How to tell the two apart, where to find them, and what each layout means for the way you live
THE DOUGLAS ADAMS EDITORIAL SERIES
Market Insight • Property Strategy • New Orleans & Mississippi
Updated October 2026
Quick Answer
A Creole cottage is the oldest house type still standing in New Orleans. It is broad and low, one to one and a half stories, set right at the sidewalk under a steep side-gabled or hipped roof, with four openings across the front and rooms that open directly into one another with no hallway. A shotgun is long and narrow, one room wide and three to five rooms deep, with a roof that faces the street and rooms set one behind the next. Creole cottages date from about the 1790s to the 1870s; shotguns were built from at least the 1830s into the 1950s and became the most common historic house type in the city.
What Is a Creole Cottage?
A Creole cottage is a broad, low house that sits right at the front property line, with its long side facing the street. The Historic District Landmarks Commission calls it the earliest remaining local housing type in New Orleans and dates it from the 1790s to the 1870s. It is a vernacular type, designed and built by owners and builders to suit local needs and the climate.
The defining features are easy to learn once you know them:
Size and plan. Typically one to one and a half stories, two rooms wide and two rooms deep, often with small storage rooms called cabinets at the rear corners (HDLC).
Roof. A hipped or side-gabled roof, frequently with tall, narrow dormers (HDLC). The roof was steeply pitchedto shed rain.
Front. A symmetrical facade with four openings, usually four sets of French doors or two doors and two windows, all shuttered. An overhang called an abat-vent shelters the front from rain (HDLC).
Position on the lot. The facade stands flush with the front property line, with no front yard. The private outdoor space is at the rear.
No hallway. Rooms open directly into one another. 64 Parishes calls the absence of an interior hall the most important feature of the type.
Construction. Earlier cottages are typically brick-between-posts or masonry, finished in smooth plaster or wood weatherboards; later ones are often wood frame (HDLC).
What Is a Shotgun House?
A shotgun house is a long, narrow house, one room wide, with its rooms lined up one behind the next and its roof ridge running back from the street. The HDLC describes the single shotgun as one room wide and three to five rooms deep, with each room opening onto the next, a front-gabled or hipped roof, and a front of one door and one window, usually shuttered.
The name comes from an old saying that a shotgun fired through the front door would pass straight out the back. 64 Parishes notes that this is not entirely accurate, since many shotguns do not have doorways in a straight line. What they share is the lack of an interior hallway.
The shotgun family has several members:
Double shotgun. Essentially a twinned single: a two-unit house with a symmetrical front of two doors and two windows, each side one room wide and three to five rooms deep with no interior hall (HDLC).
Camelback. A single or double shotgun with a second story rising at the rear. It began as an addition for more living space and was later built as part of the original house (HDLC). From the street it appears to have a hump toward the rear.
Sidehall and side gallery shotguns. Usually three bays wide, with a passage running most of the length of the house: a true hallway in the sidehall type, a narrow covered side porch in the side gallery type (HDLC).
How Can You Tell a Shotgun From a Creole Cottage From the Street?
Look at the roof first. A Creole cottage presents its long side to the street, under a side-gabled or hipped roof that often carries dormers. A shotgun presents its narrow end, with a gable or hip facing the street and the house running deep into the lot.
Then count the openings. A Creole cottage typically has four across the front. A single shotgun has two, a door and a window; a double has four, arranged as two mirrored halves, each with its own front door.
Finally, look at the ornament. Creole cottages are plain by nature, though some show period details such as arched or flat-topped windows, dentil moldings, or Greek Key door surrounds, and some were later updated with Italianate trim (HDLC). Shotguns carry the decoration of every style popular in New Orleans from 1830 to 1950, along with many plain, utilitarian examples (HDLC). The feature most people remember is the bracketed overhang across the front; local lumber mills sold catalogs of these brackets.
Where Did Each Style Come From?
The Creole cottage has the clearer lineage. 64 Parishes describes it as of French origin, built by owners of French descent and by free people of color, some of whom came from Haiti in the first decade of the 1800s. The HDLC adds that the type was heavily influenced by both French and Spanish building methods and by the local climate.
