Ch X: From Government to Davis - a history

Our shotgun house did not begin its life at 317 N Davis St, that's just where we met and fell in love with it.  Conventional wisdom has it that it was constructed on and occupied a spot on Government Street in Downtown Pensacola in an area known as historic Seville Quarter.  Seville Quarter is widely considered to be the 350+ year old birthplace of Pensacola and the seed from which the city grew.  Of course, our shotgun does not date back to the origins of the city.  We're told that it was built in or around 1908.  Nearly a century later, in the early 2000s, it was removed from Government Street to make way for development there.  Our understanding is that the lady who moved it to its location on Davis St did so solely for the cost of the move.  Its companion at 311 N Davis (just next door) was moved along with it.  It's always felt romantically appropriate that the two neighbors were not separated at the dawn of their second century of life.  

On a practical level, the move to N Davis Street may act as insurance for our shotgun's ongoing longevity.  Government Street is perilously close to Pensacola Bay and has little natural (or unnatural) protection from the notorious tropical storms which rumble north from the Gulf of Mexico.  While the corner of Davis and Wright is only a few blocks further to the north, its new home there affords the shotgun and its longtime neighbor the additional protection of a windbreak in the form of the multi-story, steel and concrete Grand Hotel and somewhat higher ground.  With the two most destructive components of hurricane activity somewhat mitigated, wind and water, it's reasonable to expect at least a second century of life.

In typical fashion, the house was built of locally available materials and using traditionally economical methods and practices.  White and/or yellow "heart pine", cypress were cobbled together for the framing, local stone for the foundation and inexpensive corrugated tin for the roof.  I'm actually quite curious about what windows, if any, were original to the house.  

Glass could be something of a luxury at the time of original construction and some shotguns employed latching shutters in place of the more expensive vitreous option.  As it sits today, our shotgun still has 3 of it's original "wavy glass" 6-over-6 double hung windows.  Likely a result of repeated paintings, none of the 3 is operable.  One pane in the front-facing window has a fine crack running vertically that is only slightly noticeable.  Given the trivial nature of the imperfection (imperfection seems such a haughty word.  Nothing about these homes would qualify as "perfect"), and the practical impossibility of replacing with anything even remotely similar, we've left it as we found it.  (Who knows?  That window pane may have been in the same condition for the better part of a century.)  The remaining 3 window sets in the kitchen and each of the two bedrooms were in very much worse repair than the 3 most visible from the street.  We replaced them with modern, efficient units for two reasons:  the originals were failing and irrecoverable.  Replacing these three, along with adding storm doors on the front and side entries, allowed us to employ cross ventilation and mild, fine weather.  The final consideration about our windows was the influence of the Old East Hill Association, which regulates the appearance of historically significant sttructures within its purview.  Efficient or not, OEHA seldom approves modern replacements for historically correct windows and doors.  And the OEHA's ability to enforce is legendary in Pensacola.

As for the two entry doors, neither is original to the structure.  Both are vintage salvagea and at least one of the two appears to be from the European continent.  Its visible mortise-and-tenon joinery, atypically high lockset and narrow, high-set, Art Deco stained glass are reminiscent of Edwardian England.  A modern replacement knob and deadbolt lockset inhibit using this key piece of evidence to accurately date and place the door.  The 12-light front door also likely has Continental roots, as evidenced by a narrow, high-set lockset and bar handle.  In total, the windows and doors combine to give our shotgun a rather eclectic, farm from average look.

When it was moved, our shotgun received a new roof:  traditional metal but the wildly popular "standing seam" variety rather than the traditional and often shabby-looking corrugated tin.  The new roof treatment suggests tradition but with a refreshed, competent air.  Facing the structure from the street, only the 14' width, semi-defined by the span of the front porch, represents the original building.  At some point in its history, a 99' foot "ell' was added on the right, set back about 12 freet from the front and rationally integrated into the "look" of the home by an extension of the natural roofline on this side.  The ell encompasses a second bedroom, an indoor convenience of shower, toilet and lavatory, and a second covered porch and stair on the home's side.  This addition also served to forever eradicate one of the defining characteristic of the shotgun form:  the door on the rear of the home, opposite the front door, was sealed to form a solid back wall.