the living room to a bedroom (or two) to a back room/kitchen to the back porch.* They were called shotgun houses because if you fired a gun through the front door, the bullet would go all the way out the back door without hitting anything. This once prevalent model of housing fell out of favor in the 1940's, and, after WWII, was considered substandard. In Greensboro, many houses of this style were torn down during the redevelopment of east Greensboro in the 1960's (reference).
With that addition in front, it looks like the above home has changed its orientation from front to back to side to side. Shotgun houses are efficient because no space is wasted on hallways; however, they are pretty inconvenient when someone has to walk through your bedroom in the middle of the night to get to the bathroom. Being the last of something, we think the neighborhood (or the city..... or HGTV..) should treat this 644 square foot, two-bedroom, 1935 home to a restoration-makeover..... landscape and all. It is part of our mill town's history.
*reference.... Perhaps the most famous person to have been born in one was Elvis Presley.
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