Forest of Poplars Thomas Jefferson's 1806 Poplar Forest was the first and most remarkable octagon home in the Americas. Orson Squire Fowler's 1848 book The Octagon Mansion, A Home for All, and his "monumental" four-story, 60-room house in Fishkill, New York, Fowler's Folly, erected between 1848 and 1853, inspired a statewide craze. But it was Thomas Jefferson's forest home that started the trend.
Poplar Forest was built by Jefferson as a wedding present for his daughter Polly. He wanted something unique for her to live in after he died. It was designed by French architect Charles LaChance with features such as curved corners, octagonal rooms, and an interior garden. The house was built using wood from nearby plantations that had been destroyed by fire. It was the first permanent wooden building outside of Europe and was celebrated for its innovative design.
After Poplar Forest, other architects began to copy its ideas. The first known use of the term "Octagon" to describe this type of house came about two years after its construction when another daughter, Virginia Jefferson, wrote about it in a letter. By the time the last child, Martha Jefferson Randolph, was born in 1849, there were at least five other houses in different parts of the country with this same shape. Two of them still stand today: One is Forest of Poplars and the other is Fowler's Folly.
What is so special about an Octagon?
The Octagon House Museum, located in historic Watertown, Wisconsin, was erected in 1854 by pioneer settler John Richards. Orson Fowler, a New York architect who championed the healthy living characteristics of octagonal buildings in the 1850s, inspired the unusual 8-sided design for this palatial residence. The house remains largely as it was built, with some modifications made over time.
Octagon houses are unique because they have only two sides that face directly onto the street, making the other eight sides walls. This allows for more space inside the house than traditional square or rectangular houses of the time, which had four sides facing outward creating a cage like structure. By not having any side walls on three or four sides of the house, the interior yard space is increased and more light can get into the home during the day. Also, there's no need for backyards to be fenced in since nothing behind the house can be seen.
This house style became very popular after its introduction in 1855, with over 50 being built throughout Wisconsin. They were most common in larger cities where land was more expensive and building codes required more space for housing. These houses were usually owned by successful merchants or farmers who could afford to pay $10,000 - $20,000 for one built by the best architects in New York. Some even had their own gardens!
The Octagon was fully established as a haunted house by 1888, when twelve men chose to spend the night in the home in try to evict the spirits or disprove the claims. During their stay, everyone experienced something strange and unexplained, including hearing footsteps and objects being moved about during sleep hours.
Over the years, many have tried to escape the Octagon, but none have been able to go more than a few steps before feeling the need to return. Those that have stayed longer than one night have reported seeing several figures in the house, including a woman in a white dress who has been seen moving about upstairs.
There are several theories regarding why the Octagon remains haunted after nearly 100 years. Some believe it is because there were too many people sleeping in the house at once, while others think it has something to do with the fact that it was built without a foundation or basement. Still others speculate that it is because of the nature of the building itself; since it has no real center, anyone occupying a room could be said to be the "center" of the haunting.
In addition to those living in the Octagon during its time as a house, employees also reported odd things happening around the place.
The Octagon House, also known as the Colonel John Tayloe III House, is situated at 1799 New York Avenue, Northwest in Washington, D.C.'s Foggy Bottom area. Following the destruction of the White Home by the British during the War of 1812, the house served as the temporary residence of James Madison, President of the United States...
James Madison was elected the first president of the United States after the American Revolutionary War in 1789. He is considered one of the Founding Fathers of the country and is regarded as an important contributor to the writing of the Constitution. In March 1815, President Madison moved into the Octagon House with his family.
At the time, the house was owned by Henry Lee III, a wealthy former officer in the Army who had married into the prestigious Madisons' family. The Lees were close friends with the Madisons, and Mrs. Madison often visited them at their home in Virginia. When President Madison came to live in Washington, D.C., he asked the Lees if they would allow him to rent some rooms in their house so that his family could have space to breathe clean air when visiting the city. Mr. Lee agreed, and in April 1815, the Madisons moved into the two downstairs bedrooms on the east side of the house. A third bedroom was later added on the west side of the house.
The benefits of the octagonal plan An octagonal home, according to Fowler, was less expensive to build, had more living space, got more natural light, was simpler to heat, and remained cooler in the summer. It's also said that if you walk around a circle of an octagonal house, it feels like you're never leaving your home.
People built octagonal houses for several reasons. The most common is that they believed the shape gave their homes energy savings. They thought that the shape allowed for more than one room on each floor, which reduced building costs because fewer floors needed to be constructed. Some even claimed that the shape kept evil spirits away from the home.
In conclusion, people built octagonal houses because they believed it was a good design that would make their homes more efficient to build and use less material than a regular house.
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