This is a list of
octagon houses. The style became popular in the United States and Canada following the publication of
Orson Squire Fowler's 1848 book The Octagon House, A Home for All. In the United States, 68 surviving octagon houses are included on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The earliest and most notable octagon house in the Americas was
Thomas Jefferson's 1806
Poplar Forest.
Orson Squire Fowler's 1848 book The Octagon House, A Home for All and his "monumental" four-story, 60-room house built during 1848–1853,
Fowler's Folly in Fishkill, New York, provided inspiration for a nationwide fad.[1] Fifty-nine of the sixty-six pre-Civil War houses on the NRHP were built between 1849 and 1861. It is reported that the owner of the first-built of these, the
Rich-Twinn Octagon House in western New York, was impressed by seeing an octagon house in the Hudson River Valley, presumably Fowler's home under construction.[2]
Canada
At least 20 historic octagon houses are known to exist in Canada, distributed across four eastern provinces.[a] Extant octagon houses in Canada include the following:
Notable
octagon houses in the U.S. include the following, more than 80 in number, in date built order. The octagonal outlines of these houses may be
seen in Google maps and other satellite photo services, by zooming in from satellite view above, to their locations. Specifically, almost all of the following listed ones are mapped and may be observed via satellite view in the Google external link here (click on "Map of all coordinates" to the right).[b]
Of these, six are further designated
National Historic Landmarks of the United States:
Armour-Stiner House in the Hudson River valley in New York, which is perhaps the only domed octagon house in the world;
The Octagon House in Washington, D.C. (which is actually more of a hexagon), where President Madison lived after the White House was burnt by the British; Thomas Jefferson's retreat
Poplar Forest;
May's Folly in Georgia; Samuel Sloan-designed
Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi, still unfinished after its construction was halted by the American Civil War; and
Waverley, also in Mississippi.[6][7]
At least one of the houses has been claimed to have been used as "stations" sheltering escaped slaves on the
Underground Railroad: the
Octagon House in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin,[8][9] although that claim has been disputed.[10]
Octagon houses were particularly popular in New York State. There were 120 octagon houses in New York State,[1][12] of which 13 are listed on the National Register and listed below.
In 1958 Carl F. Schmidt published The Octagon Fad which attempted to inventory the Fowler-inspired homes, most of which were built prior to 1915 in North America. However, only a small fraction of the total are notable and extant.[13]
New Jersey is believed to have had 46 octagon houses and octagon school houses, with 15 houses and one schoolhouse surviving in 2016.[14]
Claimed to be haunted, has passageways claimed to be "secret", and claimed to have been used as a safe house on the
Underground Railway (although Underground Railway claim has been especially strongly disputed).[10]NRHP
Believed to be the first concrete house erected in South Carolina;
NRHP
Gutherie Octagon House
1850s
Westland
Wayne
MI
Now part of The Westland Historic Village Park, the central portion of the house was built in the 1850s. The two wings were added in the 1930s. The Gutherie family was, and still is, in the lumber industry, which explains the use of Chinese Hemlock on the inside of the house.
Built by brick mason Benjamin Franklin Gregg for Oliver and Mary DeMotte. Duplex with independent basement and main unit, 6 bedroom/4 bathroom underwent major remodel in 2019-20 after lengthy permitting process with the city of Boulder, preserving original stone foundation and footprint, exterior lines and features. Only octagon house in Boulder and one of six in the state of Colorado. House was named by the 1st group of CU Boulder students to live there after the remodel, due to unusual semi-circle door and windows and inordinate number of stairs with low headers leading to basement.[22]
^In Canada, the octagon house craze also engendered an
octagonal deadhouse phenomenon. This included octagonal deadhouses, pre-burial edifices, built in the mid-to-late 19th century along
Yonge Street in south-central Ontario, from just north of
Toronto to
Aurora. At least 3 octagon houses are classified as heritage sites, one in
Richmond Hill and the other in
King.
^The Google external link provides a U.S. map showing the locations of 85 of the houses listed below. Not included are any houses for which latitude and longitude coordinates are not available. Zooming in, and switching to "Satellite View", you may observe the octagonal outline of the houses, exactly at, or very near to the flagged locations. For a few sites, however, Google does not provide satellite view coverage in sufficient detail.
^That there are 84 NRHP octagon houses is documented by National Register reports identifying the below-listed properties as having "Octagon mode" architecture, or other indications of octagon house nature for these listed properties. Also, eight
historic districts are noted to contain octagon houses as
contributing properties, which may include others not listed here.
