Why are we building an octagon?

"Nature's forms are mostly spherical. She makes ten thousand curvilinear to one square figure. Then why not apply her forms to houses? Fruits, eggs, tubers, nuts, grains, seeds, trees, etc. are made spherical in order to enclose the most material in the least compass."
~Orson S. Fowler, The Octagon House: A Home for All,1853

For three years, since purchasing our lake lot on Sweetwater Point, we've schemed, dreamed, designed, and planned for this lake house on Lake Wedowee in Alabama. Prior to settling on our design, our lake house plans ranged from Craftsman Bungalow to Log Cabin to a Victorian farmhouse. We finally settled on an octagon house, considered by some the first pure form of American architecture

So how did we happen upon the octagon genre? Contrary to what Jimmy and Chris (our builders) may think, there is method to our madness.

Still searching for the ideal form, we were inspired after a trip to Columbus, MS, where we toured over 15 antebellum homes either constructed in an octagonal form or featuring large octagonal cupolas or octagonal parlors. Waverly Mansion was one of the standouts with its upstairs octagonal catwalk and enormous cupola.

Seeing how the site on the lake is at the tip of a peninsula, the fascination with the historic octagon architecture coincided with the desire for circular panoramic views. We bought Orson Squire Fowler's book advocating the octagon house was a "home for all." It's a pretty antiquated and humorous read. (For more about the history of the octagon house, check out our history page.) In our readings, we also discovered the fabulous chimney (air conditioning) affect afforded by octagonal houses with cupolas.

So began our search on the internet to find and view all of the remaining 1850's octagon houses. Fortunately we found the website of Dale Travis (click on "Round Barns" to see octagons), whereby he's chronicled the photos of octagon houses across the country. It was on his site that we found the house that inspired the planning and a few of the details for our own project.

However, neither the inspiration house nor the hundreds of other octagons we read about allowed for spectacular lake views, the walls of French doors we'd envisioned, or the steep drop of the land. So, after a year of designing, reworking the floor plans, finding the perfect architectural salvage pieces, we were ready to build.