Saltbox

Thomas Lee House, East Lyme, Connecticut

A saltbox house is a building with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back, generally a wooden frame house. 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.

Origins

c. 1755 Thomas Hawley House Monroe, Connecticut

The saltbox originated in New England, and is an example of American colonial architecture. Folklore holds that the saltbox form was popularized by Queen Anne's taxation of houses greater than one story. Since the rear of the roof descended to the height of a single-story building, the structure was exempt from the tax.^[1] Actually, the saltbox shape evolved organically from the need for additional space for growing families; adding a lean-to was an economical way to enlarge the house. All but two of the examples below predate Queen Anne.

c. 1672 Nehemiah Royce House Wallingford, Connecticut

The earliest saltbox houses were created when a lean-to addition was added onto the rear of the original house extending the roof line sometimes to less than six feet from ground level. Old weathered clapboards are still in place on parts of the original rear exterior walls of some of the earliest New England saltbox houses (see images). The hand-riven oak clapboards on both the Comfort Starr House and Ephraim Hawley House are preserved in place in the attic that was created when the lean-to was added onto the original house. The style was popular for structures throughout the colonial period and into the early Republic, perhaps because of the simplicity of its design.

Ephraim Hawley House, Nichols, Connecticut catslide rear roof

Ephraim Hawley House, Nichols, Connecticut original oak clapboards in leanto attic

Alternatively, Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America by David Hackett Fischer traces American Saltbox to East England areas of Kent & East Anglia from the early 1600s.^[2]

Saltbox homes can also be found in parts of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Construction

Catslide roof Thomas Hawley House

Most early saltboxes, as with many other types of New England colonial houses, are timber-frame. 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. The exterior of a saltbox was often finished with clapboard or other wooden siding. The Josiah Day House in West Springfield, Massachusetts is constructed of brick.^[3]

Images

c. 1643 Edmund Rice homestead in Sudbury (now Wayland, Massachusetts), destroyed by fire ca1912
c. 1645 Comfort Starr House, Guilford, Connecticut
Side elevation of c. 1645 Comfort Starr House illustrating the distinctive roof line
c. 1651 Macy-Colby House, Amesbury, Massachusetts
c. 1681 John Adams Birthplace, Quincy, Massachusetts
c. 1670-1690 Ephraim Hawley House, Nichols, Connecticut
c. 1745 Brick Josiah Day House West Springfield, Massachusetts
c. 1838, Sturgeon House, Fairview, Pennsylvania

References

↑ New York Times (1900-12-22). "The Salt-Box House.; Books of the Season.". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
↑ Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, David Hackett Fischer
↑ Joshua Day House Museum website retrieved on 2009-07-19 West-springfield.ma.us

External links

Architecture of the United States

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Mid-19th century	Greek Revival Italianate Gothic Revival

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Vernacular	Hall and parlor house Central-passage house Log cabin Cape Cod Saltbox Creole cottage Dogtrot house I-house Shotgun house Sod house Carpenter Gothic First Period

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