Rocksprings Shotgun Row Historic District

Six small shotgun houses stand side by side along Rocksprings Street in Athens, Georgia, all built around 1925. Each is one story, one room wide and about three rooms deep, with a front-gable metal roof, weatherboard siding, a simple shed porch and original six-over-six windows. Inside, tongue-and-groove boards cover the walls and ceilings, and plain mantels and moldings survive. Small rear or side additions mostly hold bathrooms. The houses were built from inexpensive materials to shelter low-income Black laborers, likely including domestic workers for the grand homes along nearby Milledge Avenue. A 1926 Sanborn map places the row near African-American churches. The row is the only intact cluster of shotgun houses left in an area that has changed dramatically. Only 55 shotgun or double-shotgun buildings turned up among 1,600 surveyed properties in Athens-Clarke County, so the group was listed for its architecture and its link to the city's African-American working-class history.