MICHIGAN

Alcona County.

• Harrisville. Octagon house. Located at 478 Huron Road.
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: September, 2002

Allegan County

• Douglas. "McDonald-Jones House". Octagon house. Appears to be 1850s vintage. Said to have been built by McDonald, who enlisted and was killed in the Civil War. His brother completed the house. At 90 Mixer Street, near the intersection of Randolph. In 1958 it was owned by Eva Wheeler, who bought it from Margaret Jones. The house was owned by Joseph Erlwein in the late 1970s. Wood, two stories, with cupola.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.6422 -86.203737
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	2014
  2010	1873

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Source: The Octagon Fad, p. 41, and Dale Travis.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: December, 2006
  Updated: November, 2014
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: February, 2016
• Otsego Twp. Octagon house. Built in or before 1864, as it appears on an 1864 plat map, on West Allegan Street. But it does not appear on an 1880 Birds-eye Map, or the Sanborn Maps for 1884-1928. So perhaps it was lost before 1880. Built by ira Chichester, 1823-1903, a surveyor. The drawing below shows it to have an inset porch with pilaster type posts and a very large cupola.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	Ira Chichester, builder.

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: June, 2009.
  Updated: August, 2011
  Updated: May, 2014
  Updated: May, 2020

Barry County

• Hastings. Octagon house. Might be 1860s vintage. 804 South Jefferson. Two story. Wood construction.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.642137 -85.287809
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	2016	1895
  	1898	1916

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: December, 2006
  Updated: September, 2013
  Updated: June, 2016
  Updated: October, 2016
  Updated: June, 2018
  Updated: July, 2018
• Nashville. Octagon house. Now gone. Was located at Road M-19, just west of the city of Nashville.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: July, 2002

Berrien County.

• Buchanan. Octagon house. This Berrien County town reportedly had an octagon house that has been razed. It appears to have stood on Main Steet and Arctic and was owned by Eli J. Roe. By 1887 Roe's land shows a different shaped house.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1873

  1887

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: November, 2015
• Northeast of St. Joseph. In Benton township. Octagon house. Dunbar Castle. Built by or for Levitt Canfield, in 1871. Located where Louis Road intersections Collins Avenue, on a 30 acre fruit farm. Frank Dunbar, of Wisconsin, bought the house in 1907, and it was subsequently known as Dunbar Castle. Built of pink brick over a wood frame according to Dunbar's daughter. Burned in the 1930s.
  Source: Aurina
  Entered: September, 2009
• St. Joseph. Located at 1800 Niles Avenue. William Statton Howard family resided in the octagon house that stood at Niles and Howard Aves. It had cement exterior and a narrow porch and used to be painted soft pink with white trim.  It was razed about 1925. It shows up clearly on birdseye maps of St Joseph in 1870, 1883 and 1893.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  30 September 1899

  
  
  Sources: Aurina. Ellen Puerzer
  Entered: September, 2009
  Updated: January, 2019
  Updated: July, 2021
• St. Joseph. Octagon house. Built by Samuel Langley. On the river side of Langely Avenue, from Langely Court to Lewis Avenue. Burned down before 1897.
  Source: Aurina
  Entered: September, 2009

Calhoun County

• Albion. Octagon house. 416 E. Erie Street. Built before 1858. Sometimes called the "McGee-Osborne House," there is evidence that Osborne was not the first owner, although it's reasonably clear that R. McGee, carpenter and joiner, built the house. Brick. Altered to almost square by additions. Four corners, including the entrance, are flattened to provide for a single window. One can see this in the sketch below. A circular staircase runs from the first floor to the attic. A cupola was removed in the mid 1940s or before, and replaced by a skylight. The staircase likely ran all the way to the cupola originally. The house original had 12 foot ceilings. Sometime in the 1930s the ceilings were dropped 1.5 feet. A two story piece was added to the back of the house at some point to provide for a hallway and additional stairs. According to Nancy Gildart, who grew up in the second floor of the house, the cupola might have not been totally removed, but rather shortened, and the windows still provided ventilation when she lived there. The dormers on the house were removed in the early 1990s, nominally because they leaked, ( Often the result when preservation collides with money ) resulting in still more modification of the original structure.
  
  Now owned by Albion College, by the 1940s the home had been divided into two apartments. The house was occupied by college faculty members from the 1940s through the 1990s - the Irwin's lived on the first floor, and the Gildart's on the second. The house is listed in "The Octagon Fad" as being the Gildart house, but this is erroneous. At this time is not clear just who built the house, and it was referred to as "the octagon house on Erie Street" over the years. There is some possibility that the house was built by Henry McGee, who did build other structures in Albion, but at this time the earliest known owner sold the house in 1858, and might or might not have built the house too.
  
  Martha Irwin points out that a 1973 copy of the Dover edition of Orson Fowler's book, owned by her father, contained the following inscription:

  
  
  1873
  Milton Osborn bought from Seth A. Mathison, Nov. 1864
  
  Mathison bought from Ruth and Polly Douglass, Aug. 1859
  
  Douglass bought from Henry McGee in Jan. 1859
  
  H. McGee bought from George Hannahs Sept. 1858
  
  

  Her father, who lived in the house from the 1940s through the 1990s, had mentioned that the house was once owned by Milton Osborn, who might well have later sold it to Albion College. The "1873" might denote when the information was compiled.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1858 drawing.	1858 drawing.	1868
  c1910
  1873	1907	1931

  
  
  
  
  The top row, left, image. shows that the house one had a porch on many sides - four sides are shown. From an old map, the image is probably circa 1880 - maybe 20 years after the house was built.
  
  The top row, middle, photograph shows the house with the cupola, and before corner additions were made. The presence of electrical wires in the photograph suggests that it was taken around or after 1910.
  
  Two later, but undated, photographs show the home with the corner additions.
  
  The images below show the house over the years. Some time in the early 20th century the house was squared off. The floor plans provided by Jim Irwin, who grew up in the house, show the extent of the modifications required. Four sides of the house had to be completely rebuilt. Today it is in no sense an octagon house.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  
  
  Jim Irwin, who also grew up in the house, provides a pen-and ink drawing of the home, as well as the following exterior photographs.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Jim Irwin has also produced two detailed drawings of the present interior layout of the house:
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Ground floor plan, left, above. Upper floor plan, right.

  
  Nancy Gildart, who lived in the upstairs portion of the house, provided some modifications to the drawing provided by Jim Irwin, reflecting the direction of doors, placement of closets, etc.
  
  Jim Irwin also provided the following interior photographs:
  
  First floor view from the living room towards the sunroom.
  
  Spiral staircase leading to the second floor, lit by skylight.
  
  First floor interior view from the dining room towards the sunroom.
  
  The upper floor was occupied for many years by the Gildart family. Robert Gildart taught English at Albion college, and lived in the house from 1956 to 1996.
  
  The following map segment of Albion, from 1868. shows two octagons houses, left and right of the center of the map. One sees the house at 416 E. Erie Street on the left, and another octagon to its right. Now long gone, the exact address of the second house is uncertain.
  
  2007 photograph.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  The two photographs above were taken in 2007.

  
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  A 2011 satellite view of the house.

  
  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin, Jim Irwin, and Nancy Gildart, who grew up in the house, and provided the information, drawings, and photographs. Ellen Puerzer. Stephen Hulbert provided the 1880s image of the house.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: July, 2007
  Updated: August, 2007
  Updated: November, 2011
  Updated: March, 2014
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: May, 2015
  
  
• Albion. Octagon house (gone). One lot east of the 416 E. Erie Street house. Demolished years ago. Like the house at 416 E. Erie, the house was built by carpenter and joiner R. McGee. See the 416 E. Erie house for a map showing the location and rough appearance of this house.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Sources: The Octagon Fad, p. 40. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: March, 2014
  Updated: May, 2015
• Albion. Appearing on an 1868 map, this octagon house was built in or before that year, by Henry H. Barnes, a farmer. It was located on the northwest corner of Michigan Avenue and Burr Oak Street, (Hannah Street in 1868? ) at 83 E. Michigan Avenue. An 1857-58 plat map of Albion shows a rectangular house on the site. Another reference shows that Mr. Barnes settled in the area in 1856. The octagon house appears on the lot by 1868, and is also shown on an 1873 plat map of the village, with a small rectangular addition on the northeast side of the house.

  It was 2 stories with a steep roof and no cupola and a wide verandah circling the house.(Later map images shows verandah replaced with simpler porch.) Owned in 1873 (see street map) by H H Barnes and the area became Barnes subdivision. 1918 map shows octagon house off Michigan on 307 Burr Oak - so apparently it was moved around the corner. Gone by 1937 map. After some detective work on one of the mystery Houses I deducted that the mystery house and this Barnes house are one and the same.

  Connection between Henry H Barnes and Cassius Barnes:

  Cassius M. Barnes, governor of Oklahoma from 1897 to 1901, then manager of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company of Leavenworth, Kansas, was born in Livingston County, New York, August 25, 1845. He is the son of Henry H. and Samantha (Boyd) Barnes, the former a native of New York, and the latter of Massachusetts. Henry H. Barnes was a farmer and merchant. He and his wife were living in Calhoun County, Michigan, at the time of their death.

  Mr. and Mrs. Henry Barnes were the parents of the following children: D. H., who served in the Quartermaster Corps during the Civil War; Major Lucien J., who was Assistant Adjutant General in the Union Army during the Civil War,; Cassius M., the subject of this review; Julius A., of Duluth, Minnesota, and Miss Mary L. Barnes, of O'Fallon, Illinois.

