shotgun shack, shotgun house, railroad flat, etc

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Thu Sep 22 22:05:58 UTC 2005


Based on my own personal experience, the term "shotgun shack" is not
necessarily a redneck term. It's the only term that I've known from
childhood. The other terms I know only from reading. In fact, it's
been only relatively recently that I realized that ordinary white
people, i.e. not writers who wanted to describe the living environment
of the Southern black people in order to supply color <har har> for a
novel or a documentary, were even aware of that term.

-Wilson

On 9/22/05, Mullins, Bill <Bill.Mullins at us.army.mil> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Mullins, Bill" <Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL>
> Subject:      shotgun shack, shotgun house, railroad flat, etc
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  A discussion today in the letters of Jim Romanesko's media blog:
>
> http://poynter.org/forum/default.asp?id=32178
>
> brings up "shotgun shack" (is it a redneck term?), "shotgun house",
> "railroad flat", and "railroad apartment".
>
>
> Shotgun shack (Not in OED)
>
> "Most Vital Needs of City of Dallas" by Tom Finty Jr.
> Dallas Morning News Jan 30 1912 page 1 col 1.
> "But it is said that tears are needlessly shed over these people who
> live in the shacks and the "shotguns;" that they have never been used to
> anything better; are no account or they wouldn't live in such places;
> that if they were given better houses they wouldn't appreciate or
> wouldn't care for them."
>
> "Negro Housing" by Lynn W. Landrum, Dallas Morning News, Jan 17, 1947
> sec 2 p. 2. col 3.
> "The row-house and the apartment house are improvements over shotgun
> shacks, of course."
>
> Shotgun house (Not in OED)
>
> [classified ad] Georgia | Atlanta | The Atlanta Constitution |
> 1909-08-29 p. D5 col 6.
> "$1 600 FOR a four-room cottage, with very large and high ceilings. This
> is not a shotgun house, as there are two large rooms in front, with a
> porch extending across and two rooms back."
>
> "railroad apartment" (not in OED)
> Author: New York (State). Title: Fourth report of the Factory
> investigating commission, 1915 : transmitted to the Legislature February
> 15, 1915. Publication date: 1915. p. 1796
> "The rooms occupied by this family are dark, being a "railroad"
> apartment."
>
> "railroad flat" (OED has 1956); "box flat" (not in OED); "walk up" (OED
> has 1919); "push the button" (not in OED)
>
> "Apt Description of Flats"  Illinois | Edwardsville | The Edwardsville
> Intelligencer | 1914-05-21 p. 7 col 4.
> "Some of the terms used to describe apartments are mystifying to tho
> uninitiated, declares the New York Sun.
>
> For instance, "railroad flat" conveys little idea to the novice until it
> is explained that this special type of apartment has no private hall.
> The back door and the front door both open Into the public hall, and the
> rooms follow one after the other, like cars on a railroad train, which
> accounts for the expression railroad flat.
>
> A "box flat" is one degree up the scale, for here, while there is no
> entire length of private hall, there is a sufficient slice taken from
> the bedrooms so that one may walk from the parlor to the dining room
> without crossing the two intermediate bedrooms. The tiny hall is boxed
> in, hence the name box flat.
>
> A "walk up" speaks for Itself and is easily translated into non-elevator
> flat. As a matter of fact, many of the most desirable of the older
> apartment houses come under the head of "walk ups."
>
> A "push the button" is still another type which may apply to any of the
> others. It is never misleading, as it graphically describes its mode of
> entrance. "
>


--
-Wilson Gray



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