Fowler’s Folly: The Octagon House

This is a sketch of the Fowler house from Fowler’s book. The magnificent octagon house was built in Fishkill, NY, in 1853, but quickly fell into disrepair and was razed in 1897.

By Tom Calarco
Editor’s Note: In the last several years, in our various travels, Northeast has noticed the plethora of octagon houses that dot our region, in particular New York State, the Hudson Valley, and its surrounding areas. The time had come to take a look at this unique architectural heritage. After consulting Tom Calarco, one of our steadfast and most longstanding feature writer, Tom came back with the idea for a series of a few articles that would shed some light on these architectural enigmas. What follows is Part I, the basic history of the movement.
Most of us have, at some time, fantasized about our dream house—a mountaintop getaway with a panoramic view, a seaside shanty where one can hear the sound of the surf, a Victorian mansion that exudes the majesty of good aging, or perhaps a pyramidal or geodesic design that radiates the spiritual vibrations of the universe.
But what about a house in the shape of an octagon?
Between 1850 and 1860, octagon houses were something of a fad and more than 1,000 were built. It was a period of architectural revolution. The ornate Victorian, which incorporated a variety of features from earlier styles, was supplanting the Greek Revival, and octagon houses were part of the trend. They owed their popularity mainly to the influence of a noted intellectual of the day, Orson W. Fowler. Best known for his expertise in phrenology, the study of determining one’s character traits by the shape of their skull, Fowler became interested in octagon structures and wrote a book, The Octagon House: A Home for All, in which he described with great detail the virtues of the octagon design.
Octagon structures were nothing new. The Tower of the Winds, an octagon Greek temple, was built in 300 B.C. In America, nearly 20 octagon churches were built by the Dutch in the Hudson Valley between 1680 and 1750. And in 1806 Thomas Jefferson built an octagon retreat at Poplar Forest, VA, which is now a museum.
Fowler’s career had been built upon the moral and intellectual revolution of the period that was an outgrowth of the second Great Awakening. Similar in some ways to the burst of creative energy of the 1960s, the primary goal of this movement was human perfection. Phrenology was a part of this, a pseudo science that people thought they could use to identify their strengths and weaknesses, and thereby improve upon them. It became popular in the early 1830s and Fowler became a practitioner following his graduation from Amherst College in 1834. Biographies about abolitionists often mention them being examined by Fowler. In addition, he founded the American Phrenological Journal and Miscellany, which included articles on sex education and marriage counseling, and which, for a time, Walt Whitman edited.
It was sometime after his reputation had been made that he became an advocate of octagon houses. His belief was that they provided the most commodious style of home, which in turn provided the most perfect form of living. Among the advantages he cited were a more efficient use of space, greater exposure to sunlight, better ventilation, and ease in heating. He also believed that spherical structures like the octagon were more beautiful than houses with square or rectangular frames. According to his rationale, symmetry and function went hand-in-hand, so that more beautiful homes were also more livable. Similar to the logic, or perhaps better to say illogic, used by many to pick a mate or spouse.
Fowler also proposed what he thought was the novel use of sand and gravel for a cement mixture, which he called grout: “The superiority of this plan must certainly revolutionize building, and especially enable poor men to build their own homes.”
The use of such construction materials actually went back to the Romans, though he thought it novel. In any case, this suggestion was in keeping with his enlightened, egalitarian views.
Other innovations he proposed included placing the main entrance and kitchen in the basement and stairways in the center of the house, and the inclusion of a water closet, an indoor toilet.
“To squeamish maidens and fastidious beaux this point is not submitted,” he wrote, “but matrons, the aged and feeble, are asked is not such a closet, a real household necessity and luxury?”
Water closets or indoor toilets were as yet a novelty, however, and for general use Fowler acquiesced to the old reliable outhouse:
“Yet it need be used only in cases of special need, the one generally used being outside as usual.”
Fowler used mathematical formulas to support his views and also showed how poorly the prevalent Greek Revival style’s construction features compared to the octagon. In 1848 he began building his own octagon house in Fishkill, NY, and in 1849 the first edition of his book on octagon structures was published.
Fowler’s home was ready for occupancy in 1853. He personally designed and constructed the house with the aid of a few assistants. It was three stories high with a basement mostly above ground and a 20-foot, glass-enclosed cupola. It contained 60 rooms. The main floor featured four large octagonal rooms – a parlor, sitting room, dining room, and family room all connected by folding doors, along with four other, adjoining side rooms. Both upper floors contained 20 rooms each, including 12 bedrooms and a gymnastic room for anti-corset female dress reformers. The roof was fashioned to catch rainwater and pipes carried it to cisterns in the closets that provided running water to each dressing room with the overflow piped to a cistern in the basement. Verandas circled each floor. In the basement was a wash-kitchen with a copper boiler for hot water; a milk room; a woodhouse; and a sauce cellar.
One contemporary described it as “noble, massive, grand, and imposing.” Others referred to it as “Fowler’s Folly.” It drained Fowler down to his last dollar, as for periods he had to stop work on the house and return to the lecture circuit to raise funds for its construction. As fate would have it, he would enjoy only a few short years in his dream house. The economic panic of 1857 forced him to rent it out before it was fully completed in 1858, and it was converted into a rooming house. Unfortunately, its plumbing system was plagued by cesspool seepage, ironically through its innovative grout wall. In 1859, the house was put up for sale. The house shuttled between a number of owners and passed through several stages of disrepair. By 1880 it was empty and a favorite haunt of youthful vandals. In 1897, it was demolished, 10 years after the death of its progenitor.
Nevertheless, the octagon house and its theories of a more commodious design remain and tempt us with its arguments. Better ventilation, more sunlight, more efficient use of space, ease of navigation, a more aesthetic view—all these make a compelling case. And so many of these houses remain.
Robert Kline, a retired engineer living in Grand Rapids, MI, has been tracking them down and has created a website — http://www.octagon.bobanna.com/main_page.html — where those octagon houses built before the modern period are inventoried and regularly updated; the last one on May 5, when he added six houses, including three in Little Falls, NY. The site includes any information and photos he has obtained.
So far, using books like The Octagon Fad by Carl Schmidt published in 1958; the panoramic maps on the Library of Congress’s website; various other sources like old newspapers, photo collections, and old post cards; and the help of online contacts, Kline has identified octagon structures in at least 42 of the 50 U.S. states, with New York having the largest number. Those states in which he has not located any octagons thus far are Arkansas, Idaho, Louisiana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah
“One doesn’t see a lot of octagon house construction after the 1860s,” Kline said, “and almost nothing between about 1915 and today, when there seems to be a small revival of interest. A few disappear every year because they are now in degraded parts of town, too deteriorated to be worth renovating, or catch fire.”
Another individual working to identify the structures, Kline said, is Dale Travis who has a large photo collection, and whose website is: http://www.dalejtravis.com/barn/rbarns.htm. Travis also keeps account of octagon houses that have been and are being built during the modern period. Kline hopes that as more people discover his site, the more will contribute. This will aid the preservation of this unique architectural heritage.
In our next article in this series on octagon structures, we will review some of the more than 150 historic octagons located in New York State.

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