  Cassius M. Barnes was educated in the public schools and Wesleyan Seminary at Albion, Michigan. In 1861 he enlisted at Battle Creek, Michigan, in the Battle Creek Engineers, an independent company, which served under John C. Fremont in Missouri for 105 days, and was mustered out by reason of the organization of the United States Signal Corps, and, during the remainder of the war, he served as military telegrapher, and clerk in the Quartermaster department.

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1868	1873
  H. H.'s wife Cemantha.	1918	1931
  1918

  
  
  Sources: Jim Irwin, Martha Irwin, and Frank Passic. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: May, 2015
  Updated: September, 2015
  Updated: October, 2015
  Updated: June, 2018
• Albion. Octagon house. 29 1/2 Mile ( Formerly Newburg ) Road, 1/4 mile south of the RR tracks. Two photographs, circa 1977, of the house are provided by the ELPuerzer archive.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  April 11, 1979	April 11, 1979

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin and Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
• Albion. Octagon house. Built before 1873. Nothing much is known about the octagon house on Huron street, one half mile north of the village. It was built by Charles E. Hull (Hall?) and demolished in 1948 for a new subdivision. Shown on 1873 map. (attached)
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Sources: Frank Passic. Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: July, 2002
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: October, 2018
• Athens. Octagon house. Built in 1873. Located at 105 S. A-Ave.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.088504, -85.233758
  
  Severely modified The James Mason House on Burr Oak and Avenue A. was a quaint little house with a cozy Victorian porch on the front, and a tall window on the second floor that extended into a gable on the roof.
  
  There was a square bay on the right wall. By the time of the 1886 postcard below, Mason was a widower raising his daughters. An 1873 map shows owner as a W. Bond. Mason died in 1929.
  
  The house underwent some changes by 1976. The front entrance was now an enclosed porch that extended at least 2 walls. And an addition was added to the left of the front entrance with a gabled window to match the original. It had also been asphalt sided in green, with white trim. It already was a travesty of the home Mason built.
  
  What stands today bears even less resemblance. The entire second story is a geodesic dome roof, which retains the original front 2nd story window. It was assumed Mason's house was gone but Mason’s granddaughter confirms this is indeed her grandfather’s house.
  
  Adrienne Saint-Pierre acquired the photograph in Ohio, while on a visit. The writing on the back of the photograph makes it clear that a photography business in Charlotte, MI, took the photograph. Taken in 1886 or 1887, the house is at least that old. It is quite remarkable that an old photograph of the house would turn up in another state altogether, and that someone on a visit would buy the photograph, locate this web site, and make the photograph available.
  
  The back size of the photograph, kept large to maintain detail, also shows a number of names that might one day be used to determine the name of at least one of the owners. From left to right are James Mason, the likely owner at the time, two daughters, Stella and Florence ( which is which is not clear ), and, Graham Wells, Sabina, and Mrs. Wallace. Just who they are is not clear, but since James Mason was a recent widower, with five children ( only two shown ), they might have been relatives and domestics there to help with the children. In fact, James Mason was once the owner.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Old photo of house.
  		1873
  1892	1899

  
  
  photograph.
  
  The deterioration of the house can clearly be followed from the photographs, and in year 2010 it looks little like it did 125 years and more ago. The two photographs of the house with gray siding were taken in 1976.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Dale Travis provides a photograph. R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer. Adrienne Saint-Pierre supplies the old photograph. Diane Garlets, Athens Community Library. Sharlene Thuma, librarian, Eaton Conty Genealogicial Society.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: July, 2002
  Updated: December, 2006
  Entered: June, 2007
  Updated: March, 2010
  Updated: August, 2010
  Updated: January, 2013
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: February, 2017
• Battle Creek. Octagon house. Likely built about 1855. Two stories with cupola. Located on 159 North Avenue. A segment of an 1880 panoramic map of Battle Creek shows the location and setting of the house at the center of the image.
  
  The images below show the house over the years. The house has clearly deteriorated.
  
  
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		July 8, 1979
  1913	1976	1976

  
  
  
  Dale Travis supplies the following
  photograph.
  
  Larger version
  
  Kevin Berner provided the following photographs.
  Front view.
  Front and right view.
  Left and back view.
  Right and back view.
  Front and left view.
  Back view.
  Sources: The Octagon Fad, p. 40-41, Dale Travis, and Kevin Berner.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: December, 2006
  Updated: April, 2009
  Updated: March, 2015
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: June, 2018
  Updated: October, 2018
• Battle Creek. Octagon house. 20125 12 Mile Rd.  Built:  1856  Status:  extant This city has a striking cobblestone octagon house was built for Nathan Chidester.  Owned by Mary and Richard Reese circa 1910. It stands 2 stories and the recessed 2-story porch is reminiscent of the Hall-Crull home in Indiana. Each pillar is octagonal shaped. The eaves have 4 brackets per side. There is a more recent addition on the back. As of 2001 Roger Lewis was owner.   
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.364402 -85.060743
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	June 30, 2014	June 30, 2014
  July 3, 2014

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  The ELPuerzer archive provides the following photographs, from about 1976:
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Source: Dale Travis and Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: July, 2014
  Updated: October, 2018
  Updated: August, 2019
• Battle Creek. Octagon house. Built in or before 1880. Now gone. Mott and Marshall Streets. A segment of a map from about 1880 of Battle Creek shows the location and setting of the house at the center of the image. The unlabeled street is Mott.
  
  James D. Holds provides the following history:
  
  I wanted to provide you with additional information I have gathered regarding an octagon house in Battle Creek, MI. I have attached three photos: One is the same photo on your site as reference. The other two are from an 1880 map, showing the location of the property. I have copied and pasted a Facebook post which I made yesterday on a Battle Creek history page, after researching the house. Please disregard any unnecessary text.
  
  This is the Townsend House and referred to simply as 'The Octagon House.' According to a November 1, 1921 article in the Battle Creek Moon Journal, it burned on halloween night of that year. The article contained a brief history of the house, which follows:
  
  "Being one of the oldest houses in Battle Creek, its history is most interesting. Through the courtesy of F.C. Stillson, whose grandfather, Charles Nichols, used to live in it, much valuable information has been gleaned, he having spent a great deal of time in boyhood days playing about the place.
  
  The property was purchased by James Townsend from Moses Hall just 77 years ago, in November, 1854. The Townsends were English people and were numbered among the early day aristocracy. They were members of the Episcopal church and one of the memorial windows now seen in St Thomas church was placed there for Mrs. Townsend.
  
  The house was built according to the English point of view, was octagon in shape, topped by a cupola, and finished outside with sandplaster. Originally verandas above and below, ran entirely around the house and were connected by an outer stairway, while each room in both stories led out upon them. As it was situated on an elevation, it commanded a fine view of the river valley which was in the early days unobstructed.
  
  A hedged road or lane led up to the house from the road that ran along in the direction taken now by the Michigan Central railway and hedges bordered the fields. The servants' house and barns stood near, as did a clump of timber.
  
  There were 140 acres in the farm that later passed into the possession of the Nichols and Shepard company and when the late C.W. Post was desirous of acquiring land for his second addition to the city,the house with 40 acres of land was sold to him, in the natural order of events passing on to the Postum Cereal interests.
  
  The house had been made to accommodate two families in later years and has always been pointed to by those privileged to style themselves "old" residents, as a place of historical interest."
  
  According to an August 5, 1909 article in the Battle Creek Enquirer, describing the cyclone of the previous day, many sought shelter in the basement of the octagon house.
  
  The 1919 Sanborn Fire Map lists it as being built in 1856, of wood frame with concrete between floors, and an address of 316 Marshall.
  
  I hope this information is useful,
  
  -- James D. Holds
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  c1900	1873	1870

  
  
  The c1900 photograph above shows that the house is in horrible condition already.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: October, 2011
  Updated: March, 2015
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: June, 2022
• Battle Creek. Bennett & (around 63) Pittee Street. Built in 1880 and known as the Bennett-Pittee house. A segment of an 1880 panoramic map of Battle Creek shows the location and setting of the house at the center of the image.
  
  The Lyman Pittee octagon was a large 2-story home. Bay windows flanked the front porch with its Victorian trim and carved pillars. He was a carpenter and owned a Lumber mill. The house was considered grand as were the several others he built for other wealthy citizens in town. Each side measured 17 feet and was large enough for the Pittee’s, their 2 children and sometimes borders. There was an addition off the back and by 1940s had been converted to apartment which obviously destroyed the 2st floors 8 pie-shaped rooms.. The house was razed in 1974. Sawed brackets embellished the porch, which covered the double front doors. The cornice and bay window had similar brackets. There was a cupola at the pitched roof. The window lintels all had arched moldings. A magazine called Country Life did a feature on Octagon Houses in 1913 and featured a photo of this house. On the 1946 newspaper photo the right side bay window had been converted into an entry-way.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	1913	Lyman Pittee
  August 13, 1911	1873	1880
  1946	April 14, 1946	1946
  1913	1974

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: April, 2009.
  Updated: July, 2009.
  Updated: January, 2014
  Updated: March, 2015
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: July, 2017
  Updated: June, 2018
  Updated: August, 2019
• Battle Creek. Penniman Castle.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  Named after dentist John Penniman. Started in 1900, construction continued until 1906. An early photograph shows a third floor, which apparently was destroyed by a chimney fire in 1941. Recent owners would like to restore the floor. It is located at about 443 Main Street, near the intersection with Kingman. The structure is built of fieldstone, and the interior contains the kind of ornate woods and woodwork that were still available in Michigan in 1900.
  
  Kevin Berner reports being in the house in November, 2005, and found that it still has an early 1900s decor. The design includes octagon rooms of all sizes. On the main floor the main room is an octagon, as is the main room on the second floor. Four octagon rooms come off of the main octagon room on both the first and second floors. On the second floor these rooms serve as bedrooms. There are also four octagon rooms in the basement, for a total of 14 octagon rooms in the house. It is not immediately obvious from the outside that the house is an octagon house, or just what it is for that matter. The four attached octagon rooms give the house an external appearance of just being rectangular.
  
