The History of the Saltbox House, a Timeless Style of New England Architecture

Whether you're escaping the city for a summer road trip through quiet New England towns or roaming picturesque streets dotted with Colonial-era houses as you gaze at fall foliage, a trip to the Northeast United States guarantees exposure to some of the country's finest architecture. One great example: the saltbox house.

These houses, known for their flat front, centered chimney, and asymmetrical, sloping roof, reflect a very traditional aesthetic. But modernists and traditionalists alike also appreciate the style, both for its historical heritage and its sleek, angular lines.

What Is a Saltbox House?

Originally named for the wooden salt boxes common in the Colonial era, which had a sloped front lid, saltbox houses are typically built from wood. They are easily spotted by their distinctive long, slanted roof, which drops from two stories in the front of the building to a single story in the rear.

The History of Saltbox Houses

The style was first formed by homeowners who wanted to add on to their existing homes. Many homes were originally built with a central chimney that divided the kitchen from the parlor on the first floor (bedrooms were built on the second floor). When dwellers were ready for more space, they would move the kitchen into a lean-to addition on the rear of the house and extend the roofline down over the new room.

The sloping, extended roof helped snow melt and slide to the ground more efficiently in the harsher New England winters. It's also said that the tax on two-story homes levied by Queen Anne in the late 1600s and early 1700s helped popularize the style, as the single-story rear section rendered the architectural design exempt from extra fees. "This tax gave rise to an architecture graceful and inviting, with long curving roofs sloping evenly from each side of the ridge-pole to the upper line of the first story, thus giving but one story that would count, while the roof covered two or three more," Jane de Forest Shelton wrote in her book The Salt-Box House: Eighteenth Century Life in a New England Hill Town.

Protected and Preserved Saltbox Houses

The Smith-Hoxie House in Sandwich, Mass., is just one of the country's remaining Colonial saltbox homes. As a means of preserving the history of the style, several well-cared for examples of saltbox houses are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Library of Congress contains prints and photographs for dozens of saltbox houses throughout New England, including:

• The Rebecca Nurse Homestead, "a 17th century site associated with the Salem Village Witchcraft Hysteria of 1692," in Massachusetts
• The birthplaces of John Adams and John Quincy Adams, which are 75 feet apart in Quincy, Mass.
• The Deacon John Grave House in Connecticut, where nine generations of the Grave family lived consecutively from 1685 until 1978
• The "well-preserved" Old Parsonage in Newington, N.H., which retains its just-built look from 1725
• Maine's Jefferds Tavern, built in 1750 and relocated to York in 1941 to serve as a museum and events venue
  
  

The Enduring Popularity of the Saltbox House

Today, saltbox homes have stretched far beyond their New England roots. A favorite of professional designers, saltbox houses offer versatility in their straightforward layout and linear look. "The geometry of the house is so clean and simple," says interior designer Kelly Siekierka. "Anyone looking at this style of home should try to honor the history foremost, but also make as much use of the light-filled rooms as possible, thanks to the large windows around the exteriors."

The interior architecture of the house also reflects the surrounding natural elements by incorporating post-and-beam construction and wooden trusses. With the homes often set among the trees and nature, designing one today would require considering the natural elements in any plan.

Modernizing a Saltbox House

Despite the fact that the style dates all the way back to the 1600s, saltbox architecture still feels fresh and modern—especially in the right surroundings. "I have always loved the perfect imbalance of a saltbox house. The function of the two-story front and deeply-sloped back roof inspires all kinds of landscaping opportunities," says designer Alison Rose. "Playing with scale, and the trees and things that surround the home are all such integral parts of any design of one, inside and out."