The Dogtrot House

from Southern Living’s “What is a Dogtrot House?”

As a supplement to yesterday’s little rant about cooling your home, I present to you the Dogtrot House: two cabins with a shared roof connected by a breezeway. Cabin doors open onto the breezeway– or dogtrot. It’s all about air circulation. One cabin served as kitchen and dining area, the other was living and bedrooms. Lots of open windows. Can’t find any information on how they were typically oriented (N-S).

That infallible source has more.

2 Responses

  1. My best friend Patty’s grandmother lived in a dogtrot cabin in Felsenthal AR–just a rock’s throw from Louisiana. When her mom married, she & her husband built a house across the street. The family still owns all the properties and cousins who have moved away have to schedule their visits to stay in the dogtrot cabin–the cousins from Napa Valley especially love staying there and there is no indoor plumbing or electricity!

    I wonder if that led to the bigeminal houses–2 doors on the front, one going to a bedroom and the other into the living room? My dad’s parents lived in a bigeminal house. They had electricity and eventually added an indoor bathroom off the kitchen–which was behind the bedroom. There was a 2nd bedroom behind the living room.

    I look forward to your posts! They brighten my day.

    1. What a sweet thing to say! Thank you so much! I enjoy following your lady of leisure life, as well!

      Never heard the term bigeminal house. But I know what know you’re talking about. we don’t give older generations enough credit for the tremendous amount of problem solving they did. Well– not you & I or SueK but that those other folks!

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