Guess when this Setauket home was built

When Wayne Padula first saw his house in Setauket, he thought it was the most authentic late-1700s saltbox he had ever seen. And yet, it was built in 1960.

“I was staggered with its authenticity,” says Padula, an American history buff. “So that was what really clinched it.”

Padula put a deposit on the house the day he saw it. Now, 30 years later, he and his wife, Alice, have placed it on the market for $649,000.

“I’ll miss it,” says Padula. “I’ll miss living in, like, 1812.”

Padula says he thinks his house resembles the Quincy, Massachusetts, homes of former presidents John Adams and his son John Quincy Adams, which are feet apart from one another at Adams National Historical Park.

The exterior of Padula’s house features wood siding, a triangular pediment above the front door, symmetrical multi-paned windows, a central chimney and sharply sloped roof. To match the era, there are few doorknobs in the house. Instead, each door has a hand-forged wrought iron handle and latch, Padula says.

The ceilings are 7 feet 4 inches “because that’s how they built homes in the 1700s so they wouldn’t waste any heat,” Padula says.

The living room stretches from the front of the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house to the back. It includes a fireplace and oak floors. The house features a formal dining room, a second-level master bedroom with a fireplace, an unfinished basement and two-car garage.

It is on a .81-acre lot next to Kaltenborn Commons, a four-acre park.

“It has a lot of charm,” says listing agent Linda Stowell of Coach Realtors. “You walk through and can imagine yourself in the 1800s.”

Outside the galley kitchen, which was updated in recent years to include granite countertops and stainless steel appliances, Padula says he has kept everything in the house as it was to retain the historical look.

“I tried to keep it all the way it was,” Padula says.  “This is as close as you can get to a house built before the 1800s.”