Save Our Shotguns Apalachicola is a non-profit 501(c)(3) working to preserve the historic structures of Apalachicola for the purpose of affordable housing. We are an all-volunteer organization dedicated to our mission to preserve historic structures, to create low and moderate income housing, and to provide training and jobs for local residents.
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save our shotguns update - september 2018
Work is currently underway on a new shotgun-style house. The house, whose dimensions were taken from a historic shotgun, currently under reconstruction on the corner of Avenue M and 7th Street, features two bedrooms, a front porch, and iconic characteristics such as rooms one behind the other, long front
windows, some gingerbread trim and decorative columns. Glen Coxwell of Construct Group
S. E., Inc is the contractor.
Save Our Shotguns Apalachicola Inc. (SOS) is a 501(c)3 all-volunteer, non-profit organization
dedicated to historic preservation and reproduction. Our mission is to create affordable energy-
efficient housing for current low-to moderate-income (U.S. Department of Agriculture guidelines)
residents of Franklin County and to provide apprenticeship opportunities for local residents.
Throughout the 2017 and 2018 PEARLS celebrations of the cultural significance of shotgun houses, the community generously provided SOS with funds and a line of credit which will enable completion of this first project.
Many of the shotgun houses on the Hill are beyond salvation, and most of those that could be
saved are not available for acquisition due to not being on the market, title problems or being
too expensive to result in affordable housing. For example, at this time, there are four available
shotguns standing in a row on 8th Street on the Hill, however they are non-compliant with the
plat in that - due to a lack of a few feet - they are not divisible into four compliant lots without
code changes. Without such changes, these four houses cannot be sold individually. The
necessary change is an historic overlay which would apply only to a few situations on the Hill
and only in cases where two or more pre-1950 houses stand on one 60’x100’ lot or on a slightly less-
than-60’x100’ lot. This change will not increase density. Shotgun houses were Apalachicola’s original affordable housing and the cultural backbone of the Hill. Our intent is to renew or reproduce these structures. The 8th Street four-house restoration could serve as a test case. If successful, it could be the key to
enabling more restoration on the Hill. Assigning this year’s community block grant funding to
securing these four houses would guarantee preservation of an important piece of the
workforce housing culture.
SOS is concerned with the attrition rate of historic homes on the Hill, and our current
reproduction project is intended to help stem the tide of this loss. Just recently the City has lost
three historic homes to demolition in the 8th street neighborhood (Block 165, Lots 7 and 10),
and two fine examples of shotguns on Avenue M (Block 175, Lot 6) are slated for destruction.
Without an intervention by the City Commission in the form of a simple overlay, the four 8th
Street shotguns will meet a similar fate.
SOS continues to seek tax-deductible gifts of land or antique houses within the historic district,
money or lines of credit to further the mission.
