As a multiple resource listing, the Shotgun House Multiple Property Listing incorporates two property types: the Urban Shotgun Row District, a grouping of three or more shotgun buildings, and the Urban Single Shotgun, an individual building occurring outside of a shotgun district. Within the corporate limits of Athens-Clarke County, 45 shotguns and 10 double shotguns have been identified and surveyed.

The shotgun house form is distinguished by its floor plan, which is one room wide and two or more rooms deep (commonly three) with no hallway. Typically, doors are placed asymmetrically and line up front to back. Although the roof is predominantly front-gabled, hipped roofs are also common. The double shotgun house form is a duplex, formed by two adjacent shotgun houses with no openings in the shared party wall. Usually, a single roof covers both sections, and doorways are located on either end of the facade. Full front porches with shed or hipped roofs are common as are partial porches located beneath the main roof. Additions to the rear, particularly shed additions, are common as well. The structural system is often balloon frame with a brick pier foundation. Common building materials include wood siding and asphalt or metal roofing material. The majority are vernacular with little or no ornamentation, usually limited to the facade. Common decorative elements include Victorian spindlework or bargeboard and decorative balustrades. Built as inexpensive housing, these buildings feature cheap building materials and occupy narrow, rectangular lots with a little frontage. Such an alignment results in a row of dwellings with minimum building separation and creates a definite streetscape rhythm.

Predominantly an urban resource, the shotgun house form was built mainly for low-income workers between the 1870s and the 1920s. Theoretically, the American shotgun house form arrived via Haitian immigrants to New Orleans, where the building type first achieved popularity and developed variations such as the camel-back and side gallery versions. Prevalent throughout Georgia, the shotgun house appeared in large cities as well as small and medium-sized towns, while the double shotgun house form was limited primarily to large cities. In Athens-Clarke County these building types were associated with both the African American and white working class, particularly mill workers and domestic laborers. Inexpensive construction and economical layout minimized building costs and afforded dense development. For these reasons, shotguns were often constructed near mills or warehouses or within an African American neighborhood.

The Shotgun House Multiple Property Listing has been reviewed and forwarded by Georgia's National Register Review Board and is pending listing in the National Register of Historic Places.