Octagon house

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Octagon houses were an unique house style popular during the mid-19th century in the United States. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan shape, and often feature a verandah part or all the way around.

Contents 1 History 2 Orson Squire Fowler 3 Surviving examples 4 Case study: Watertown Octagon House, WI 4.1 History 4.2 Construction and innovations 4.3 Architectural style 4.4 Pros and cons of the octagon plan 4.5 Record drawings 5 List of American Octagon Houses 6 See also 7 References 8 External links

[edit] History

Early examples:

• Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest, his private retreat and plantation house near Lynchburg, Virginia.
• William Thornton's Tayloe House, more commonly called The Octagon House^[1] in Washington, DC. After the White House was burned by the British during the War of 1812, President James Madison stayed in the Octagon House, and it was here that the Treaty of Ghent (ending the War of 1812) was signed. It is now the headquarters of the American Institute of Architects.

Both houses are large brick buildings in the classical tradition. They may be seen as precursors, but somewhat different from the Victorian octagon houses which are essentially domestic structures.

[edit] Orson Squire Fowler

The leading promoter of octagonal houses was Orson Squire Fowler. Fowler was America's foremost lecturer and writer on phrenology, the pseudoscience of defining an individual's characteristics by the contours of the head. In the middle of the 19th century, Fowler made his mark on American architecture when he touted the advantages of octagonal homes over rectangular and square structures in his widely publicized book, The Octagon House: A Home for All, or A New, Cheap, Convenient, and Superior Mode of Building (1848). As a result of Orson Fowler's authoritative publication, a few thousand octagonal houses were erected, mostly on the East Coast and in the Midwest.

According to Fowler, an octagon house was cheaper to build, allowed for additional living space, received more natural light, was easier to heat, and remained cooler in the summer. These benefits all derive from the geometry of an octagon: the shape encloses space efficiently, minimising external surface area and consequently heat loss / heat gain, building costs etc. A circle is the most efficient shape, but very difficult to build in timber, so an octagon is a sensible approximation. Victorian carpenters were used to building octagonal joints, as in the typical bay window, and could easily adapt to the slightly more complicated construction at the corners.

[edit] Surviving examples

Nationwide, fewer than 500 of these rare, romantic Victorian-era homes are still standing. Even in their heyday, octagon houses never lined city streets and neighborhood blocks. On the contrary, an eight-sided home seemed to be the choice of individualists, standing defiant among four-sided neighbors.

The largest remaining octagon homes in the United States are Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi and the Octagon House in Watertown, Wisconsin. Both homes are open to the public.

Fowler was influential, but not the only proponent of octagonal houses and other structures. There are also octagonal barns and schoolhouses, and in Canada, octagonal 'dead houses'.

The octagon house, Wallingford, Connecticut (built 1850s)	The octagon house in Akron, New York	The Octagon House in Barrington, Illinois	The Armour-Stiner House in Irvington, New York (built between 1859 and 1860)
The M.M. Crites Octagon House in Circleville, Ohio (built 1855-56)	The octagon house, Sparland, Illinois (built in 1886)	Longwood (Natchez, Mississippi) (built c. 1860)	The Norrish house, Hastings, Minnesota (built between 1857 and 1858)

[edit] Case study: Watertown Octagon House, WI

Main article on this house: Octagon House (Watertown, Wisconsin).

In size and complexity, the Watertown house is midway between the grandest and most modest examples. It is well documented^[2], has been carefully restored, and is open to the public as a museum.

[edit] History

House completed 1854.

[edit] Construction and innovations

• The plan is a 50 foot octagon, with a 4 foot 8 inch veranda all round at first and second floor levels.
• The house is built on 17 inch thick stone foundations, with external walls of brickwork 13 inches thick.
• The central square is made up of two 4 inch leaves of brickwork with a 4 inch cavity, which is used for chimney flues and warm air ducting, to heat rooms without fireplaces. The double wall eliminates the need for projecting chimney breasts.
• The battlement effect at the top of the cupola is actually the chimneys.
• A furnace in the basement heats water, and warm air is ducted into the twelve main rooms i.e. those adjoining the central square.
• The house has a flat roof, sloping gently towards the center.
• Rainwater from the roof was collected in a reservoir at third floor level, and overflows into a cistern next to the kitchen in the basement.
• Despite having 15 bedrooms there is just a single bathroom.

[edit] Architectural style

In accordance with Fowler's theories, the detailing is relatively plain for the period. Openings are simply framed by moldings. The covered verandas lack excess detail, having modest turned balustrade spindles and supporting posts. The decorative effect of the house comes from the basic design features: the octagonal shape and the external verandas.

[edit] Pros and cons of the octagon plan

Fowler's concern with saving space is seen to typical effect here. There are four generously sized rooms on each floor, nearly 18 foot square, with connecting doors all round. The subsidiary rooms are less satisfactory, being triangular. The arrangement of rooms is rigidly the same on all floors because the partition walls are of 9 inch brickwork, so they must stack one above the other. The central spiral stair is compact, but leaves one side of the house without direct access to the landings, so there are bedrooms only accessible through another bedroom - in the worst case, through two other bedrooms.

[edit] Record drawings

Drawings dated March 28 1935, prepared by the Historic American Buildings Survey. The original state of the house was represented rather than the way it was in 1935, with verandas removed.

[edit] List of American Octagon Houses

• Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson's private retreat, near Lynchburg, Virginia
• Historic 1856 Octagon House, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
• The Octagon House, also called the Colonel John Tayloe House in Washington, D.C.
• Armour-Stiner House, Irvington, New York
• Longwood, Natchez, Mississippi
• Octagon House, Barrington, Illinois.
• Octagon House, Stamford, Connecticut.
• Octagon House (Wilmington, Illinois)
• Loren Andrus Octagon House (Washington, Michigan)
• Clapp Octagon House, St. Augustine, Florida
• Clarence Darrow Octagon House, Ohio
• Fowler's Folly, (Orson Fowler's house), Fishkill, New York
• McElroy Octagon House, San Francisco, California
• Octagon House, Watertown, Wisconsin
• Wilcox Octagon House, Camillus, New York
• Zelotes Holmes House, Laurens, South Carolina
• Octagon House (Columbus, Georgia)
• David Van Gelder Octagon House, Catskill, New York

[edit] See also

• The Octagon

[edit] References

• Fowler, Orson Squire. The Octagon House: A Home for All. (Dover Publications, 1973.)
• Baker, John Milnes. American House Styles: A Concise Guide. (W. W. Norton & Company, 2002.)
• Rempel, John I. Building with Wood. Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 1967.
• Schmitd, Carl F. The Octagon Fad. 1958.

[edit] External links

• Octagon House Inventory
• Octagon House: 1850-1860
• Octagon Unitarian Chapel, Norwich
• Octagon House Style
• Wisconsin Octagon House
• Octagon Barn
• Historic 1856 Octagon House Fond du Lac, Wisconsin
• Loren Andrus Octagon House, Washington, Michigan
• Dale Travis' Round Barn Photo Collection
• Ontario Architecture: Octagon Movement
• Fowler's Folly, Fishkill, NY