This is a list of
octagon houses. The style became popular in the United States and Canada following the publication of
Orson Squire Fowler's 1848 book The Octagon House, A Home for All. In the United States, 68 surviving octagon houses are included on the U.S.
National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). The earliest and most notable octagon house in the Americas was
Thomas Jefferson's 1806
Poplar Forest.
Orson Squire Fowler's 1848 book The Octagon House, A Home for All and his "monumental" four-story, 60-room house built during 1848–1853,
Fowler's Folly in Fishkill, New York, provided inspiration for a nationwide fad.[1] Fifty-nine of the sixty-six pre-Civil War houses on the NRHP were built between 1849 and 1861. It is reported that the owner of the first-built of these, the
Rich-Twinn Octagon House in western New York, was impressed by seeing an octagon house in the Hudson River Valley, presumably Fowler's home under construction.[2]
Canada
At least 20 historic octagon houses are known to exist in Canada, distributed across four eastern provinces.[a] Extant octagon houses in Canada include the following:
Notable
octagon houses in the U.S. include the following, more than 80 in number, in date built order. The octagonal outlines of these houses may be
seen in Google maps and other satellite photo services, by zooming in from satellite view above, to their locations. Specifically, almost all of the following listed ones are mapped and may be observed via satellite view in the Google external link here (click on "Map of all coordinates" to the right).[b]
Of these, six are further designated
National Historic Landmarks of the United States:
Armour-Stiner House in the Hudson River valley in New York, which is perhaps the only domed octagon house in the world;
The Octagon House in Washington, D.C. (which is actually more of a hexagon), where President Madison lived after the White House was burnt by the British; Thomas Jefferson's retreat
Poplar Forest;
May's Folly in Georgia; Samuel Sloan-designed
Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi, still unfinished after its construction was halted by the American Civil War; and
Waverley, also in Mississippi.[6][7]
At least one of the houses has been claimed to have been used as "stations" sheltering escaped slaves on the
Underground Railroad: the
Octagon House in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin,[8][9] although that claim has been disputed.[10]
Octagon houses were particularly popular in New York State. There were 120 octagon houses in New York State,[1][12] of which 13 are listed on the National Register and listed below.
In 1958 Carl F. Schmidt published The Octagon Fad which attempted to inventory the Fowler-inspired homes, most of which were built prior to 1915 in North America. However, only a small fraction of the total are notable and extant.[13]
New Jersey is believed to have had 46 octagon houses and octagon school houses, with 15 houses and one schoolhouse surviving in 2016.[14]
Claimed to be haunted, has passageways claimed to be "secret", and claimed to have been used as a safe house on the
Underground Railway (although Underground Railway claim has been especially strongly disputed).[10]NRHP
Believed to be the first concrete house erected in South Carolina;
NRHP
Gutherie Octagon House
1850s
Westland
Wayne
MI
Now part of The Westland Historic Village Park, the central portion of the house was built in the 1850s. The two wings were added in the 1930s. The Gutherie family was, and still is, in the lumber industry, which explains the use of Chinese Hemlock on the inside of the house.
Built by brick mason Benjamin Franklin Gregg for Oliver and Mary DeMotte. Duplex with independent basement and main unit, 6 bedroom/4 bathroom underwent major remodel in 2019-20 after lengthy permitting process with the city of Boulder, preserving original stone foundation and footprint, exterior lines and features. Only octagon house in Boulder and one of six in the state of Colorado. House was named by the 1st group of CU Boulder students to live there after the remodel, due to unusual semi-circle door and windows and inordinate number of stairs with low headers leading to basement.[22]
^In Canada, the octagon house craze also engendered an
octagonal deadhouse phenomenon. This included octagonal deadhouses, pre-burial edifices, built in the mid-to-late 19th century along
Yonge Street in south-central Ontario, from just north of
Toronto to
Aurora. At least 3 octagon houses are classified as heritage sites, one in
Richmond Hill and the other in
King.
^The Google external link provides a U.S. map showing the locations of 85 of the houses listed below. Not included are any houses for which latitude and longitude coordinates are not available. Zooming in, and switching to "Satellite View", you may observe the octagonal outline of the houses, exactly at, or very near to the flagged locations. For a few sites, however, Google does not provide satellite view coverage in sufficient detail.
^That there are 84 NRHP octagon houses is documented by National Register reports identifying the below-listed properties as having "Octagon mode" architecture, or other indications of octagon house nature for these listed properties. Also, eight
historic districts are noted to contain octagon houses as
contributing properties, which may include others not listed here.