The shotgun’s origins are debated, and it is fair to say so plainly. The earliest known examples in New Orleans date to at least the 1830s, and the form strongly resembles Caribbean house types common in the eighteenth century (HDLC). Folklorist John Michael Vlach cited evidence linking it to Saint-Domingue, present-day Haiti, carried to New Orleans by free people of color who migrated after the revolution there; cultural geographer Jay D. Edwards identified 140 linear cottages built before 1840 that he saw as prototypes for the later shotgun (64 Parishes). Practical forces mattered too. A standard city lot of 30 by 120 feet could not hold a wider house, and the shotgun was efficient and comparatively inexpensive to build. It was so popular with middle and working class families for more than a century that the HDLC calls it probably the most prevalent historic building type in the city. Literally thousands were built in the 1880s and 1890s.
Where in New Orleans Will You Find Each Style?
Creole cottages are concentrated in the city’s oldest neighborhoods. 64 Parishes places them in the French Quarter and the Faubourg Marigny. Shotguns are found across much of the city.
Faubourg Marigny. The architecture is dominated by two house types: the one-and-a-half-story Creole cottage and the one-story shotgun, in two, three, and four bay versions. Shotguns began appearing here in the late 1840s and were built into the early twentieth century (HDLC).
Bywater. Shotguns and Creole cottages dominate, with single and double shotguns the most common types and Creole cottages scattered throughout (HDLC).
Tremé. The district holds a number of early Creole cottages dating from the 1830s and many double shotguns from the 1880s and 1890s. Below North Claiborne, Creole cottages, townhouses, and shotguns dominate; above it, the late nineteenth century shotgun is the prevailing type (HDLC).
Irish Channel and Esplanade Ridge. Both are named by 64 Parishes among the neighborhoods where shotguns were built in large numbers.
How Does Each Layout Live Day to Day?
Both types were built without hallways, so the main question for a buyer is how you move through the house and how much privacy each room has.
In a Creole cottage, the plan is a compact square of rooms. The front rooms traditionally served family and guests and the rear rooms were private (64 Parishes). Because the house sits on the sidewalk, the front rooms are close to street life, and the yard or courtyard behind becomes the private outdoor room.
In a shotgun, you pass through one room to reach the next. The Preservation Resource Center describes the type’s well-known lack of privacy, with one-room-after-another floor plans, along with limited closet space and, in many original layouts, no real connection to the yard in back. Many shotguns sit about three feet from the neighboring house or right on the property line, which affects how much light the side windows bring in.
How Are These Houses Commonly Renovated?
Most of these houses have been adapted at least once, and knowing the common patterns helps you read a floor plan quickly.
Hallways added to Creole cottages. Later owners often added American-style hallways, which removed the type’s defining hall-less plan (64 Parishes).
Side halls in single shotguns. Adding a side hall is a common way to gain privacy, but only when the lot has a side yard (PRC).
Opening up the rear. Renovations often open the back rooms and add windows and doors for more natural light and a better connection to the yard, and kitchens are sometimes moved toward the middle of the house (PRC).
Camelback additions. Camelbacks have added space to shotguns since the nineteenth century and keep a second story less visible from the street, though they require more interior work (PRC).
Doubles converted to singles. Many owners combine the two halves of a double shotgun into one larger home (PRC).
When you tour, ask which walls and openings are original and which came later. The answer tells you a great deal about how the house has been cared for and what else might be possible.
Do Historic District Rules Apply to Shotguns and Creole Cottages?
Often, yes, because so many of these houses stand in local historic districts. In districts under the HDLC, all exterior repairs, however minor, are subject to review and require a Certificate of Appropriateness, with repainting the main exception. The HDLC has no jurisdiction over interior work, and the level of review depends on whether a district is full control or partial control. The French Quarter is reviewed separately by the Vieux Carré Commission, which must approve exterior work before it begins. The Marigny, Bywater, and Tremé are all local historic districts (Marigny, Bywater, Tremé).