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.30542, -85.169421
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Original look.

  
  
  
  Sources: Kevin Berner. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: November, 2005
  Updated: January, 2013
  Updated: January, 2015
• Near Homer. Octagon house. The Brockaway house. Built by Abraham Gridley, great grandfather of Michael Brockaway, in 1843. Northeast of the village at 6284 26 Mile Road. Two stories with cupola; red brick. The house is apparently a centennial house, meaning that it has been in the same family for 100 years or more.
  
  Photographs
  
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		November 12, 1953
  July 8, 1979	1953

  
  
  Sources: Lawrence Kestenbaum, Dale J. Travis. Both provided photographs. Jalene Beattie. Tammy Kline. "Farm & Ranch Living," February, 2011. Don Rawlings.
  Entered: About March, 2001
  Updated: July, 2007
  Updated: August, 2007
  Updated: February, 2011
  Updated: April, 2012
  Updated: January, 2014
  Updated: April, 2015
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: February, 2019
• Near Homer. Second octagon house. Nothing else known.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: July, 2002.
• Marshall a.k.a. Lyon Lake. Octagon house. Located at 110 Lyon Lake Road. Apparently a house kit. Built between 1895-1909 for Mary e Miller. The prefab octagon has a varnished wanescott exterior. The original porch was enclosed and became the living room. There are 3 gables on the roof (later additions?) and the interior has been severely modified with all original doors removed. Extant in 2012 but no architectural detailing remains.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.185702 -84.963402
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin; photograph provided by Dale Travis.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: December, 2006.
  Updated: October, 2013
• Marshall. Located at 218 S. Eagle Street, at northwest corner of Eagle and Hanover streets. Built 1856.
  
  Increase Pendleton from Connecticut built this house on the NW corner of Eagle and Hanover Sts. The original octagonal home had stone walls and was rather simply styled. He lived there for less than 20 years. Dr Gill resided here in 1863.
  
  By the time Morgan J. Alexander purchased it in 1875, it already had the back addition but he still did remodeling of the original house. He plastered the exterior walls and embellished the cornice with Victorian style brackets, which were the fashion in the mid 1870s. He also built bracketed entrance porches, even on the addition, and matching bay windows all heavily ornamented in Victorian style. The cupola was also bracketed and it was topped with an elaborate finial, now gone.
  
  In 1923 Pauline and Platt A. Mumaw purchased the home and did a restoration on it.
  
  The remainder of the exterior looks much the same as when Alexander completed his 1875 remodel, but for a needed paint job.
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  c1875	c2000	c2000
  	1888
  July 8, 1979	1916

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  The following photographs were provided by the current owner December, 2007, and show some of the inside details of the house. The house appears to be largely in original condition, with many of the wood and glass details intact. The owners are in the process of doing some painting and other maintenance.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Living room.
  	Dining area.
  		2014
  2014	2014
  		2022
  2022	2022	2022
  2022	2022

  
  
  Larger version
  
  Sources: L. Kestenbaum; R. Schweitzer; M. Culver; Buildings of Michigan, p. 210; Dale Travis. Jeremy Adcock, 2007 owner.
  Entered: June, 2001.
  Updated: March, 2002.
  Updated: December, 2006.
  Updated: January, 2014
  Updated: July, 2014
  Updated: April, 2015
  Updated: September, 2015
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: July, 2018
  Updated: December, 2022
  
  
• Near Marshall. Freeman Hotchkiss octagon house. Built in 1856. 17051 Sixteen Mile Rd., north of Marshall. Two stories. Grout fille walls, with one quarter inch stucco on the exterior and interior sides, scored to look like brick on the outside.
  
  The cupola leaked, and was removed in the 1950s. The owners, as of 2009, are looking at the possibility of restoring it, under the watchful eye of a historical/restoration architect.. Porch on three sides.
  
  According to the current owners, the house had no plumbing or running water until the mid-1950s.
  
  The current owner is attempting to get National Historic Registry status for the house.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  June 30, 2014	June 30, 2014	June 30, 2014
  June 30, 2014
  	February 7, 1963
  		1976
  1976

  
  
  The photograph in the second row above, middle, is said to be from 1895. The top three are year 2009, and show a new coat of pain. The bottom row, left, photograph might well be from near the time the how was built. The bottom row, right, photograph is undated, and shows the porch with a railing.
  
  Additional photos:
  
  Left and rear view.
  Rear view, showing addition.
  Second left and rear view.
  Right view near sunset.
  Distant view of the front.
  Distant view of the left side.
  Front view.
  Right view at sunset.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Larger version
  Sources: L. Kestenbaum; T. & J. Smith (owners), and Kevin Berner and Dale Travis, who supplied the photographs. Ellen Puerzer. Jen Ozolins. Todd H. Smith, the owner as of 2009.
  Entered: February, 2002.
  Updated: June, 2009.
  Updated: July, 2014
  Updated: April, 2015
  Updated: September, 2015
  Updated: September, 2017
  Updated: October, 2018

Cass County

• Dowagiac. Dowagiac MI 518 Spruce St. Prior to that the address was 107 Main St.
  
  This extant house was erected pre 1884.( LOT 1 MARY E. WHITNEY'S ADD CITY OF DOWAGIAC.)
  
  This modified octagon is 2 stories and the 1884 map it is listed as a dwelling shown on Pennsylvania and Main St. It's also on the 1890 birdseye map at that address with an addition in back.
  
  It was moved by William Cauffman around 1900 to Spruce St. where he planned it for rental purposes. (See 1900 article.) He purchased it from then owner George W Moore. He was a local grocer who reportedly came to Dowagiac on the famous Orphan Train in the 1860's - he is one of the few confirmed local residents who rode the Orphan Train.
  
  Reportedly the porch encompassed 5 sides but isn't shown like that on Sanborn maps. The reported cupola burned in 1920 also not shown on map. Now vinyl sided, no original architectural elements remain. Possibly built by Dr Prindle. The 1872 map doesn't show it as an octagon house at that corner but there is a house with an addition there.
  
  I received information a few yrs back it was been moved 3 times during its life having existed on Front St. then Railroad St. which I now tend to disbelieve. Ive seen no evidence of it at those locations on maps.
  
  "George Moore History.
  
  Only one individual has been identified as an orphan train child adopted in Dowagiac. As a boy, George Washington. Moore, later a prominent area businessman, traveled from the slums of Brooklyn with his younger brother Charles on the CAS train. Like many of the orphan train children, his immigrant parents died shortly after their arrival to New York City, leaving him to wander the streets. Moore arrived in Dowagiac in June of 1868. He was soon adopted by a farmer and later owned part of the farm. Eventually,( 1903) he built and managed a successful grocery store at the corner of (238 S )Front and Main Streets."
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	2013	2013
  2013	1872	1890
  	George Moore
  	1884	1899

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Larger version
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer. The Octagon Fad, p. 41. 518 Spruce Street.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated February, 2010
  Updated: October, 2013
  Updated: April, 2017
• Dowagiac. Round house. Built around 1940. Located at 58634 M-51 South. Two story. Now gone.
  Photograph.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  
  Sources: Dale Travis, and Michelle Jewell, the current owner.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: March, 2006
  Updated: November, 2010
  Updated: March, 2017
• Newberg Township. Octagon house. Nothing else known.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: July, 2002

Clare County

• Harrison. Octagon house. Now gone. Built for Edward Payton Cooper. circa 1915 It's a 1-story home with a cobblestone foundation. Note the varied shape of the windows. The photo shows Cooper, wife Eva and sons Nelson and Gerald. They moved there from Paw Paw Mi.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Payton Cooper, Wedding day.

  
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: August, 2017

Clinton County

• Northeast of Fowler, In 1858-68 an octagonal schoolhouse was built NE of Fowler. It stood in Lebanon Township at SW corner French Rd. & N. Grange St. in Clinton County. It was known as School District 6 and referred to as the round school despite its octagonal shape. Between 1983-1990 it was destroyed by a fire caused by a neighbor's trash igniting the entire field. Originally located at 13877 W. French Road it was moved shortly after construction. A 1967 article mentions the school.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  
  
  Sources: "More About Octagons," Carl Schmidt. Martha Irwin. Richard E. McLaughlin.
  Entered: October, 2002
  Updated: December, 2004
  Updated: October, 2012
  Updated: August, 2015

Eaton County

• Charlotte. Located on the southeast corner of Lovett and Pleasant Street. Lauren (John) Lenon resided with his family in the octagon house in 1899. He was a mail carrier for 30 years. An 1894 news article mentions its been repaired and D N Jones moving into E H Bailey's octagon house. By 1911 - 1927, according to a Sanborn map, it was already gone. A June 17, 1971 Charlotte Republican Tribune ran an article and photo on the house. It had a 3-sided verandah with a gallery on top, Victorian styled brackets and 12 porch posts. The clapboard-sided walls had corner pilasters. Not shown on a 1911 map - SE street corner shows regular house.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1890 fire.	June, 1894
  1870	1888	1942

  
  
  Sources: Ellen Puerzer. Jeralyn Bohms, director, Courthouse Square Association, Charlotte, MI. Charlotte Republican-Tribune, 6/17/1971.
  Entered: March, 2010
  Updated: June, 2016
  Updated: October, 2016
  Updated: October, 2020

Emmet County

• Bay View / Petosky. Octagon house. Located in the National Historic Landmark District of Bay View. 1859 Moss Ave. Built 1884 Bay View boasts a lovely yellow 2-story octagon cottage that is a National Historic Landmark. It has been modernized with a 2 story roofed portico flanked by verandah that surrounds the entire house. The roof features an open octagonal viewing area which resembles a gazebo. In 1921 it was purchased by Bishop Raymond J Wade. He added a kitchen and bathroom to the house which had parlor and bedrooms. It was known as the Apted Cottage. Sold in 2013 and now with an unsympathetic addition facing street with garage.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	2006	2006
  	2015

  
  
  Source: Jim Irwin. Martha Irwin provided the B&W photograph. Edward Rice provided the 2006 color photographs.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: April, 2008
  Updated: April, 2015
• Harbor Springs. Hexagon house. The Ephraim Shay house.
  
