Shotgun Houses / 472 - 488 Auburn Avenue
These duplexes are typical of the houses where Atlanta's blue-collar laborers lived in the early 1900s. The Empire Textile Co. built them for its white mill workers, but they moved out after the 1906 Atlanta race riot, and blacks began renting them. The houses generally are one room wide and up to four rooms deep. They are called "shotgun" houses because the interior and exterior doorways are aligned, so a shot supposedly could be fired through them from front to back. Another theory is that the name comes from the African word "to-gun," which means place of assembly.
[Bottom left photo caption reads]
The militia was called out when whites and blacks clashed in a violent race riot in September 1906.
[Background photo reads]
The backs of the houses hummed with activity as women washed clothes and prepared meals while their children played in the yards.
Erected by National Park Service.
Plaque courtesy Lat34North.com.
Original page, with additional info, here.
Photo credit: Byron Hooks of Lat34North.com.