A trio of 18th-century homes in the classic New England style Welcome back to Period Dramas, a weekly column that alternates between rounding up historic homes on the market and answering questions we?ve always had about older structures.
Editor's Note: This post was originally published in October 2016 and has been updated with the most recent information.
Saltbox colonials, built mainly from the mid-17th into the late 18th centuries, generally feature the same basic shape: They have a flat, two-story facade, a center chimney, and a steeply sloping roof that cuts the elevation from two stories to a single story in the back.
The saltbox has architectural roots in the United Kingdom?unsurprising since the first examples were built in New England around the time England colonized the northeast. The shape of the house is directly related to post-medieval English architecture of the 17th century, which depends upon a large central chimney to divide the footprint of the house into rooms. And its salty name" That may have come from how the shape of the houses resemble antique salt storage boxes.
The saltbox?s characteristic sloping roof has a debatable origin. It may have been a clever design to avoid a tax that Queen Anne imposed on houses that were greater than a single story. The shorter facade supposedly rendered the house tax exempt.
Whether or not any taxes were avoided, the shape of the roof was practical, creating good places for food storage and kitchen space...