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Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Image W.W. Owens
Image Classic Colonial Homes
Image W.W. Owens
Image Connor Homes
Image W. W. Owens
Image Classic Colonial Homes
Image W. W. Owens
Image Classic Colonial Homes
Image W. W. Owens
Image Classic Colonial Homes
Image Classic Colonial Homes
Image Classic Colonial HomesFrom the very moment I saw them on my first trip to the U.S. East Coast 20 yrs. ago, I fell hopelessly in love with the classic Saltbox houses. Many years & countless more trips have not dulled the feeling - I'm truly smitten!
Named because they resembled the shape of the wooden, wall-hung boxes used to store salt in Colonial times, they really are the most memorable & easily recognizable of the New England central-chimney houses. Their traditional design is of a two-storey front and a long roofline sloping down to one-storey at the rear. The original plan of two rooms up, two rooms down later was enlarged to combine a long rear lean-to housing a larger kitchen. Their practical design served a number of purposes - they were easy to build, their steeply pitched roof-line shed the snow load well & the longer rear roof slope deflected the icy winter winds.
An interesting aside to the evolution of this style was that at the time in England the unpopular (and short reigning) Queen Anne needed to desperately raise taxes to fund all the Wars she unwisely became involved with. Thinking the middle-upper classes of her Colony of America would be good targets, she applied taxes to houses of two stories or more. The Colonial builders of the Saltbox houses cleverly managed to fit 2 and 3 stories under the roofline, yet qualified as tax exempt as the roof came down to meet as a one storey wall facing the street.
I've included photos of both original and reproduction Saltboxes, each very beautiful in their own right. I know it's a luxurious indulgence - without eaves or verandahs, the traditional Saltbox would not be a practical choice for our harsh Australian summer weather, but it's lovely to dream anyway!
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