The Ohio farmhouse

The settlers’ interest in classical motifs was not dampened by the realities of pioneer life, and this modest achievement—the saltbox—was an home design American dream come true. Survival was the task at hand when New England Puritans forged westward to the North-west Territory and settled what later Ohio became. With adz, ax, and sweat, the migrant settlers built lean-tos, dugouts, and primitive log cabins, carving the rudiments of civilization into the vast wilderness of the territories also other home improvement. Although adequate, these homes were a far cry from the handsome structures built in the East during the first 150 years of colonization. “Real” homes would come later, after trade routes had been established, the natives had been subdued, and the land had been put to the plow.

The Ohio farmhouse above was built in 1830, a time when these settlers were thinking about schools, libraries, roads, canals, and markets for their goods and produce. Called a saltbox, it followed a pattern of home building practiced throughout Connecticut and Massachusetts in the early 1700s: a gable roof that extended farther down in the back than in the front. Named for the shape of early wooden salt containers, it was a simple and compact design. Although this style was popular in the New England colonies, its origins can be traced across the Atlantic to Great Britain.

The floor plan of the saltbox and its distinctive roofline evolved from a basic medieval house shape, the hall. The hall was a single room with a gable roof for weather protection—just a more comfortable version of the cave. Eventually this one-room space was divided to create two rooms—a hall and a parlor—and a lean-to were added at the rear of the structure to provide food and fuel storage. The roof of the lean-to became a simple extension of the main roofline. This modification was so suited to the thriving families and increasing wealth in the New World that it became a regional pat-tern repeated all over New England.