The Seven Sisters stand shoulder to shoulder on Coliseum Street like a chorus line of architectural rebels. These eight shotgun houses – yes, eight, despite the name – thumb their modest noses at the Garden District's mansion-dominated streetscape. Built in 1867 by architect Henry Howard, they represent the neighborhood's only examples of this quintessentially New Orleans housing style, where you could theoretically fire a bullet straight through from front door to back.

The romantic tale of a devoted father building identical homes for his seven daughters makes for charming folklore. But the truth is more mundane: speculative builder John Hall commissioned the row as a commercial venture. Each narrow house originally mirrored its neighbors, but decades of individual renovations have given them distinct personalities while maintaining their unified stance.

VoiceMap's Garden District walking tours use the Seven Sisters to debunk one of New Orleans' most persistent architectural myths while revealing how shotgun houses, possibly rooted in Afro-Creole building traditions, became the city's signature residential style.