Architecture has come a long way in the American South since the early 1800s, but one frontier-era style home has experienced a renaissance in Tennessee over the past few years. If you’ve ever seen a traditional “dogtrot house,” you’ll know it features two separate cabins connected by an open-air breezeway in the middle, all covered under one roof. This pioneer-era home was popular in the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky throughout the 19th century, long before air conditioning revolutionized indoor living.
“You’d have right side and left side cabins married with a breezeway, and historically one side was used for living and one side was for sleeping,” explains Rick Hutchinson, a commercial architectural designer who lives in Jamestown. “The family dog was always most aware of what was happening and would often sleep out in the breezeway because it was cooler in the summertime. That’s how it got the dogtrot name.”
Cabin Comeback
In hot Southern climates, dogtrot homes helped maximize natural airflow with cross breezes passing through the center to cool interior rooms and isolate hotter cooking spaces from the rest of the house. In Fentress County, Hutchinson has been building modern versions of the dogtrot house since 2020, and homebuyers can’t get enough. All 10 of the dogtrot-style homes he has built so far have already sold, and he broke ground on two new homes in February.
“They practically sell out from underneath me,” Hutchinson says. “I’ve even had to live in a motel temporarily because they sell so quickly.”
Hutchinson moved to Jamestown from Smyrna in 2018, wanting to trade the hustle and bustle of city life for the quiet countryside on the western edge of the Cumberland Plateau. At the time, he had been working on large hotels and buildings in Nashville, logging 60-plus hours per week at his day job…