Saltbox Architecture

A saltbox house is a gable roofed dwelling that is typically two stories at the front and one story at the rear, taking its name from its resemblance to a slant topped wooden box once used to store salt. Its most distinctive features are its unequal roof sides, a long, low rear roofline, a flat front and a central chimney. The style became popular in the New England colonies during the seventeenth century, though it most likely originated in the Kent and East Anglia regions of England, and its asymmetric form developed as an economical way of enlarging a house by adding a lean-to shed at the rear. It is most common in New England but spread more widely across the country from the late eighteenth century onward.