Most Southerners, born and raised in a rural environment, can identify with the terminology associated with a dog trot house when it is referred to as a traditional home design. However, if asked to point out examples of that vernacular architectural design they would be hard pressed to locate one. There may be two primary reasons for the inability to point out the design, although it is relatively widely known. For one, the design has succumbed to the architectural trends of the twentieth century and is no longer purposely built. Secondly, those that remain often times have been reengineered to look like the central hallway type house that predominates the last 100 years. As a result, the namesake of the home, the “dogtrot”, is effectively hidden and ceases to perform its utilitarian function of keeping the home cool in the summer. As a result of these changes the dogtrot has become one of the scarcest vernacular architectural types in the south.

Based on the belief of some historians it is surmised that the dogtrot style of home was introduced in the mid to late 17th century in what is now the United States and spread westward with the settlers as they moved to carve out more back-country farms. Because of its ease of construction, adaptability, and capacity for additions the dogtrot became the most popular design of log homes for these early pioneers. As the waterways and inland areas of Baldwin County saw the arrival of settlers in the19th and 20th centuries, the dogtrot became a staple of home design.

The basic design of the dogtrot is the same throughout the south but with variations based on the materials available for the build and the needs of the builder. The traditional home was usually characterized by the construction of two log, or later frame, houses or pens built close enough together to share a common roof. The two modules shared a central hallway that was left open on either side. The two modules, referred to as pens, were accessed by doorways that opened into the hallway directly across from one another, in most cases. According to Robert M. Ford whose work focuses on the history and evolution of dogtrot home in Mississippi, the dogtrot developed over time beginning as a single room cabin and expanded as more space was needed. Other historians have argued that the dogtrot was completed as two separate pens, built at the same time. Most likely, both theories are true. The adaptability and flexibility of the simple building plan are, after all, it’s most attractive trait for the rural, self-sufficient individual that characterized the settler along the American frontier.

The dogtrot design, while very utilitarian in design, has become romanticized over time, according to historian Sheldon Ben Owens who has studied the development of that architectural style in Georgia. As with anything history, the facts can become inundated with what we hope a previous era was like. So too is true for the development of the dogtrot home. Even the name has developed to reflect what we think and not what the originators of the design had in mind. The homes were known to those that lived in them, at least in the years prior to the twentieth century as an “open-passage house”, a “double-pen”, or numerous other names garnered for local use.

Over time the very materials used to complete the structure changed. Initially logs were used as the trees in any area were the most easily found and workable resources. As technology advanced with the frontier and milled lumber and cut nails became available builders substituted materials. Many dogtrot designs boasted porches on either side which aided with use of the home allowing windows to remain open during summer rains and for inhabitants to sleep in warmer months.

Ever a constant battle to keep out inclement weather, the roofs of the dogtrot underwent similar changes to the infrastructure. Over time loose board with ridgepole and perlin roofs gave way to an array of sheet metal and asphalt shingles. And as the family grew so did the structure. A common addendum to space was to build a room on to one of the original pens creating an L-shaped addition. It was also common to add a separate kitchen to the back of the dogtrot sometimes connecting the two structures with a covered walkway. This “separate” addition served the purpose of removing the cooking heat from the already steamy structure and avoiding the potential for a fire that could take out the entire home.

Lastly, the utilitarian nature of the dogtrot allowed for a cool breeze to flow continuously through the home as a means of making it more bearable in the hot summer months of the American south. As a matter of fact, a 1986 study by the Mississippi State University School of Architecture confirmed the cooling capacity of the simple dogtrot. The study maintained that the “geometric disposition and orientation of the dogtrot house” is very successful in creating passive ventilation. Furthermore the study recommended the dogtrot style of architecture to those seeking to create living space with built in energy efficiency components, what we have come to call “green” in the 21st century.