Saltbox

Saltbox homes can convey years of American colonial history in one glance. With distinctive asymmetrical acute roofs, and flat, unadorned exterior, these homes show how people lived in the early days of the nation, between the early 16th and late 17th century, by adjusting their houses as necessary to facilitate this. Because of their unique features, Saltbox homes are also instantly recognizable, and among the residences of the emblematic north-east coast.

As the houses of Cape Cod at the same time, Saltbox homes from New England and Atlantic Canada as homes for European settlers. These buildings were simple in design, the rectangular outer acute, gabled roofs, and the central plain entrances - in many ways just like the houses of Cape Cod, but with additional elements to reflect the changing nature of colonial life. Saltbox were also generally located on the interior of Cape Cod, which has helped to encourage their designs more complex.

Saltbox houses got their name because they resembled the large asymmetrical wooden saltbox everyone used to the colonial era. This comparison was even stronger over the years many saltbox changed original form - many residents said Saltbox shed on the backs of their houses, mainly for storage, extension of the roofline already unbalanced. The resulting shape, also known as a Catslide, "was almost triangular, with a sloping roof long plunging two and a half floors of the ridge almost at ground level, and a short steep slope almost parallel to the wall the other side. Others have simply been saltbox early traditional Cape Cod with a lean-added, as evidenced by the Ephraim Hawley House, a famous Connecticut Saltbox built in the 1680s, and changed over the decades. Modern and ancient conserved Saltbox houses tend to make full use of this extra space at the rear, with open floor plans for room easily blend into each other.

Most houses have been built using traditional post and Saltbox beam, with metal nails used sparingly because of their high cost. The exterior walls are often very simple, featuring shingle siding boards.

Although the Saltbox style home and has been used primarily for homes, builders modern form adapted for other uses such as churches and buildings at the university campus.