  GPS coordinates: 45.43033, -84.984291
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Shay machine shop - c1970.

  
  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Source: Dale Travis
  Entered: October, 2004
  Updated: June, 2013
  Updated: April, 2014

Genesee County

• Flushing. Octagon house. Built about 1850. Razed in 1942. Located at 717 East Main Street. Two story. Cupola.
  
  The Flushing Area Historical Society provides the following information about the house:
  

  THE OCTAGON HOUSE

  Much of the land around the intersection of the present Main and Chamberlain Streets was once an orchard, developed by Azariah Partridge. He also built his own cider mill, and once had an ice house down at the river.

  About 1850 Mr. Partridge built a house on his farm that attracted wide attention and became a Flushing landmark. It became known as "The Octagon House" because of its eight sides.

  This house was located on East Main Street, north side, just west of the present fire hall. Even though it was a landmark, it began to deteriorate, and in 1942 it was purchased by a local group of men, dismantled, and much of the lumber was used in building homes in the new Gerald Street development.

  A newspaper account from 1942 provides the following information:

  "The information below is from the Flushing Observer, April 23, 1942. Perhaps it will add a little more information on the house.

  Flushing Observer, April 23, 1942 (Flushing, Michigan) Octagon House, Early Landmark Is Torn Down Home Built By A. S. Partridge, A Pioneer, About 90 Years Ago

  Another of Flushing's ancient landmarks is being torn down, this time the building being the old "Octagon House" on East Main Street. Dr. Bryce Miller, who bought the property last year, has sold the house to Harold Johnson, who intends to have it torn down and will probably use the material in the construction of two or three smaller houses.

  According to the best available information the "Octagon House" as the building has been known for many years, was built by Azariah S. Partridge, who, at one time owned most of the land in what is now called the Point, as well as a large parcel on the south side of Main Street, now owned by F.W. Hertrich and the place occupied by R. N. Wismer. It is thought to have been built about 1850.

  It has been discovered that white pine lumber was used throughout the house, some of the boards being 27 inches in width and 1 ¼ inches thick. All studding is pine, and most of it is straight and almost knotless. Such lumber nowadays is almost unknown.

  It is said that the trees were felled and lumber cut on the Partridge place. Square iron (cut) nails were used throughout the building.

  Known throughout this section because of its unusual shape, the Octagon House was in the early days of Flushing a popular place. A. S. Partridge, the owner, was quite an influential man in the community and his home was the gathering place for many groups, it being the practice in those days to meet in the home for such meetings as we now hold in town halls and auditoriums.

  A county atlas lists Mr. Partridge among the important men of the community and records that he was elected assessor in Flushing when the village was just incorporated in 1878. He was a progressive farmer and at one time had his place almost entirely planted to orchard and fruit trees, some of which may still be seen in the yard at the Wismer home. He also operated a large cider mill and evaporating plant which at times gave employment to many men, and was later as an important business in the village.

  Inquiry for a reason why Mr. Partridge chose the unusual Octagon shape for his home, brought two replies. One was that he could afford it and just wanted it that way. Another was that there was some who felt that such a shaped house could be more easily heated, there being no cold corners."

  
  Left click on the images below for larger versions.
  
  

  1873

  
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Thanks to the Flushing Area Historical Society for the use of the photographs and additional information about the house.Ellen Puerzer. Don Wilson, Flushing Area Historical Society.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: April, 2009
  Updated December, 2009
  Updated: February, 2015

Gratiot County

• Alma. Octagon house. Built in approximately 1875 by William Anderson. Located 4223 Bliss Road, near the small town of Elwell. Two story. Yellow brick. Being restored. No cupola.
  
  GPS coordinates: 43.353448 -84.766780
  
  Gloria Price, the great-great-great granddaughter of the builder, has kindly provided some history and photographs.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  2016	2016	2016
  2016	April 28, 2005	2005
  2017 - satellite view	2005	Detail of furnace control

  
  
  Hubert Gee signature in cement, 1923 This appears to be a distant relative of George Gee, who homesteaded the land that was sold to William Anderson in 1865. How the inscription came to be there is unclear.
  
  Sources: R. Kline, Dale Travis, Rick McLaughlin, and Gloria Price, great-great-great granddaughter of the builder, William Anderson.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: June, 2005
  Updated: May, 2016
  Updated: September, 2017

Hillsdale County

• Hillsdale Octagon house. Being investigated.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2017.
• Jonesville. Octagon house. Located at West Street and Adrian Road. Located in Jonesville, Michigan at West and Adrian St. this octagon was replaced by a new home in 1965. (The photo dates to that time.). It was stucco with wood frame and owned by the Ford family at the time. The photo was taken from Fayette St. which ran along the north side of the property. The original front entrance faced Adrian St but the family used the back door as the normal entrance. The original entrance opened into a 2-level room with a spiral staircase leading to the second floor. A 1965 photo provided by Randy Whedon.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		January 6, 1966
  1872	1938

  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer. Randy Whedon.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: December, 2011
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: October, 2016
  Updated: June, 2018
• Jonesville. 12-sided house. Built before 1958, when it was somewhat restored, but how much before is not known. Was located at 1096 East Chicago Street, a.k.a. US-12. The last known families to occupy the house were the Knowles and Bach's. In 1994 Robert Bach murdered his uncle and grandmother. After that no one wanted to live in the house. The current owner (2007) suggests that it was built "in the 1800s." Sadly, the current owner also mentions that the house is slated to be demolished, and as of 2011, it is gone.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  The photograph at the left, above, was taken in 1976. Apparently the house suffered a steep decline between then and about 2007.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Carl Schmidt, "More About Octagons."Dale Travis provides the photographs. Ellen Puerzer. Kathy M. Kelly, Jonesville District Library.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: August, 2007
  Updated: August, 2010
  Updated: December, 2011
• North Adams. Octagon house. Nothing else known.
  Source: Martha Irwin.
  Entered: May, 2002

Ingham County

• Dansville. Octagon house. Built in 1863. Just east of the village at 1397 Mason Street stands a grout octagon house built by Dr. D. J. Weston. The exterior walls were scored to look like stone. It once had a porch along 3 sides but at present has no porch at all. 1960 photo shows a cement deck at entry. The large projecting cornice was decorated with paired cut out brackets, now gone. There are sidelights and a transom at the front entrance. It is built on a field-stone foundation and originally had 12 rooms. Bennett Taylor, who owned it in 1965, reports a speaking tube extended through the house to the cupola. It served as a boarding house for many years.The exterior walls were in crumbling condition in 1976 but were resurfaced with cement. Owned by Dr E Sherwood in 1874. Marvin and Diane Swan purchased it 40 yrs. ago but it's remained empty these 40 yrs and is deteriorating.
  
  A 1978 photograph of the house, provided by the ELPuerzer archive.
  
  Photograph.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Sources: L. Kestenbaum. M. Culver. Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer. Randy Gladstone, Mason, MI. David Votta, Local History Reference Librarn/Archivist, Capital Area District Library.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: September, 2002
  Updated: November, 2004
  Updated: May, 2010
  Updated: August, 2019
• Delhi. Described as an octagon cottage/hotel. Built about 1851, by Thomas Treat. Apparently torn down about 1920. Built of grout. A dance hall was connected. The structure shows up on maps from 1859, 1874, and 1895. It was located on the south side of today's M-99, approximately one mile south of Bishop Road, and immediately to the east of Waverly Road.
  
  Sources: Ellen Puerzer. David Votta, Inham County, Local History Reference Librarian/Archivist.
  Entered: July, 2010
• Lansing. 401 S. Washington Avenue, at Kalamazoo Street. Built in 1854
  
  Status: gone (doesn't show on 1866 birdseye map but does on 1874 Beers map; below.
  
  This grand octagon mansion was constructed by Colonel Whitney Jones and located at the SE corner of South Washington Avenue. It had elaborate curved projecting cornices over the windows and circular openings in the eaves surrounded with brackets. Above the windows were moulded brick lintels. A grand Victorian portico, topped with cresting, covered the grand double doors at the entrance. Each corner of the home had pilasters. 4 octagonal chimneys surrounded the tall cupola.
  
  In 1902 the house was moved from Washington Ave. reportedly by Arbaugh's Department store, across the lot (possibly Kalamazoo Ave.) . In 1910 according to a newspaper ad it was used as a hotel. A boarding house in city directories. see ads. There are over a dozen men rooming at the octagon in the 1908 directory. Other reports has it as a warehouse until it was demolished in 1929 to increase parking. A photo exists in preparation of the 1902 move.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	1874	1908
  	1902	1892 & 1898
  1935

  
  
  
  
  Photograph.
  
  The photograph above shows the house in the process of being moved.
  
  Source: Source: L. Kestenbaum.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: February, 2005
  Updated: April, 2011
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: August, 2016
  Updated: November, 2016
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: March, 2019

Ionia County

• West of Belding. Cooks Corners. Octagon house. Built in about 1855, by Anton Kohn. Built of poured concrete. Located at 6979 Whites Bridge Road. Two story. No cupola. No porch. As of fall, 2013, the house appears to be declining rapidly.
  
  Photograph.
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.
  
