Octagon Houses - Surviving Examples

Surviving Examples

Across the United States and Canada, estimates vary but hundreds of these Victorian-era homes are still standing. One estimate puts the number at 2,077. 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, schoolhouses, churches, and in Canada, octagonal "dead houses".

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