Saltbox

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A classic saltbox, located in Lincoln, Massachusetts
A classic saltbox, located in Lincoln, Massachusetts

A saltbox is a wooden frame house with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back. A saltbox has just one story in the back and two stories in the front. The flat front and central chimney are recognizable features, but the asymmetry of the unequal sides and the long, low rear roof line are the most distinctive features of a saltbox, which takes its name from its resemblance to a wooden lidded box in which salt was once kept.

C: 1805 saltbox built by Truman Gillet (b. 1783). Now the Truman Gillet House Bed and Breakfast in Granby, Connecticut.
C: 1805 saltbox built by Truman Gillet (b. 1783). Now the Truman Gillet House Bed and Breakfast in Granby, Connecticut.

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[edit] Origins

The Comfort Starr House, Guilford, New Haven County, Connecticut
The Comfort Starr House, Guilford, New Haven County, Connecticut

The saltbox originated in New England, and is an example of American colonial architecture. It was popularized by Queen Anne's taxation of structures greater than one story. Since the rear of saltboxes descended to the height of a single-story building, the structure was exempt from the tax.[1][2]

The style was popular for structures throughout the colonial period and into the early Republic, perhaps because of the simplicity of its design. The earliest saltbox-like houses were created when a lean-to addition was added onto the rear of the house. Old weathered clapboards are still in place on parts of the original rear walls of the earliest New England homes. The hand-riven oak clapboards on the Ephraim Hawley House are preserved in place in the attic created when the lean-to was added. The oak clapboards still bear traces of the original red paint.

[edit] Construction

End elevation of a saltbox house, illustrating the distinctive roof line
End elevation of a saltbox house, illustrating the distinctive roof line

Saltboxes, along with many other types of colonial houses, can be considered to be timber-frame houses. Timber framing, or post-and-beam construction, involves joining large pieces of wood with woodworking joints, such as mortise-and-tenon joints, or with wooden pegs, braces, or trusses. Metal nails were sparingly used, because of their expense. Timber frame construction was the construction method for all frame houses in 17th- and 18th-century America, where the abundance of wood made the timber frame house popular. The exterior of a saltbox was often finished with clapboard or other wooden siding.

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