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# Back to the future for shotgun house
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/back-to-the-future-for-shotgun-house/
- Published: 2007-06-28T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T01:26:34.000Z
- Author: Melody Hanatani
- Tags: Community, Main St, #archive-import

Efforts to preserve the only intact shotgun house in Santa Monica began in the late 1990s, when it was designated as a landmark.

Originally located at 2712 Second St., the modest house has been moved around the city several times, including at the Santa Monica Airport and the old Fisher Lumberyard.

Preservationists, including the Friends of the Shotgun House, were able to locate a permanent location at a vacant parking lot next to the Ocean Park Library off Main Street.

The city will be looking for a non-profit organization to fund the relocation and rehabilitation of the house, estimated to cost a total of $84,000\. City staff hopes to lease the shotgun house to a non-profit organization that will be able to adaptively reuse the structure in a way that would build on its historic nature and open it up to the public.

Measuring just 12 feet by 36 feet, the shotgun houses were common in Ocean Park in the late 1800s.

Many of the shotgun houses — so-called because the doorways line up so if a person shot a gun from the entrance, a bullet would travel through all the rooms — were prefabricated and shipped to the city through railroad and assembled on site.

At least one resident questioned the relocation of the shotgun house to his neighborhood, saying it would impact parking in an area already hurting in available spaces.

The majority of speakers, however, seemed pleased.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 28, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062807.pdf?ref=smdp.com)