New Orleans House Styles: Shotguns, Creole Cottages, Townhouses & More

A house type describes the building's underlying organization: plan, massing, height, roof direction, attachment and relationship to the street. Style describes a visual language expressed through openings, proportions, trim, columns, brackets, roof details and other features.

The City of New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission separates those categories in its Building Types and Architectural Styles guidance. That distinction explains how two shotguns can share the same narrow linear form while one displays Italianate details and another Arts and Crafts features.

Renovations can blur both layers. A changed facade does not necessarily erase the plan, while decorative additions do not automatically change the type. Begin with the largest physical relationships and use details to refine—not replace—the classification.

A shotgun is fundamentally a long, narrow building with a linear spatial sequence. The core shotgun-house definition explains the form; the floor-plan guide shows how its modules and levels relate.

A single shotgun contains one narrow module. A double shotgun pairs two modules behind a divided facade. A camelback adds a partial upper story toward the rear, while a sidehall shotgun adds an enclosed passage along one side.

The facade may display brackets, transoms, turned posts, patterned openings or Arts and Crafts porch details. Those elements help describe style and date, but they do not prove the current interior plan or legal use. Use the shotgun anatomy glossary to connect each term to a visible location.

A Creole cottage is usually broader relative to its depth, while the basic shotgun is narrow and elongated. The HDLC guidance describes a typical Creole cottage as one to one-and-a-half stories, commonly two rooms wide and two rooms deep, with a hipped or steep side-gabled roof and a more symmetrical street facade.

Roof orientation is a useful first clue: a shotgun's main ridge commonly runs perpendicular to the street, while a Creole cottage's principal ridge commonly runs parallel. Add facade width, room depth and plan evidence before reaching a conclusion, because additions and later alterations can disguise the original relationships.

The shotgun-versus-Creole-cottage comparison provides a focused field test. The broader term “Creole” can describe architecture and style in several contexts, so one detail should not be used as a complete type label.

Both are multi-level urban residential forms, but their circulation and facade organization differ. A Creole townhouse is associated with the older Creole urban building tradition and commonly relates interior/service spaces to a courtyard. An American townhouse generally uses a narrow multi-story plan with a conventional sidehall and stair.

Attachment alone is not enough. Some New Orleans townhouses are detached, and a row of narrow buildings can be misidentified if parcel lines, roof divisions, entrances and plans are ignored. The shotgun-versus-row-house guide explains why a similar narrow street rhythm does not make the forms equivalent.

For French Quarter properties, use the Vieux Carré Commission's current building-type handouts and project records. Elsewhere, HDLC guidance, district nominations, Sanborn maps, permits and measured plans can help resolve an individual building.

A center-hall or raised cottage has a broad plan organized by a central passage with rooms on both sides. Its front gallery and elevated principal floor can resemble features seen on other Louisiana buildings, so the central hall, building width and roof orientation matter more than elevation alone.

A bungalow is generally broader and more horizontally composed than a single shotgun. New Orleans examples frequently display Arts and Crafts characteristics such as deep roof overhangs, exposed rafter tails, robust porch supports and patterned window or door glazing. The City's guidance also documents Arts and Crafts details applied to shotgun houses, which is why style cannot substitute for plan.

Use the Cajun shotgun terminology guide when a broad Louisiana label is being used instead of a physical type. Acadian, Creole, shotgun and bungalow traditions can coexist in the same regional conversation without becoming interchangeable names.

Yes. A building can retain an older type while acquiring later doors, windows, porch work, trim or an addition. The City specifically documents period styles separately from building types, and the Victorian shotgun guide shows how Italianate and Eastlake details can appear on the shotgun form.

Describe what the evidence supports: underlying type, observed features and likely alteration layers. Avoid compressing those into one confident construction date or origin story unless records and physical evidence agree. Painted color alone is especially weak evidence because finishes change repeatedly.

Treat the facade as the first observation, not the final answer. Walk the building's perimeter where access allows, identify the roof and additions, then compare the plan, parcel and municipal record. A converted double, enclosed gallery or rear addition can preserve traces that explain an otherwise confusing facade.

The shotgun-house identifier quiz is a structured starting point for the shotgun family. The neighborhood research hub adds district-specific documentation, while City and State survey resources provide the authoritative terminology used for recorded properties.