The shotgun house was popularized in New Orleans, and, as Fred Kniffen documented in a statewide survey of Louisiana house types in the 1930s, the greatest number are found dispersed from there in a manner that supports the diffusion theory [REF].
The earliest known use of "shotgun house" as a name for these dwellings is in a classified advertisement in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 30, 1903: "Two 3-room houses near the railroad yards at Simpson st.