  

  Fall, 2013

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Dale Travis. R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer. Alvah N. Belding Library.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: July, 2008.
  Updated: March, 2009.
  Updated: May, 2010
  Updated: August, 2014
• West of Belding. Cooks Corners. Octagon house. Built before 1875. This image of an octagon with a back addition is shown on an 1875 Beers map at State and Main--Lot 3 in Ionia Co. Rufus R Cook one of the town’s founders owned the land and a nearby hotel. Both Mr and Mrs Cook were dead by 1886. No other info has been found.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1875

  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: November, 2015.
• Ionia. Octagon house. Built before 1868.
  A segment of an 1868 map of Ionia shows the possible location of the house, between Main and Washington Streets.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: June, 2001.
  Updated: July, 2004.
• Saranac. Octagon house. Apparently built between 1850 and 1852. Located at 168 South Main Street. Single story. The single story octagon in Saranac has elegant scrolled paired corbels in the droplet design under the eaves and pretty incised window lintels. There's a chimney on the peaked roof. The home once had a 12 foot cistern. A kitchen addition was built shortly after the home was constructed. The porch enclosed to create living space. The kitchen floor had a trapdoor.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1875
  1918

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Elline Slater-Trumbal, the owner. Dale Travis provides the photograph. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2001.
  Updated: July, 2004.
  Updated: November, 2004.
  Updated: October, 2013
  Updated: November, 2015
  Updated: March, 2017
  Updated: October, 2018
• Prairie Creek Part of Ionia. Octagon house. A Grand Rapids Gazette Oct 1897 newspaper mentions the new church house, a double octagon. One was smaller than the other divided by sliding doors.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1875 - shows the location of Prairie Creek.

  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: December, 2015.

Jackson County

• Near Concord. Formerly octagonal house. On M-60 immediately west of Concord. One story, wood, altered to square by filling in corners.
  
  Source: L. Kestenbaum.
• Parma. octagon house. Brownhurst. Built in 1852 by William and Lucinda (Landon) Brown. William Brown came to Michigan from New York in the 1840s. Located at 6770 Brown Road, Parma, MI, 49269. Two stories. Stucco. Cupola. Very well maintained. The exterior is plausibly in quite original condition. There are two historical plaques located on the front of the house.
  
  Reid Campbell, whose relatives owned the house for three generations, and lived in it himself for a while in the 1960s, relates the following information. Herman and Ellen (Benham) Brown lived in the house after William and Lucinda Brown died. After they died the house was inherited by their youngest daughter Bernice. She and her husband, Ray Campbell, then lived in the house. Upon Ray Campbell's death in 1970 ( Bernice died in 1968 ) the house was passed on to the children, Norman Charles Campbell, Doug Campbell and Joann Campbell. The house and farm were then sold to Doug Campbell, who then lived in the house until the early 1980s. Thereafter the house has had three owners, who pretty much kept the house and the contents, many family heirlooms, intact. A large amount of detailed history of the house exists. Alas,many of the contents were eventually auctioned off, much to the consternation of the original family, which bought as many items as they could. As so often happens, much of the history of the house has been scattered to the winds now.
  
  Frank Passic, Albion historian, supplies a postcard of the house, written in 1907 by Ellen (Benham) Brown to her cousin Carrie (Snyder) Ott.
  
  1907 view of the house, showing a back right shot, and a third door to the outside.
  
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1986 - Jim Irwin.	1986 - Jim Irwin.	1974 - Jim Irwin.
  1974 - Jim Irwin.	1974 - Jim Irwin.	1976 - Ellen Puerzer
  William Brown - builder.

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Jim Irwin, Reid Campbell, Erin Cambell, Frank Passic, and Dale Travis.
  Entered: July, 2002
  Updated: October, 2002
  Updated: December, 2004
  Updated: April, 2006
  Updated: August, 2017
• Spring Arbor. Octagon house and barn. Built in 1857. Located at 49283 Spring Arbor Road ( M-60 ). Both have been demolished.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: May, 2010
  Updated: May, 2014
  Updated: June, 2014
  Updated: July, 2014
• Springport. Octagon house. Nothing else known.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: July, 2002

Kalamazoo County

• Kalamazoo. Octagon House. Potter House. 925 South Westnedge. Built 1853 (another source suggests 1856), by congressman Allen Potter. Brick, one story, cupola. Abraham Lincoln spent a night in the home after delivering a campaign speech. A segment from an 1874 panoramic view of Kalamazoo shows the home near the corner of West and Burr Oak Streets. West Street is now Westnedge, and most of the other streets have also been renamed, something to keep in mind when looking for homes on old maps.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.282114 -85.588977
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1873	1908

  
  
  

  Photograph.

  The following information is from an initial survey of historic sites in Kalamazoo, done in 1973:

  "The Octagon House" at 925 South Westnedge remains one of Kalamazoo's better-known landmarks. Allen Potter, pioneer merchant and later Kalamazoo's first Mayor and a Congressman from the District, built it in 1855. It continues today much as it appeared when it stood almost alone at the far southern end of the village.

  Allen Potter entered into the hardware business when he came to Kalamazoo in 1845. He made friends and money quickly and soon branched into other parts of the village's business community. In 1850, for example, he joined with J. P. Woodbury to re-activate the bankrupt "Blast Furnace" just north of the village limits near what is now Riverside Cemetery. Though the furnace burned in 1851 and had to be rebuilt, Woodbury and Potter put it on a paying basis, mining ore from the banks of the river and turning it into iron for stoves which were manufactured on the site. In the mid-1850's, they sold their interest to a New England iron-master, William Burtt. Then, in 1857, Potter actively involved himself in establishing the village gas works, parts of which still stand between Portage and Pitcher streets. He also joined with Woodbury and William Wood in a successful private banking firm that became the Michigan National Bank in 1865.

  Potter was equally active in village affairs. He helped to organize the first fire company in 1846, served in the state legislature in 1857, as village president in 1859, 1863, 1870 and 1872, and later held a number of positions with the school board, the sewer commission, and the State Hospital.

  In 1855, he chose to build a home for his young family in what was then the edge of the countryside. He bought a lot near the old "Pioneer Cemetery," then being replaced by Mountain Home. He chose as his architectural model the "Octagon" fashion just then being broadcast in Orson Fowler's little book, A Home for All: The Octagon Mode of Building. Fowler, a popular phrenologist, believed very strongly that men's homes had major impact on their characters. The Octagon fashion was to provide Americans with the greatest possible living space for the least exterior wall. In addition, Fowler pioneered such ideas as the "family room," the "walkout basement" and the central "service core" for plumbing and heating. Though he intended that his houses be built for the "Common Man," it seems clear that people who felt somewhat "uncommon" chose the style for themselves. Though there were several "Octagon" houses in southwestern Michigan, only two seem to have been built in Kalamazoo--one by the local druggist, James Clapham [still standing at 628 S. Rose], and the other by Allen Potter.

  The house itself is a good example of smaller octagon buildings. The living room is centrally located in the single story and lighted very nicely from the cupola windows. Kitchen, dining room and bedrooms opened off this central room. A small addition thrust through the rear wall to provide additional space. Altogether a spacious floor-plan, but somewhat smaller than Potter's financial worth would seem to warrant. The Potters lived in the house from 1855 to 1870. The 1860 Census-taker listed Potter as forty, his wife, Charity, as thirty-four, and three young children. He valued Potter's estate at $15,000 in real and $40,000 in personal property. By 1870, Potter had redistributed his worth, now totaling $60,000--$50,000 of which lay in real property. In 1870, he finished building a new residence for himself on South Street [718 W. South].

  The Potters went on in the next fifteen years to earn a secure spot as one of Kalamazoo's "first families." Potter continued to think of himself as a banker, but branched out to other financial enterprises, including railroading and Colorado mining. He was elected as Kalamazoo's first Mayor when the country's largest "village" became a city in 1885, and he died in the same year. His wife, Charity, lived on South Street into the twentieth century. In 1910, the family was the subject of "A Tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Allen Potter," by Joseph MacCarthy, in which more than a hundred pages went to detailing their place in the community.

  
  Sources: R. Schweitzer, The Octagon Fad, p. 41-42, Kevin Berner supplied many photographs and the historical material, Dale Travis supplied photographs.
  Entered: January, 2002.
  Updated: February, 2007.
  Updated November, 2009
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: November, 2016
  Updated: June, 2018
• Kalamazoo. Built 1856. Located at 628 S. Rose Street. The James P. Clapham House is an 8 sided home with 4 of the walls slightly larger than the alternating 4. It is clapboard sided with a wide bracketed cornice. Clapham was a local druggist. Like many octagons, the original 3-sided verandah it had is gone and the windows have been replaced, but a photo of it with the original porch exists. The current ball and stick Victorian style porch is probably from 1900.
  
  After the Civil War, Clapham sold his home to insurance agent Charles Booth. (1873 shows him as owner).) Samuel Folz, clothing merchant and one time mayor of the city, purchased the octagon in 1891 and lived there until 1923. It was divided into 7 apartments in the 1920s.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  2013	2013	2013
  2013	2014	1873
  1874		1890
  1908

  
  
  Sources: R. Schweitzer, The Octagon Fad, p. 42, and Kevin Berner, who supplied the photographs. Ellen Puerzer.
  Updated: February, 2002.
  Updated: May, 2013
  Updated: July, 2014
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: November, 2015
  Updated: June, 2018
  Updated: October, 2018
• 1 mile north of Cooper. Octagon schoolhouse. Kalamazoo Co. A house in that area today was built in 1960. The school appear on an 1873 map of Cooper on Douglas Street, and is apparently gone.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1873

  1873 - school?

