Originally most of the housing consisted of shotgun houses. The one-story houses were long and skinny, and used breezes to cool the interiors. Almost all of the shotgun houses had large front porches; the narrative accompanying the 1984 National Register of Historic Places application said that the porches allowed the houses to cool down, and also allowed residents to talk to neighbors and watch children, who only had the streets as a viable place to play. The narrative said "Significantly, the porch is usually the only element of the houses that exhibits any architectural pretension."