# Krio Board House

> Timber house of Freetown's Krio community in Sierra Leone, traced to 18th-century settlers from North America; now rare and often roofed in metal.

- URL: https://roof.wiki/krio-board-house/
- Topic: Roofing Around the World
- Also known as: bod os; Krio house; Freetown board house
- Regions: Africa
- First published: 2026-11-02 · Last reviewed: 2026-11-02
- Cite as: "Krio Board House." roof.wiki. https://roof.wiki/krio-board-house/

## Key facts

- **Location:** Freetown, Sierra Leone
- **Community:** Krio
- **Structure:** Timber frame and plank cladding
- **Typical repairs:** Metal sheet patching of roofs and walls
- **Status:** Declining; conservation called for

The board house (*bod os* in Krio) is the traditional timber dwelling of the Krio community of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Built of sawn planks, often painted in bright colours, with shuttered windows and porches, board houses once lined much of the city. Today they are a threatened heritage type.

## Origins

The Krio descend from free and freed people of African descent who settled in Sierra Leone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. They included Black Loyalists who had sided with the British in the American Revolutionary War and were evacuated to Nova Scotia before a group sailed to Sierra Leone in 1792, as well as Jamaican Maroons and Africans rescued from illegal slave ships. Researchers such as the documentary producer Isa Blyden link the single-storey board house to cabin-like houses of the American eastern seaboard, and observers often compare surviving examples to houses of colonial South Carolina.

## Construction

The houses are framed and clad in timber; some of the wood reportedly arrived in Sierra Leone as ships' ballast. Many have two storeys, sometimes with a garret in the roof. Over time, painted metal has been applied to walls in some examples, and many roofs and walls have been patched with sheets of metal to keep out the heavy Freetown rains.

## Decline

The style has been in decline for decades as stone and concrete houses became more fashionable. Wooden houses burned easily during the 1991-2002 civil war, when hundreds were destroyed, and many others have been demolished for concrete buildings or left to decay when owners moved abroad. Surviving examples are concentrated in Freetown neighbourhoods including Kroo Town (Kroo Tong), Congo Town, King Tom, Fourah Bay, Murray Town and Brookfields, and in Regent village.

## Conservation

The Sierra Leone National Museum and heritage consultants have called for urgent conservation, including a heritage trust fund and incentives for owners, penalties for destroying board houses, and their inclusion in school and university curricula.

## Related buildings

On the higher ground of Hill Station above Freetown, British colonial officials built large timber houses on metal stilts set into concrete piles, after research linking mosquitoes to malaria encouraged a move to higher ground in the early 20th century.

## Sources

1. Colonial-era wooden buildings decay in Sierra Leone — NBC News / Reuters. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/colonial-era-wooden-buildings-decay-sierra-leone-flna751400
2. Once influential, slave descendants in Sierra Leone face a less certain future — Christian Science Monitor. https://csmonitor.com/World/Africa/2015/0908/Once-influential-slave-descendants-in-Sierra-Leone-face-a-less-certain-future
3. The Enduring Legacy of Sierra Leone's Board Houses — Sierra Leone National Museum / Google Arts & Culture. https://artsandculture.google.com/story/the-enduring-legacy-of-sierra-leone-39-s-board-houses-sierra-leone-national-museum/cgWB9MwhZFW9Gw?hl=en