Our tours of colonial homes have included homes with beautiful and very wide-plank flooring! Here are photos from a few tours, including our recent North Shore tour. Join us on other colonial homes tours this spring for the chance to see more!

KING’S LUMBER

After 1691, in Massachusetts all trees with a diameter of 24 inches or more were reserved for the King’s Royal Navy, they produced the best wood for ship building and the tall, strong masts that were needed. Subsequent acts were passed, reducing the diameter and thereby making less timber available for colonists, until 1772 when the size was 12 inches.

Other northern colonies were also held to these lumber laws, but they were commonly ignored, there were very few agents to actually enforce it. We’ve seen many homes with exceptionally wide flooring and paneling on our tours!

There was a similar law in New Hampshire, where the diamter was reduced to 12 inches in 1722. Eastern pine trees were the variety preferred by the Navy, and here they were abundant. In 1767, the new governor decided he would actually enforce it, sparking the Pine Tree Riot in 1772. Loggers and sawmill owners revolted against the sherrif and his deputy who went to issue finds to “notorious offenders” in Weare.

There are a lot of places to read more about the saga of King’s Lumber, this is a neat one.