I am in Love with Louisville... (Bardstown, Middletown: sale, renting, mortgage)

[johnsonkk]

Originally Posted by colonelsmiley75

Those areas east of the Interstate 65 are turning into scum infested areas. I used to know a lot of older people that lived in those areas. The old people either died or moved out and its been replaced by a lot of riff raff. Eastern Parkway area is the exception and its still pretty nice around there but has occasional bouts of violence from inner city criminals. You do have to get an alarm system and solid door because property crimes abound there. Schnitzelburg and Shelby Park areas have went south badly over the years.

Don't let these people tell you this kind of nonsense about these areas. They are in many places very unsafe just like those areas around Oak, St. Catherine, Winter Avenue. Not good areas at all.

Too bad you are one to live East of I-65 (with your zip code). Maybe you're the reason that the areas around Oak and St Catherine are unsafe. Can you at least draw from one link or rational based fact while you ramble on with your adjectives used to describe Louisville?

[ElleElle]

Originally Posted by johnsonkk

Too bad you are one to live East of I-65 (with your zip code). Maybe you're the reason that the areas around Oak and St Catherine are unsafe. Can you at least draw from one link or rational based fact while you ramble on with your adjectives used to describe Louisville?

lol

[English Liz]

What is a 'shotgun' house? Confused.com!!!

[JefferyT]

It's a vernacular house form typical in the US south, taking its name from the long narrow shape. The house form is characterisitc of the Southern city of New Orleans.

It supposedly originated in New Orleans from Carribean sources, specfically Haiti. New Orleans recieved a lot of refugees from Haiti since that colony was in rebelllion against France, around the time of Napoleon.

The style spread throughout the US South, and trading connections between New Orleans and Louisville via the Mississippi & Ohio Rivers rivers probably brought the shotgun house to Louisville, probably first to the Portland neighborhood . Portland had a small Louisiana French community who maintained commercial connections with New Orleans, since that neighborhood was the head of navigation on the Ohio for a time. Members of this community were founders and first parisioners of the old Our Lady parish, orginally named Notre Dame du Port, one of the cities oldest Catholic parishes.

The shotgun it became a popular style to house Louisvilles growing working class. The city was rapdily industrializing after the Civil War, and this housing typology was quick way to get people under roof. The houseform appears in an 1870s real estate atlas of the Louisville, so can be dated here at least that far back. There are differnet variations on the form...the camelback, a duplex style, etc. Concentratations are in the older 19th century neighborhoods of the city. The house fell out of popularity in the early 1900s, and few were built, it seems, after WWI


Here is a blog post that discusses the houseform in Louisville, based on a short booklet on them...with pix, drawings, and a map:

Louisville Shotguns I

Here is another blog post on restoring old shotguns and building new houses in the same style in the old Phoenix Hill neighborhood

Louisville Shotguns II

Shotgun Houses are one of the things that gives Louisville a Southern flavor vs Midwestern since nearby Midwesern cities have a different style of working class housing.

...another reason they are called a shotgun is that the rooms are all in a row, and you fan fire a shotgun on one side of the house and it would go through the front door and not hit anything since the doors all line up.

[JefferyT]

Two Louisville icons...a camelback shotgun house and The 800 building

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by censusdata

Louisville has very affordable housing. A 1 bedroom apartment in a nice area can run from $350 to $500. There are a lot of shotgun houses throughout the Old City which run anywhere from $40,000- $90,000 even in good areas

For cheap houses, look in St Joseph, Germantown, or Schnitzelburg. For cheap, but very nice apartments look in Old Louisville or The Highlands.

Check out pictures of these areas on the Louisville Photo Stiicky

Bargain! Especially if found throughout the Old City - which I guess includes Highlands as well?

How many bedrooms are shotguns...generally? Is that like a 1-bedroom?

[JazzLobster]

Originally Posted by JefferyT

It's a vernacular house form typical in the US south, taking its name from the long narrow shape. The house form is characterisitc of the Southern city of New Orleans.

Regarding the name: This is anecdotal, but my wife spent some of her childhood summers with relatives who lived in shotgun houses in New Orleans. She was told the term "shotgun house" came from the fact that you could shoot a gun down the hallway at the front of the house and the bullet could exit the back of the house without hitting anything, since the hallway ran the whole length of the house.

[cobolt]

Here are some pics of shotguns I took around Germantown/Schnitz last year.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by cobolt

Here are some pics of shotguns I took around Germantown/Schnitz last year.

Them homes look like my dream. The privacy of a SFH but not too big.

[JefferyT]

^
The older ones are, I think, pretty tall inside. Very high ceilings.

How many bedrooms are shotguns...generally? Is that like a 1-bedroom?

I'm curious about that too. I think the camelback has bedrooms on the top, but dont know enough about the insides. I was in an older one once, but it was converted into an art gallery.