Dogtrot Houses

 If you were building a log cabin 150 years ago, one of your biggest challenges would be making two adjacent rooms. It would mean walls having to intersect and join three ways, an extra construction complication. A solution was to not make the walls adjacent, but separate the two rooms by an open-ended covered and floored walkway. As a bonus, this large walkway can be a ‘room’ that’s cooled by cross-breezes, a good place to rest, eat, or shell peas. Your farm animals and dogs would want some of that cool shade, too. They could run from one end of the house to the other, giving this design the name “dogtrot,” a.k.a. breezeway house, dog-run, or possum-trot and making it a style of house that was common throughout the Southeastern United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The dogtrot form allowed windows to exist on all sides of a room and could isolate the kitchen area from the living side of the house, also helping to keep things cool. In fact, though air conditioning has made this style not as necessary, its features still make it desirable for the “indoor-outdoor” living style popular today. Dogtrot plans are having somewhat of a comeback in Southern architectural trends and can be seen in such present-day lifestyle media as Southern Living. 

There are some dogtrot houses in the Shreveport-Bossier area that the public can visit or view. The Durden House at Bayou Bodcau near Haughton is an example of a dogtrot log cabin. The Durden family built the house in 1925. It replaced a cabin (destroyed by fire) that in 1843 was the site of the first meeting of the Bossier Parish Police Jury. The house is now used for environmental education. The Durden house can be located by traveling east on I-20 from Bossier City, Louisiana to Exit 33 (Fillmore/Haughton Exit) and then traveling north on Highway 157 approximately 10 miles to the community of Bellevue.  Turn right onto the Bodcau Dam Road, travel approximately 3.5 miles and exit to the left side of the dam.  Turn left at the stop sign and the house is located at the end of the paved road.

The Heath log cabin is another dogtrot log cabin. Its original location was rural Rocky Mount in North Bossier Parish. Now it’s in Benton at the Heritage Village of Benton site, next to the school board building and is preserved and managed by the Bossier Restoration Foundation. BRF volunteers give tours by appointment and on special occasions at the square. The Hughes House was also moved to the Heritage Square in Benton and managed by the BRF. It is a more ‘refined’ example of a dogtrot and once housed a doctor’s office and home. For information on tours of the Heritage Village please call 318-716-1504. Or if you’re not local or can’t make it in person, you can watch the History Center’s virtual tour of the village by going to YouTube.com, and searching for “Bossier Parish Libraries.” Then go to the “Bossier Virtual History Tours” playlist. 

The Pioneer Heritage Center on the campus of LSU-Shreveport has the Thrasher House, a classic example of the true Upland South plantation home a log dogtrot. Built by Mr. Thomas Zilks in 1850, the Thrasher House was donated to the PHC by Aubrey Thrasher and moved from its original site near Castor, Louisiana in 1981. The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can visit there via appointment or a great time to visit would be Pioneer Day on Saturday Oct. 22, 10 am -2 pm. Come say hi to us at the History Center table. We’ll be set up inside the center’s Webb Commissary store with our replica Caddo Indian tools. To schedule a tour of the Pioneer Heritage Center or to get more information, call 318-797-5339 or email pioneer@lsus.edu. 

The weather is nice, so it’s worth a scenic drive to visit any of these cabins. Or visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center in-person or online for photos of Bossier dogtrots and local architecture books. You may also request worksheets and activities on dogtrots for kids who are interested in old buildings. 

Photo:
Image 1:  View inside breezeway of Heath Cabin in its original location in Rocky Mount, Bossier Parish.
Image 2:  Heath Cabin, showing mud chimney, in its original location in Rocky Mount, Bossier Parish.
Image 3: the Hughes House in its original location in Rocky Mount, Bossier Parish.

Article by: Pam Carlisle

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