Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterised by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round. Their unusual shape and appearance, quite different from the ornate pitched-roof houses typical of the period, can generally be traced to the influence of one man, amateur architect and lifestyle pundit Orson Squire Fowler. Although there are other octagonal houses worldwide, the term octagon house usually refers specifically to octagonal houses built in North America during this period, and up to the early 1900s.
Spring Hill is the name of a ridge in the central part of the city of Somerville, Massachusetts, and the residential neighborhood that sits atop it. It runs northwest to southeast, roughly bounded by Highland Avenue, Somerville Avenue, Elm Street, and Willow Avenue. Summer Street runs along the hill's crest.
Heritage Square Museum is a living history and open-air architecture museum located beside the Arroyo Seco Parkway in the Montecito Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, in the southern Arroyo Seco area. The living history museum shows the story of development in Southern California through historical architectural examples.
The Octagon House, also known as Hawley House, in Barrington, Illinois is a mid-19th century residence listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Armour–Stiner House is an octagon-shaped and domed Victorian-style house located at 45 West Clinton Avenue in Irvington, in Westchester County, New York. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. It is the only known fully domed octagonal residence. The house was modeled after Donato Bramante’s 1502 Tempietto in Rome, which in turn was based on a Tholos, a type of ancient classical temple.
The Octagon House was a historic house at 120 Strawberry Hill Avenue, on the edge of the Glenbrook section of Stamford, Connecticut. It was one of a number of octagon houses in the United States, built during a fad in buildings of that shape from the late 1840s to the 1870s. The octagonal portion of the house was concrete, with external scoring to imitate ashlar. The use of concrete as a building material was also promoted by Orson Squire Fowler, the primary mover behind the octagon house fad.
The Temple is a historic octagon-shaped Baptist church building on Temple Avenue in the Ocean Park area of Old Orchard Beach, Maine. Built in 1881, it is the centerpiece of the summer camp meeting established in 1880 by Free Will Baptists led by Bates College President Oren Cheney. It is the only known octagonal religious structure currently in use in the state. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975, and included in the Ocean Park Historic Buildings district in 1982.
The Octagon House is an historic octagonal house located at 28 King Street in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was built sometime between 1858 and 1864 by Joseph Watson, and is the only one of three 19th-century octagon houses built in the city to survive. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and included as part of expansion of the Westfield Center Historic District in 2013.
The William Bryant Octagon House is an historic octagon house located at 2 Spring Street in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Built in 1850, it is the best-preserved of three such houses built in the town in the 1850s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Richard Barker Octagon House is a historic octagon house located in Worcester, Massachusetts. Built sometime between 1855 and 1865, during a brief period in their popularity, it is one of two octagon houses in the city, and a relatively rare instance of one built using Orson Squire Fowler's recommended gravel wall technique. On March 5, 1980, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Loren Andrus Octagon House, also known as the Washington Octagon House, is a historic octagon house located at 57500 Van Dyke Avenue just north of 26 Mile Road in Washington Township, Macomb County, Michigan. On September 3, 1971, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
The Nathan B. Devereaux Octagon House is an historic octagonal house located at 66425 Eight Mile Road in Northfield Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan. The house is one of only three extant octagonal houses in Washtenaw County, and remains in excellent and near original condition. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
The Estabrook Octagon House, built in 1853 by Ezra Robinson Estabrook, is a historic octagonal house located at 8 River Street in Hoosick Falls, New York. It was constructed in strict accordance with the theories of Orson Squire Fowler, author of A Home for All.
The Dubois-Sarles Octagon is an octagon house located on South Street in Marlboro, New York, United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. As of 2018 it was only one of 15 eight-sided houses left in New York State.
The Capt. Rodney J. Baxter House is an historic octagonal house at South and Pearl Streets in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Built in 1850, it is Barnstable's only example of an octagon house, built closely to designs advocated by Orson S. Fowler and briefly popular in the 1850s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.
The Petty–Roberts–Beatty House, also known as the Octagon House, is an historic octagonal house in Clayton, Alabama, United States. The structure was one of only two antebellum octagonal houses built in Alabama and is the only one to survive.
The Capt. George Scott House, also known locally as the Octagon House and the Collar Box House, is an historic octagon house on Federal Street in Wiscasset, Maine. Built in 1855, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places on February 23, 1972.
The Stephen Harnsberger House, also known as the Harnsberger Octagonal House, is an historic octagon house located on Holly Avenue in Grottoes, Virginia.
The Brill Octagon House is a historic octagon house at Capon Springs and McIlwee Roads in Capon Springs, West Virginia. It is a two-story wood-frame structure, that is actually cruciform in shape, but is given an octagonal appearance by the presence of two-story triangular porches that join the corners of the cross. The house was built about 1890 by one of a father-son pair, both named Elias Brill. The elder Brill, a more likely candidate as its builder, was a farm laborer, and was according to family lore guided in the building's design by an architect who was a summer guest at the Capon Springs Resort. The design is apparently a throwback to the briefly popular octagon house movement led by Orson Squire Fowler in the 1850s.
Octagon Hall is an eight-sided house in Simpson County, Kentucky near Franklin, Kentucky completed around 1860. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It has also been known as the Andrew Jackson Caldwell House after the man who built the house. There is a second contributing building on the property, a detached summer kitchen.