  1908

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer. Cathy Serra, Local History Assistant.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: May, 2010
  Updated: November, 2015

Kent County

• Grand Rapids. Octagon house (gone). Built by Elihu Smith, 1853; demolished in 1961 for I-196 freeway. The address was originally 91 Hastings. The 1912 city directory shows that the house was already a two family unit, occupied by Mrs. M. A. Burrows and Mrs. L. Paterson. In 1912 the city adopted a new address system, and the address became 7 Hastings Street N.E. Last owned by Anthony Kuklewski, who, in March 3, 1961, was granted permit #944 to enclose the front porch. This work was probably never done. Two story. Porches on both levels, which is unusual. Cupola. Baxter's 1891 history of Grand Rapids says the house was built in "the era of building gravel or cement houses." The era covered a period from about 1852 to 1856. Located on a bluff on the north side of the Michigan Street Hill, the house had a commanding view of Grand Rapids, The hill, the house, and the surrounding neighborhood are now long gone. An article, containing a photograph of the house, appeared in the Grand Rapids Press in about 1961.
  
  The following 1868 map of Grand Rapids, Michigan, shows the home at the center, at 7 Hastings Street. The image below is an undated drawing of the house. It shows the house once had a cupola.
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  
  

  

  
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  The photograph above, dated c1885, are meant to show the logs floating in the Grand River. The building with the smokestack is the Coldwater district water pump station. Captured incidentally is the Elihu Smith house on what would come to be called Belknap hill, as indicated by the arrows. The house is about 32 years old in the photographs, and still the only one on the edge of the hill, with a commanding view of Grand Rapdis.
  
  
  Elihu Smith was born in NY in about 1813, and came to Grand Rapids some time between 1842 and 1849. By 1856 he owned a steam powered machine shop, which was located on the east side of Canal Street, by the dam. He died in 1892, in Ormand Beach, Volusia County, FL, and is buried in Fagen Pine Cemetery. The image below is said to be a family painting. It's not clear when it would have been done. A guess would be about 1861.
  
  To the right of that is an 1856 painting of Grand Rapids, by Sarah Nelson. The Smith house is on the hill, to the left.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1856

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1933 - taken from Ionia & Trowbridge.	1933 - taken from Ionia & Trowbridge.	c1955
  c1955	c1955	1853
  1895	1874	1895
  1895	1912	c1960, months before it was razed to make room for I-196

  
  
  Note there is a TV antenna on the ground, to the left of the house, in one of the 1955 photos.. Also, the car shown in the c1955 photos appears to be 1940's vintage.
  
  The house was 102 years old in 1955. If the porch is original, it is in a remarkable condition. It's also of note that the cupola shown in the drawing above does not appear in the photographs.
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  The map on the left, above, is a 1916 sewer line map. The one one the right shows the route of the I-96 freeway, which decimated a large historic area of Grand Rapids in 1961. A big portion of the Michigan Street hill was leveled. The Smith octagon house would have been in lot 728. In year 2010 there is no hint of the house or the land it stood on for 108 years.
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer. Laura Lorenson Photograph Collection (#93), Archives, Grand Rapids Public Library. Barbara Vander Mark.
  Updated February, 2009.
  Updated May, 2009.
  Updated February, 2010
  Updated: August, 2010
  Updated: August, 2015
  Updated: August, 2016
  Updated: January, 2017
  Updated: August, 2018
• Grand Rapids. Octagon house. Two story. Now gone. Located at 706 Butterworth Street S.W. - called Butterworth Road at the time. According to Baxter's 1891 history of Grand Rapids, :"In the mid-1840s, both Lt. John Williams Gunnison and his brother-in-law, William Peaslee, a former ship's captain, came with their families and made their homes in the village of Grand Rapids. John's elder sister, Sophira Gunnison had married Peaslee in 1831 at Goshen, New Hampshire. Peaslee, a local manufacturer, served as president of the village in 1846 and also built the town's first fire engine. The Gunnison family commissioned Peaslee, perhaps with the aid of Ira Jones, to build the town's first known octagonal residence."

  It is clear that the house belonged to John Gunnison until after his death because an 1855 plat map reveals his ownership of the entire SE quarter of section 26 in Walker Township.

  Baxter, in his 1891 history, credits Ira Jones with building the house but family information indicates that John Gunnison's brother-in-law, William Peaslee, erected the Gunnison home. After 1880 Peaslee lived with John Gunnison's brother, Albert R. Gunnison in California; Albert's son Samuel V. Gunnison, related hearing conversations about Peaslee having built the octagonal house for Gunnison. This agrees with the article in the 1909 Grand Rapids Press by Harry W. Musselwhite. The name Ira Jones (who was presumed to have built it.) was not found in deeds until 1867.

  The house was the home of Anna Foster and Edwin Gaunt in 1924. Anna was the only name listed in 1936 and 1945.

  The octagonal house eventually became a rental property for several years and was torn down during the Urban Renewal Program of the 1960s, and the property used aas a parking lot.

  
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  		1895
  1895	1895
  1893	1874	1913
  c1939	c1938

  
  
  The images above are undated. No TV antenna, power lines, car, etc., help give any indication of when it was taken. The image at the right, above, shows where the house once stood, no a company parking lot.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer. Barbara Vander Mark.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: October, 2007
  Updated: February, 2009
  Updated: August, 2010
  Updated: May, 2012
  Updated: February, 2013
  Updated: August, 2015
  Updated: February, 2016
  Updated: October, 2016
  Updated: January, 2017
  Updated: August, 2018
  Updated: October, 2019
• Grand Rapids Octagon house. Shown in an 1883 or 1885 Sanborn map, and an 1893 birds eye map, but not in an 1868 Panorama map. Apparently located at either 657 or 857 (in 1911, 1200 block in 2011) Taylor Avenue. Gone by 1911 - replaced by a coal yard. As of 2010, everything old on the corner of Taylor Avenue and Frank Street is gone.
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		1893
  1888 and 1895	1895 Sanborn Map

  
  
  Sources: Barbara Vander Mark. Appears in Steinnemann's Assessor's plat #13.
  Entered August, 2010.
  Updated: March, 2016
  Updated: October, 2016
  Updated: October, 2018
• Grand Rapids Octagon house. Shown in an 1893 birds eye map. NE corner of Clinton and Fairbanks. Shown in the upper left. The Elihu Smith house is shown in the lower right. Needs confirmation.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: March, 2016
• Grattan. Octagon house. Shown on an 1855 plat map, it was built in 1855, or before. It was owned by R.S.Slayton in 1855. Located at 13027 Seven Mile Road. Two story. Cupola. Has an unusual recessed porches on the first and second floors.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		Photograph.

  
  
  
  Sources: R. Kline; Kevin Berner and Dale Travis supplied the photographs. Rebecca Smith-Hoffman.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: May, 2003
  Updated: July, 2006
  Updated August, 2009
  Updated: May, 2014
  Updated: May, 2020
• Kentwood. Octagon house. The Sluman and Delia Bailey octagon house, built in 1855. Located at 3180 E. Paris Road, S.E., which is near the intersection of E. Paris Road and 32nd Street. Sluman Bailey was a pioneering figure in Kentwood. The octagon house was part of the Bailey farm, but was only one of Sluman Bailey's interests, which also included many different local government positions. In addition, he kept a detailed diary throughout his life, which contains a great deal of information about activities involving the house. Many details of the house can be found in the book "The Story of Kentwood, A History of Kentwood, Michigan," ISBN 0-9662943-0-0.

  Now a commercial building. Until about 1990, when E. Paris Road was expanded from two to four lanes, the house was well back from the road, and in a more rural setting.
  
  The images below show the house over the years. A lot of money was put in to the house to undo the ravages of time, and the use as a rental property in the late 1950s through the 1970s or more, as shown in the middle photograph. The house was modernized as much as renovated, but is in very good condition as of 2011.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Photograph supplied by Raymond V. Kline, April, 2001.
  
  Dale Travis supplies this set of photographs.
  
  An undated, early photograph of the house with a porch on seven sides shown:
  
  Early photograph.
  
  Descriptions of the house in all of the photographs below are relative to the front door. e.g., front left is to the left of the front door as seen by someone standing outside, looking at the front door.
  
  The following photographs were taking in March, 1973, and show the house long before it became a commercial property.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Front view.

  Front right view.

  Front right view.

  
  
  Kevin Berner supplied a winter view of the house.
  
  The following photographs were taken during an open house celebrating 150 years since the construction of the house. Free access to the house was provided, inside and out, and a reasonably complete view of the house was obtained. After years without it, a porch similar to the original, on 7 sides of the house, has been added, and the widow's walk restored. It appears that around 1973 the upstairs of the house was a separate apartment. A set of stairs leading from the rear first floor entrance to the second floor, in no way original, has been removed.
  
  In general the house is in excellent condition. One can compare the 1973 photos above to the house in 2005 to see how much careful restoration work has been done. Most of the fixtures have been replaced again with pieces that would have existed when the house was first electrified.
  
  Exterior photographs
  ---------------------------
  
  Left side view
  
  Front left view
  
  Front right, showing front door and rear entrance
  
  Right back side, showing basement, and the first, and second floors
  
  Right back side, showing first and second floors
  
  Right back side, showing mostly basement, first floor
  
  Left back side, showing basement, and the first, and second floors
  
  
  First floor interior photographs
  -----------------------------------
  
  Front door
  
  Fireplace and stairs to the second floor
  
  
  Second floor interior photographs
  -----------------------------------
  
  Front left side
  
  Top of stairs, facing right side
  
  Stair guard
  
  Stair guard and stairs between the first and second floors
  
  Entrance to room in the rear of the house. Hatch above the door is attic access
  
  
  Basement interior photographs
  -----------------------------------
  
  Access door to outside - mostly faces right side
  
  Fireplace - no longer functional - also stairs to the first floor
  
  Batten on basement ceiling, probably once plastered
  
  Log holding up first floor beams
  
  Below is a collection of newspaper pieces, mostly from the Grand Rapids Press.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  
  
  Sources: R. Kline, Dale Travis, Ray Boisvenue, and Kevin Berner. Lynn Mack, the current owner of the house, provided free access to the house for taking photographs.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: March, 2005
  Updated: June, 2005
  Updated: May, 2012

Lake County

• Sauble Township Hexagon School. North of 1820 Hamilton Road, in Lake County, Mi. a hexagon school stands on theeast side of the road about 4 miles north of the Mason/Lake County Line. It appears to be block exterior or cement scored to resemble block.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: December, 2018.

