History of Octagonal Housing

The octagon mode may be the first pure American housing style, considering that most previous building forms were adopted from European architecture. Thomas Jefferson was one of America's earliest advocates of octagon configurations, designing over 50 buildings with a manifested octagonal feature. An octagon garden schoolhouse enhances George Washington's stately Mount Vernon. Mark Twain wrote Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn in an octagonal study patterned after a riverboat pilot's cabin.

But the leading promoter of eight-sided structures was Orson Squire Fowler. Fowler was America's foremost lecturer and writer on phrenology, the pseudo-science 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. 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. This last attribute was an important point when the ruling principles of Victorian air conditioning were, avoid direct sun and pray for a breeze.

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

The following is the introduction to The Octagon House: A Home for All (we're particularly fond of the last paragraph):

"In the mid-nineteenth century a building fad swept across America; it was the octagonal house. By 1857, at least 1000 such houses had been built around the country as well as a number of octagonal churches, schoolhouses, barns, and pigsties. This is the book {The Octagon House: A Home for All} that started it all.

Years before Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, O.S. Fowler (the phrenologist) subscribed to the notion that forms follows function and thus arrived at the octagonal shape as being ideal for houses. In his mind, it provided for the greatest utilization of space along with many other significant advantages. And although he was not an architect, Fowler goes about making a well thought out defense for his creation as well as giving plans and instructions on how to build an octagonal house. In his time, Fowler was quite innovative, as his plans call for central heating, running water, and speaking tubes; there is even a passage on the advantages of an "indoor water closet."

Now, however, this book has architectural interest only as a historical document. Octagonal houses are no longer built. But Mr. Fowler's book is still sought for its charming, colloquial style and good natured, if not sometimes eccentric commentaries, on life. While in one paragraph, the author may be telling you how to raise a scaffolding, in the next, he will not hesitate to advise you on how to raise children."