The birthplace and boyhood home of John Adams, second president of the United States, was a saltbox built in 1650, and modified in 1720. The shed addition of the two-story home covers half of the north (rear wall). The home, initially one room deep, features a center chimney. The house is part of a National Historic Park located in Quincy, Massachusetts.
More a building shape than a building style, the saltbox takes its name from a sloping gable roof that gives the house the shape of a wooden box used to store salt in Colonial times, like the reproduction of a 1770s saltbox by Replitiques.
The saltbox house is formed by a one-story addition across the rear of a 1-1/2 or 2-story building. Initially an easy method of enlarging a house, it eventually became an accepted building form, particularly in New England after 1680. The style was common in New England before 1830, and it remained popular in other parts of the country until the late 1800s.
A variation of early Colonial or Cape Cod style houses, the practical and simple saltbox was often a single room deep. Given that often a dozen or more people crowded into these early homes, colonists soon began looking for practical ways to expand living space.
The prominent center chimney or a pair of end chimneys also define this style. Materials were simple and functional inside and out. A center entrance with a transom above and 4/4 or 6/6 double-hung windows are common features.
The house above clearly shows a break in the roof line, indicating that this saltbox was formed by adding a shed to an earlier house. Architectural experts caution that the lack of the break in the roof line does not necessarily mean that the saltbox shed was part of the original house.
A house with a low roof line would not have the height for a useable ceiling in a rear addition. Similarly, the slope of the roof of a two-story house might not be flat enough to cover a large, one-story addition. Thus it became common practice to change the roof line where the shed meets the main house to provide adequate ceiling space in the rear rooms.
In most saltboxes, the rear lean-to addition was divided into three rooms: A central kitchen with fireplace and oven, a room reserved for childbirth and nursing the ill, and a pantry.
Another Adams saltbox, this one the birthplace of John Adam's son, John Quincy Adams. Also part of the National Historic Park, the house is 75 yards from the "old house." This two-story saltbox features painted clapboard siding, 12 over 12 sash windows, a stone foundation and a wood shingle roof. The lean-to chimney is clearly visible directly behind the house's center chimney. One of the best surviving examples of a New England saltbox, the house has been restored to its 17th century appearance.
The insides of houses of this period were simple and practical, as well. The house below, in Saugus, Massachusetts, has been furnished as it would have been from 1600 to 1700. This room depicts a bedchamber, definitely a luxury in Colonial New England. More often, rooms had to serve multiple purposes. Note the low, beamed ceiling and tiny panes of leaded glass in the windows.
-- National Park Service, Department of Historic Furnishings
