The dogtrot, also known as a breezeway house, dog-run, or possum-trot, is a style of house that was common throughout the Southeastern United States during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Some theories place its origins in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Some scholars believe the style developed in the post-Revolution frontiers of Kentucky and Tennessee. Others note its presence in the South Carolina Lowcountry from an early period. The main style point was a large breezeway through the center of the house to cool occupants in the hot southern climate.
The Dr. F.W. Buercklin House is a historic house at 104 Main Street in Portia, Arkansas. It is an L-shaped single-story Plain-Traditional frame and log structure whose initial construction is estimated to be 1880. It is believed to be the oldest standing structure in the community and has served variously as a doctor's office, residence, and general store. Its oldest portion is thought to be a four-pen log dogtrot, which has since been augmented by a fifth pen and frame additions. It was home to the Buercklin family for most of the 20th century and is a rare survivor of a 1906 fire that destroyed many buildings in Portia.
The Looney–French House is a historic house at 1325 Deer Run Trail in Dalton, Arkansas. Built c. 1833, this 1+1⁄2-story dogtrot house is one of the oldest standing buildings in Arkansas. Its builder, William Looney, was one of the first white settlers of the area, arriving in 1802. The house has two unequally-sized log pens, with the breezeway between now enclosed. The house is finished with a gable roof and weatherboard siding, and is mounted on a 20th-century concrete foundation. Each pen has a chimney made from stone cut from the nearby banks of the Eleven Point River.
The Maguire-Williams House is a historic house at 19105 Arkansas Highway 74 east of Elkins, Arkansas. It is a 1+1⁄2-story log and frame structure, finished in wooden clapboards, with a side gable roof. The house appears to have been built between about 1838 and 1877, and includes a frame addition to the rear and an open porch extending across the width of its front. The oldest log pen of the structure has been dated by dendrochronology to c. 1838, with a second wood frame pen, in dog trot layout, added c. 1867. It is one of the county's older antebellum buildings.
The George Anderson House is a historic house located in rural central-western Stone County, Arkansas, a few miles west of Big Spring.
The Aday-Stephenson House is a historic house located on the west side of Pine Street in Marshall, Arkansas.
The Bonds House is a historic farmstead complex in rural southwestern Stone County, Arkansas. It is located southwest of Fox, northeast of the junction of county roads 2 and 4. The main house is a single-story dogtrot house, with two pens flanking a breezeway under the gable roof. A shed-roof porch extends across the front facade. The house is finished with horizontal planking under the porch, and weatherboard elsewhere. The breezeway has been enclosed, but the original stairs giving access to the attic space has been retained. The property includes two historic outbuildings, as well as several more modern structures, and a stretch of period road. The house was built about 1900, and is one of Stone County's best-preserved dogtrots. It was built by Joe Moody, who grew up in the area, but was owned for many years by the Bonds family.
The Samuel Brown House is a historic house in West Richwoods, Arkansas. Located down a long lane south of Arkansas Highway 9, it is a single-story log dogtrot house, with its two pens separated by an open breezeway. Its gable roof extends over the front (western) facade to create a porch, supported by chamfered wooden posts. The house is believed to retain its original weatherboard siding. A period smokehouse stands just south of the main house. The house was built in 1848 by Samuel Brown, who moved to Arkansas from North Carolina in 1840, and was progressively refined by him over the following decades as his financial condition improved.
The Joe Brown House and Farmstead is a historic property in rural White County, Arkansas. It is located about one mile south of the end of County Road 529, and about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of the hamlet of Little Red as the crow flies. It is a single-story dogtrot house, with a corrugated metal roof and board-and-batten siding. The front facade has a shed-roof porch extending across part of the front, sheltering two entrances giving access to the two pens and the breezeway. The property includes a well and the remains of a log smokehouse. The house was built about 1890, and is one of White County's few surviving 19th-century dogtrots.
The Henry Copeland House is a historic house on Arkansas Highway 14 in Pleasant Grove, a small community in southeastern Stone County, Arkansas. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, built in a traditional dogtrot form with two pens and a breezeway. Ells extend the house to the rear and off the northern pen. A hip-roof porch extends across the front, supported by turned posts. Built about 1895, the house is a fine local example of period vernacular architecture combining traditional forms with the then-fashionable Victorian styles.
