The Saltbox

I like old houses. I've said it before when I talked about Cape Cod houses and I'll say it again now. I like houses that have been around a couple of centuries. They've been through things, have stories of their own and that tickles my fancy for some reason. That's why one day I got into my head to research early American houses. I found the Cape Cod house and the Saltbox house. Now, I had heard of the Saltbox, but I didn't quite understand what it was. Let's face it, a Saltbox front the front is not exactly distinct from, say, the Cape Cod:

So I decided to find out exactly what made a Saltbox a Saltbox and here's what I found out:
Like the Cape Cod house, it originated in New England in the 17th century. It most likely started out as a simple hall and parlour house, or hall and parlour, plus two bedrooms above, if it was a two storey house. As the family grew, a lean-to was added to the back of the house, lowering the roof line on that side.

 Here's a cross section of a Saltbox:

The name came about because of the resemblance to a salt box with it's slanted lid:

Saltboxes were mostly timber framed houses, metal being expensive back then and wood abundant in the New World, and the exterior was covered with clapboard or shingles.
Inside, it's not that different from a Cape Cod house: there was a hall and a parlour, and at the back, a keeping room and some extra rooms, depending on the needs of the owner. Upstairs there were two bedrooms directly above the hall and parlour, and maybe some extra storage space. There was a large central chimney surrounded by fireplaces in each room, and the staircase was normally in front of the main door. You can see pictures and floor plans of two original Saltboxes here:

• John Howard Payne Memorial, built in 1660: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ny0775/
• Deborah Sampson house, built in the late 1700s: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0887/

And since I've been carrying on about Nantucket all this time, I couldn't miss this opportunity to speak of it a little more. The oldest house on Nantucket, still standing in it's original site, is a Saltbox. The Jethro Coffin house was built in 1686 and it's known as the Oldest House. It has a very distinctive design on the chimney, which earned it the nickname Horseshoe House.

You can see the pictures and floor plans of the house here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0320/
Ok, I'm almost done, just bear with me a little longer. There's two more Saltboxes I would like to show you: one was where John Adams, 2nd president of the United States, was born, and the other is where he lived part of his life and the birthplace of his eldest son, John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the United States. Both houses are just a few feet away from each other.

See the pictures and floor plans here:

• John Adams, built in 1681: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0554/
• John Quincy Adams, built in 1663: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/ma0553/

Just to finish off, here's some pictures of 17th century American interiors, just so you can have an idea of how these houses looked like back then.