Lapeer County

• Almont. Eight sided house. The Frederick P. Currier house, built in 1854. Located on 231 East St. Clair Street. Four sides of the house are 6 feet long, and the other four 20.5 feet. The house was in the family until 1960. In 1985 Frederick P. Currier IV purchased the house and had it completely restored.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1890	1874	Left front.
  Left front - large image.	Front door - large image.	Historical sign.

  
  
  Contemporary photographs.
  
  History & photographs.
  
  Sources: R. Kline and "An Octagon for the Curriers," Melanie Meyers,Frank Angelo, and Frederick P. Currier IV, Post Publishing, $29.95. Dale J. Travis provided many of the photographs.
  Entered: June, 2002
  Updated: June, 2004
  Updated: October, 2015

Lenawee County.

• Adrian. The J. H. Champion octagon house. Located at 523 S. Winter Street (at Michigan), Lenawee County Built in 1856 It doesn't show as octagonal on birdseye maps/
  
  The beautiful J. H. Champion octagon house was a beautiful Italianate structure but shows no evidence of that now. The front porch was a wide verandah supported by 10 decorative posts. (now enclosed) In 1868 it housed Mrs. Champenois's School for Girls. From 1869 to 1879, the owner was W. H. Payne, a school superintendent.
  
  In 1894 it was owned by Joseph A. Merritt and around that time the porch was modified and the brick painted a sandstone color. The verandah was now of simpler design. In 1968 the Feltmans converted the home into an adult daycare center. By 1976, the porch was enclosed and the house painted a stark white although it had retained its brackets on . It's assessed value in 1856 was $1,000.
  
  The images below show the house over the years.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  A circa 1977 set of photographs is provided by the ELPuerzer archive, and included below, top row:
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Contemporary photograph.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer. Dale Travis. Peter Barr.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: April, 2005
  Updated: May, 2005
  Updated: April, 2010
  Updated: November, 2011
  Updated: January, 2012
  Updated: May, 2012
  Updated: April, 2015
  Updated: January, 2016
• Hudson Octagon house. The Heman Goodrich House is a 2 story brick home built in 1861-62 at 428 Church St. . A cupola is shown on a 1868 Sanborn Map but is gone by 1915.. Only the platform remains on the apex of the roof. The original porch, encompassed 3 sides but was later removed. Heman Goodrich was apparently married to one of Will Carlton's sisters, Michigan's Poet Laureate. Will Carlton was born just east of Hudson in 1845. A Victorian style portico is situated on the front wall of the home and elaborate paired brackets decorate the eaves. There is an addition on the back wall of the house and the bricks are painted. In 1968 it was owned by Wayne D. Lamar.
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Circa 1970	1868

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Edward Lancaster, the current owner, who also supplied the photographs and details about the house..
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: June, 2004
  Updated: October, 2013
  Updated: July, 2014
• Morenci Octagon house. In 1846 a new eight-square or octagon shaped schoolhouse was erected. This frame building, usually called the "round” school, on Canandaigua Street, near the southwest corner of North and West Congress Streets. In 1856 a two-story brick schoolhouse later called the "old brick" replaced the “round” schoolhouse. It was erected by Ezra Gillis on the site of the former Union Street school. Later the First Methodist Church, used the old round schoolhouse as a meeting place.
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: January, 2015.
  Updated: March, 2015
• Tecumseh. Octagon house. Now gone. Nothing else known.
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: October, 2013

Mackinac County

• Bois Blanc Island. Octagon house. Built in 1897. Located one mile from the Bois Blanc doc. Might still be standing.
  
  Chris McAfee and Sally Sperry provide the following information:
  

  Bois Blanc Island is in the Straits of Mackinac. Many cottages had names--the octagon was called Inselheimlein. It faces Lake Huron on the south shore of the Island.

  The octagon was built in 1897 by Paul Ziegler, an Episcopal priest who was the rector of the Old Mariners Church in Detroit. His hobby was carpentry, and he, along with 3 of his four sons, designed and built the octagon from native materials with their own hands. He used birch bark gathered from deadfalls for the siding, as it was free and plentiful.

  When it was finished Paul, his wife, the 4 boys, and a housekeeper moved into it and lived there for three summers while they built a larger house, also sided with birch bark, next door. There were 2 stories--the lower story was one big room. It measures about 19 feet in diameter from side to opposite side. The second story juts out on all sides about a foot, and was divided by partitions that did not go all the way to the ceiling into 6 small wedges, so everyone had their own room.

  It is currently owned by Paul Ziegler's great grandson, Edward Sandell. It retains the original birch bark siding, front door, and interior stairs. Somewhere in the early 1960s, an extension was built on containing a bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom. It is used as a guest house, as it had been ever since the family moved into the large cottage.

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  The middle photograph was taken before WWII. The postcard is from 1914. Both were supplied by the current owner.
  
  Sources: E. Puerzer. Edward Sandell, the current owner, as of 2011.
  Entered: June, 2011
  Updated: July, 2011

Macomb County

• Mt. Vernon. Octagon house, by William Austin Burt. Built in 1843. Located at 3603 28 Mile Road. Wood clad, two story. One of three or four "Burt Chalets" remaining with ties to William Austin Burt, who. with his family and associates, built several.
  
  The current owners provide the following information:
  
  "The home was built by William Austin Burt for one of his sons, I believe the name was Wells Burt, in 1843, a little before Orson Fowler became popular.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	1960

  
  
  The construction is a timber frame type with 8x8 timbers for support in all of the corners and perimeter of the building. We are in the process of replacing the upper wooden decking and columns at this time."
  
  The current owners are in the process, as of July, 2005, of restoring the upper wood deck to a more original condition.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Matthew Schulte. Dale Travis and Jerry Freeze provide the photograph. Jim and Jean Holcomb, the current owners.
  Entered: June, 2001.
  Updated: June, 2003.
  Updated: July, 2005.
  Updated: February, 2015
  Updated: June, 2015
  Updated: February, 2018
• Near Washington. "Loren Andrus House"; octagon house. 57500 Van Dyke near 26 Mile Rd. Brick, two stories, with cupola. Built 1859-60, by Loren Andrus, an engineer who surveyed the Clinton and Kalamazoo Canal, and the route of the railroad between Port Huron and Flint.
  
  Loren Andrus
  
  The architect was the builder's brother-in-law, the local carpenter David Stewart. The basement has fieldstone and clay walls three feet thick. The upper three stories have foot thick walls made of brick. The house was originally part of a 380 acre peach farm. A history of the home was written about 1950, by Virginia Bond and another. It was owned by Wayne State University until 1964, and used as a headquarters for the Albert H. Schmidt Foundation Farm. It was also used by students specializing in agriculture.
  
  After 1964 it was slated to be demolished, and was purchased by a private party for restoration. Around 1984 to 1987 it was purchased by "Friends of the Octagon House," which then raised the funds to restore the house. See "Sources" below for a web link to the house.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		1984
  	1913
  	Cupola area	Parlor
  c1910	1960	1960

  
  
  The photograph at the right, top, is dated April, 1984. The one in the bottom row, right, is dated March, 1913. The others are undated.
  
  A Photograph and postcard.
  
  The postcard shows the house in perhaps the 1940s, or 1950s. It's interesting that it had a four digit phone number. The ad is from the time the house was at least partly a restaurant.
  
  Sources: M. Culver; E. Puerzer; R. Schweitzer
  The Octagon Fad, p. 43
  Buildings of Michigan (photo), p. 177
  Friends of the Octagon House
  Martha Irwin supplied the photograph
  Dale Travis supplied the postcard.
  Entered: January, 2000
  Updated: January, 2016
  Updated: November, 2016
  Updated: February, 2018
  Updated: August, 2019

Manistee County

• Arcadia. Arcadia. Octagon house. Now gone. Two stories, and a full basement. Located just north of Arcadia, on the top of a hill, on property now owned by Consumers Power Company. The company demolished the house in anticipation of constructing a pumped hydro facility, but then did not build. The house employed poured concrete walls, containing large field stones. An octagonal chimney extended through the center of the house, which had central heating, with an octopus like structure of ducts that ran out from the center. Iron bolts secured the roof of the porch to the walls. The pilasters and the horizontal belt course at the second story level are part of the concrete wall.
  
  The following circa 1950's photograph, from Carl Schmidt's second book, "More About Octagons," is this house but appears to be abandoned already. Eric Showalter visited the house several times in the 1970s, and states that the photo might well be of the house. Recent compelling evidence suggests it was built circa 1897 by Orlo and Viola Putney (including photos of the family celebrity its construction.) Orlo had himself long run a small mill that cut the lumber specifically needed by local farmers for constructing their homes and farm buildings. He often used the customer's own logs.
  
  GPS coordinates: 44.525195 -86.201098
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Thanks to Steve Finch of Patagonia AZ who sent the following: The house was at the northeast corner of St. Pierre and Matzinger Roads. St. Pierre was also known locally as "Old M-22". That intersection was a few hundred  feet south of the junction of St. Pierre Rd and modern day M-22 just north of the Arcadia Scenic.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Eric Showalter, who provided location and other details.
  Entered: May, 2002.
  Updated: June, 2003.
  Updated: January, 2019
  Updated: February, 2019

Marquette County

• Marquette. Octagon house. Home of high school teacher
  Source: Vivian Glass.