The H.J. Doughtery House is a historic house on the west side of Arkansas Highway 14 in Marcella, Arkansas. Set relatively close to the road, it is a single-story wood frame dogtrot house, with a gable roof and a shed-roofed front porch extending across the east-facing front facade. It is clad in weatherboard and rests on stone piers. A fieldstone chimney rises at the northern end. Built about 1905, this house shows the evolution of the dogtrot, by the regular enclosure of its central breezeway, to something more closely resembling a center-hall plan house.
The Zachariah Ford House is a historic house in rural eastern Stone County, Arkansas. It is located northeast of Pleasant Grove, off County Road 46, on the bluffs overlooking the flood plain of the White River. It is a single-story dogtrot log structure, finished with weatherboard siding and a gable roof that extends over its front porch. It rests on stone piers, and is oriented on a north–south axis. The older of the building's two pens was built about 1856 by Zachariah Ford, and the second pen, breezeway, and roof were built by his son George. The building provides an excellent window into the early evolution of this housing form.
The Owen Martin House is a historic house on Arkansas Highway 14 in Marcella, Arkansas. Situated on a relatively open field west of the highway, it is a single-story wood-frame structure, in a double-pen dogtrot plan, with a side-gable roof and weatherboard siding. A shed-roof porch extends across the east-facing front, supported by square posts, and a cross-gabled ell extends west from the rear of the southern pen. The house was built in about 1920, illustrating the persistence of the traditional form well into the 20th century.
The Gray House was a historic house in rural White County, Arkansas. It was located north of Crosby and northwest of Searcy, near the junction of County Roads 758 and 46. It was a single-story wood-frame dogtrot house, with a gable roof and an integral rear ell. The east-facing front was a hip-roofed porch extending across its width, supported by square posts. The house was built c. 1875, and was one of the least-altered examples of this form in the county.
The Gray-Kincaid House is a historic house in rural White County, Arkansas. It is located about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) southeast of the junction of County Roads 46 and 759, northeast of the small community of Crosby and northwest of Searcy. It is a single-story wood-frame structure, with a side gable roof and board and batten siding. A shed-roof extension extends across the southern facade, while the principal (north-facing) facade has an entry near its center and four sash windows. A stone chimney rises from the eastern end. The house was built as a traditional dogtrot in about 1910, with an attached rear ell, but the latter was destroyed in a storm in the 1940s, and the dogtrot breezeway has been enclosed, transforming the house into center-hall plan structure.
The Gillham House is a historic house in rural Garland County, Arkansas. It is located north of the hamlet of Royal, about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) north of United States Route 270 on the east side of Gillham Road. It is a single story log dogtrot, with a side gable roof and a shed-roof porch across the front. Its original log structure is visible, with its log pens fastened by V-notch and center-notch joints. The house was built about 1866 by Philip Gillham, a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War.
The Samuel D. Byrd Sr. Homestead is a historic farmstead at 15966 United States Route 270, near Poyen, Arkansas. The main house of the farmstead is a single story dogtrot structure, with one log pen built in 1848, and a second pen built out of pine planking in 1850, with a gabled roof covering both pens and the breezeway between. The building has been added to several times, and some of its porches enclosed, to accommodate large families. It was occupied by members of the Byrd family until 2000, and is one of the county's oldest surviving structures.
The William Henry Watson Homestead was a historic house on White County Route 68 in Denmark, Arkansas. It was a single story wood frame dogtrot house, with a side gable roof, weatherboard siding, and a foundation of stone piers. Originally built with a single pen about 1890, it was extended at some period.
The Blessing Homestead is a historic farmstead in rural northeastern Faulkner County, Arkansas. It is located overlooking the west bank of East Fork Cadron Creek, on Happy Valley Road east of County Road 225E, between McGintytown and Centerville. The central feature of the homestead is a dogtrot house, with one pen built of logs and the other of wood framing. The log pen was built about 1872, and typifies the evolutionary growth of these kinds of structures. It is the only remaining structure associated with the early history of Barney, most of which was wiped out by a tornado in 1915.
The Dr. Stephen N. Chism House is a historic house in rural Logan County, Arkansas. It is located north of Booneville, on the east side of Arkansas Highway 23 about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) south of its junction with Arkansas Highway 217. It is a two-story log dogtrot house, with two log pens flanking an open breezeway, with a gable roof for cover. Built about 1844–45, it is believed to be the oldest log building in the county. Log Builder Paul Glidewell completed the complete restoration of the house in late 2013.
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