When you hear the word "shotgun", your thoughts go immediately to hunting or to a scene from the movie Deliverance. But the term "shotgun" also applies to the shotgun-style house that was a well-designed style for hard-working Americans around the beginning of the 20th century in parts of the U.S.

From New Orleans, up the Mississippi River and across the U.S., shotgun houses sprang up on narrow lots in small towns and large cities alike. The architecture of the working class neighborhoods in the small town of Cairo, Illinois, was based on this form and embellished with a variety of architectural detail corresponding to a range of architectural styles.

As Cairo has suffered economic hardships, her shotgun houses have been neglected and demolished. But as at the turn of the 20th century, the turn of the 21st century sees these houses as the key to providing affordable housing in Cairo. Their restoration is part of a plan to build a better Cairo by 2020.

Travel with Adventures in Preservation and join our hands-on workshop, Saving "Shotguns" - Building A Better Future in Cairo, Illinois, June 13-26, 2010, for an experience in historic preservation and in creating affordable housing.