Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 - (Page 62)

Dogtrot houses Pioneer cabins with a central breezeway proved practical for North Louisiana Only about a dozen remain of the many dogtrot houses that once dotted Louisiana’s northern and western parishes during the 19th century. So it is especially fortunate that two exceptional examples can be found within a mile of each other near Dubach in Lincoln Parish. A dogtrot house is composed of two enclosed units separated by a passage, usually about eight feet in width that is open at front and back — the so-called dogtrot. Sometimes a dogtrot house is called a “two pens and a passage” house, the pens being the enclosed units. It is likely there are houses today that were chimneys is constructed of irregularly-sized pieces of local ironstone and the other of brick. It is thought that the brick chimney was added later or is a replacement, since bricks were not readily available in this area when the house was built. Wood shingles originally covered the roof but the house now has a metal roof. A gallery shades the front of the house; the rear gallery was enclosed at a later time with board and batten siding to create on additional room for each pen, making a total of four rooms. A ladder on the back gallery that gave access to the sleeping loft was later replaced by stairs. The Autrey house’s interior is less rustic in appearance than the exterior for its walls are sheathed with horizontal boards. This helped seal the spaces between the logs to prevent drafts. According to research by Dr. Susan Roach, Regional Folklorist at Louisiana Tech in Ruston, it is likely that all the rooms were used for sleeping at first and that there was a separate kitchen. But the dogtrot soon served a variety of uses. As well as being a home for the Autreys and their 15 children, the house accommodated guests, boarded teachers for the nearby Autrey school, and The Absalom Autrey House Museum, circa 1849, is located at the served as a meeting place for intersection of Highways 151 and 152, just outside of Dubach. the local Baptist congregation until a church was built. built as dogtrots but were transformed when their open passage Measuring 46 feet in width, the house is very small and dark for was enclosed at a later time. today’s standards, yet Autrey’s house was considered quite fine in A dogtrot house is usually one or one-and-a-half stories in its time. height with chimneys on the exterior end walls of each unit or Dogtrots are particular to what is known as Upland South pen. A gallery extends across the front of the house and culture, the small farmers of German and Scots-Irish heritage who sometimes there is a rear gallery. The entire house is sheltered by immigrated to Pennsylvania. From the late 18th century, they a single gable roof. Doors from the units or pens open onto the migrated south and west into the Appalachians and to Louisiana, passage and sometimes onto the gallery. In the mid- to late-19th taking their building practices with them. In Louisiana, they settled century when most dogtrots were built, window glass rarely was in the densely forested northern and western parishes and in the available and the openings were covered by plain wooden Florida parishes north of Lake Pontchartrain. And they built in shutters. wood, often from logs. As with dogtrots, only a few log buildings The Absalom Autrey house just west of Dubach is a classic remain in the state, which makes the Autrey house especially example of a dogtrot. It was built in 1849 after Autrey and his precious. wife Elizabeth arrived by wagon train from Selma, Alabama. The By the 1880s when the Thomas Y. Colvin house was built, house is formed from hand-hewn, half-round logs that are joined milled lumber was available. In the summer of 2006, the house at the corners with square notches. The outer end walls have was moved approximately seven miles to a site just one mile from small windows covered with wooden shutters. One of the exterior the Autrey house. It is being restored with an expected SUSAN ROACH, LOUISIANA REGIONAL FOLKLIFE PROGRAM 62 LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES\Fall 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities New Orleans Immortelle The Historic New Orleans Collection Highland-Fairfield: The Historic Heart of Shreveport The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Perils of the Mississippi River Louisiana Foodways Harvest of Life King Oliver: The Forgotten King of Jazz Louisiana Architecture Jazz Notes Louisiana State Museum Eye of the Storm Louisiana Association of Museums Soul Resin Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Fall 2008

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