A building’s status within a district also shapes what changes are likely to be approved, which I explain in What a Contributing Structure Means in NOLA Historic Districts. If you are planning an addition, new windows, or a camelback, confirm the rules for the specific address with the HDLC or the Vieux Carré Commission before you commit to a design.
What Should Buyers Check in an Older Raised Wood House?
The same things that matter in any well-built older home, with extra attention to moisture. The HDLC’s maintenance guidelines call moisture the primary agent of decay in a building and point owners toward a short list: wood that sits on or against brick piers, which is more likely to absorb water; the condition of pier mortar; signs of uneven settling, such as sagging or out-of-square doors and windows; gutters, downspouts, and grading that carry water away from the house; the roof; and dirt tunnels near the foundation, steps, and porches that can signal termites. The same guidelines recommend two property reviews a year, before winter and in early spring.
None of this is a reason to pass on an old house. It is a reason to hire a thorough inspector who knows historic construction, and to bring in a structural engineer when the inspection points to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main difference between a shotgun house and a Creole cottage?
A Creole cottage is broad and low, with its long side and a side-gabled or hipped roof facing the street, and a plan two rooms wide and two rooms deep. A shotgun is narrow and deep, one room wide with rooms set one behind the next and a roof that faces the street. Neither has an interior hallway in its original form.
Which is older, the Creole cottage or the shotgun?
The Creole cottage. The HDLC dates Creole cottages from the 1790s to the 1870s and calls them the earliest remaining local housing type in New Orleans. The earliest known shotguns in the city date to at least the 1830s.
Why is it called a shotgun house?
The name comes from an old saying that a shotgun fired through the front door would pass straight out the back. In practice, many shotguns do not have doorways in a perfect line. What they share is the absence of an interior hallway.
What is a camelback shotgun?
A camelback is a single or double shotgun with a second story at the rear, which gives it a hump when seen from the street. The second story began as an addition for more living space and was later built as part of the original house.
What is a double shotgun?
A double shotgun is two shotgun units side by side under one roof, each with its own front door and each one room wide and three to five rooms deep. Many owners have converted doubles into single-family homes.
Where are Creole cottages found in New Orleans?
They are concentrated in the city’s oldest neighborhoods, including the French Quarter, the Faubourg Marigny, Tremé below North Claiborne, and, scattered among shotguns, Bywater.
Can I renovate a shotgun or Creole cottage in a historic district?
Usually, yes, but exterior work in a local historic district requires review. In HDLC districts, exterior repairs generally need a Certificate of Appropriateness, and the French Quarter is under the Vieux Carré Commission. The HDLC does not review interior work, so floor plan changes inside the house are outside its jurisdiction.
Is a shotgun house a good fit for a family?
It depends on how you live. The one-room-after-another plan offers less privacy than a hallway plan, which is why many owners add a side hall, open the rear of the house, build a camelback, or combine a double into a single. Seeing a few renovated examples is the quickest way to know whether the layout works for you.
The Bottom Line
A Creole cottage is the oldest house type standing in New Orleans: broad, low, at the sidewalk, with four openings and no hallway. A shotgun is the long, narrow house that became the city’s most common historic type, built one room wide with rooms in a row, in singles, doubles, and camelbacks. Both live differently from a modern hallway plan, and both are often in historic districts where exterior work is reviewed. Before you tour, learn which type you are looking at, which parts of the plan are original, and which rules apply to the address.
If you are weighing a shotgun or a Creole cottage in the Marigny, Bywater, Tremé, or the French Quarter, I’ll walk through the floor plan, the renovation history, and the district rules with you before you make an offer.
Douglas Adams
Douglas Adams Real Estate with Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty
617 Julia St, New Orleans, LA 70130 | 504-444-8670
Each Office Is Independently Owned and Operated
About the Author
Douglas Adams is a Global Real Estate Advisor with Crescent Sotheby’s International Realty serving Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Through The Douglas Adams Editorial Series, he explores the history, architecture, neighborhoods, and communities that make the Gulf South such a remarkable place to call home. Every article is informed by firsthand experience, original photography, professional research, and a passion for telling the stories that exist beyond the front door.