Mason County

• Eden township?. Octagon house. Located on Hawley Road. Now gone. Nothing else known.
  Source: Martha Irwin.
  Entered: May, 2002.
• Branch. Octagon house. Razed in the 1990s. Located on Barothy Road. Nothing else known.
  Source: Martha Irwin.
  Entered: May, 2002.

Newaygo County.

• Hesperia. Octagon house. Construction date unknown. Located at 164 E. South Street. Cupola. Porch on at least four sides. Appears to be wood construction.
  
  This stylish octagon house while only 1-story seems larger due to the steeply pitched roof, which ends in a glass-walled cupola. The porch is unusual in that it is built just below the cornice and encircles the entire house. It is of plain design with plain square pillars. and possibly later era than the house. The house is clapboard exterior. Valued at $85,000 for 1500 sq feet of living space. There is an addition on the back.
  
  GPS coordinates: 43.56855 -86.037049
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Larger version
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: July, 2017

Oakland County

• Lake Orion. Octagon house. 850 Pleasant Ridge. Nothing else known.
  Source: Martha Irwin.
  Entered: May, 2002
• Lake Orion. Second octagon house. Also on Pleasant Ridge. Nothing else known.
  Source: Martha Irwin.
  Entered: May, 2002
• Lake Orion. Octagon house. Now gone. Located at 458 Main Street, now 446 Broadway.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1934

  
  
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: October, 2018
• Oxford. Octagon house. Harry Frink House, built around 1850. Located at 2246 Oxford Rd. Two story. Cupola. Each side of the house is 20 feet long, making it a very large house. A spiral staircase in the center of the house stops short of the cupola. Frink was a farmer and master carpenter from New York.
  
  The current owners are apparently the 7th, although the second owner was in the house some 80 years. The current owners say the house is basically in very good condition, and are in the process of restoring the items changed to agree with the original plans, which they have.
  
  Photograph.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Sources: The owners as of September, 2004. Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: June, 2001.
  Updated: September, 2004.
  Updated: April, 2006.
  Updated: July, 2007.
  Updated: December, 2012
  Updated: March, 2016
• Pontiac. Octagon house. The L. L. Dunlap house. Built in the 1850s. Razed in 1929. Two story. Cupola. A 1926 photograph suggest there is no porch, which probably means the original one rotted away, which was the fate of most of them. The house is shown at the center of a segment of an 1867 map of Pontiac, on 127 West Huron Street. Another possible polygon structure appears nearest the upper right hand corner. A portion of an 1872 map of Pontiac shows the house, near the intersection of Huron Street and the railroad tracks, lot 16.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		1872
  1919

  
  
  The photograph on the left, above, was taken about October 26, 1926, two to three years before it was razed. The photograph at the right is undated.
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Ken and Tammy Martin supplied the photograph. The 1926 photograph is part of the Walter P. Reuther Library at Wayne State University, and is used with permission. Godfried Brieger, Oakland County Pioneer & Historical Society.
  Entered: June, 2002
  Updated: November, 2007
  Updated: June, 2009
  Updated: June, 2018
• Rochester. Octagon house. Built circa 1840. Lyman Wilcox is credited with having built this octagon house during the Fowler era and he resided there for years. Other names associated with this farm are A. C. Day and Howard MacGregor who razed the house in 1939. It was a 2-story with partially exposed basement. The walls were stone or stucco-clad and the house had a cupola. It was known as Wood Dawn. The verandah began at the basement level and encircled the entire first floor. Italianate brackets adorned the eaves and the porch showed similar influence in its trim-work. The home boasted 42 rooms and a spiral staircase. The Rochester Clarion recorded its demise in 1939. It stood near the present site of Great Oaks County Club.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: December, 2010
  Updated: January, 2014

Oceana County.

• Pentwater. The Hexagon House was constructed circa 1870 as one of the first boarding houses for the many lumbermen visiting the area from Chicago and from around the Great Lakes, making the home nearly as old as the town itself. In fact, the builder and first owner was named S.E. Russell, and was an agent of Charles Mears – the Western Michigan lumber baron of that time
  
  According to Michigan.Org, the next major evolution of the Inn came about in the 1920s and 30s when the two daughters of S.E. Russell inherited the property and turned it into a summer tourist camp, and the home base from which they ran a homemade pie business and a boat rental business. (The black and white photo included in this post comes from that time period.) The surviving Russell sister sold the home in the 1950s. Since that time The Hexagon House has changed owners on five more occasions, being enjoyed by the families of a distinguished dentist from Chicago, a professor from Nova Scotia, the Warners, who are responsible for completely renovating the home in 1994, restoring it to a masterpiece of Victorian elegance and two veterinarians from Grand Rapids, Michigan. Finally, in 2011, Matt and Sandy Werner purchased the property, embarking on second careers as innkeepers.
  
  The house underwent a major renovation in 1994. The photographs show the house in undated photos before 1994, and in 1994 when the house was undergoing major renovation. The original house was literally stripped to the studs. Molding and other oak features were saved, and use when the house was rebuilt. Very little of the original house remains today beyond some floors, a fireplace border, some molding, and the iron spiral staircase, which is now outside and used as a passage between the first and second story porches.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  
  History

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Undated.	Pre 1994 remodeling	Pre 1994 remodeling
  Pre 1994 remodeling	Pre 1994 remodeling	July 14, 1972

  
  
  Below are some views of the remodeling process.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  S. E. Russell's daughters, c1930

  
  
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: March, 2006
  Updated October, 2009
  Updated: May, 2013
  Updated: July, 2013
  Updated: October, 2013
  Updated: December, 2018

Ottawa County

• Gitchel. Grummel octagon house. Located at 595 24th Avenue. About one half mile south of Gitchel, which is little more than a cross roads. The house is about 3 miles south of Jamestown.

  The house was substantially modified in the 1950s, as can be seen in below. The original second floor was lost because of severe water damanage, and for some reason the city wouldn't allow it to be replaced. The upper floor was a dance floor, perhaps reflecting the greater interest in the activity in times past. Walls were removed to make larger rooms. The current owners are attempting to restore the existing portion of the house to reflect the original construction. Some original wood and wainscot still exist.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.778481, -85.842059
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  The top row photos, taken around 1900, show a two story house. Today, as shown in the bottom row photos, the house is a single story dwelling, and features like the curvature of the tops of the windows have also been removed on several sides. The pitch of the roof is about the same today as in 1900, but the widow's walk, porch, and much of the "gingerbread" is gone. The bottom row photos, show that work has been done to the house during the time in which the photos were taken. New windows, for example.

  The reasons for the substantial downsizing of the house are not currently known.

  
  Sources: R. Kline. Dale Travis supplies the photographs. Erika and Jade Gillette, the current owners.
  Entered: September, 2002
  Updated: August, 2004
  Updated: May, 2009
  Updated: August, 2011
• Lamont. Built in the 1850s by Edgar Babcock. Razed in 1960 to make room for a post office.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  c1922

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: November, 2011
  Updated: June, 2014

Saginaw County

• Chesaning. Octagon house. Located on the edge of town, on M-157. Nothing else known.
  Source: Dale Travis
  Entered: August, 2002

Sanilac County

• Amadore. Now Croswell. Octagon house. Built in 1869 by George W. Smith. Located at 7925 Wildcat Road. Two story. Large cupola - 13 feet wide. Wood sided.
  
  Amadore was the the original name of the town. In year 2007 it has no post office, and the mailing address is now Croswell, MI. Near the St. Clair county border, the house is sometimes erroneously said to be in Jeddo.
  
  George W. Smith was from Scotland, and was a seaman on the Great Lakes until he turned to farming. The original farm was 120 acres.
  
  GPS coordinates: 43.197703, -82.585342
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		1989
  1978		1936

  
  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: R. Kline. The current owners (2007), Bill, Cindy, and Jesse Todd. Dale J. Travis provides the photographs. Martha Irwin.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: July, 2002
  Updated: May, 2007
  Updated: July, 2007
  Updated: January, 2013
  Updated: June, 2013
  Updated: March, 2019
  Updated: June, 2020
• Sandusky. Octagon house. Built in 1910. Located at 132-13 Elk St.
  Source: Dale Travis.
  Entered: August, 2002

Shiawassee County

• South southeast of Owosso/Shiawassee Vicinity. Octagon schoolhouse. Located at 723 Bennington Road. Converted to a private residence. This octagon, still standing, is a single story schoolhouse with cement walls and a tall cupola. Located at 723 Bennington Rd. in Shiawassee County, it was constructed by Rev.George Reynolds in 1850. The original brick walls were stuccoed around 1900 and scored to resemble stone The cupola/belltower was enclosed when it became a residence. It had a dirt floor basement and a single room, divided into 4. It has an addition and a large carport. It is now vinyl sided. It appears to have a smooth cement exterior today.
  
  Photograph.
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  January 29, 1915.

  
  
  
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: August, 2002
  Updated: April, 2008
  Updated: August, 2013
  Updated: October, 2013
  Updated: June, 2016

St. Clair County.

• Yale. Octagon house. Nothing else known. Searched for in 2007, but not found.
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Dale J. Travis.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: July, 2007

St. Joseph County.

• Fawn River/Sturgis. Irregular octagon house. Originally the districet no 3 school. Built in 1881. Used until the 1950s. At some time the vestibule and cupola were removed. Located at about 31165 Fawn River Road. Two story.
  
  GPS coordinaes: 41.781361, -85.346929
  
  

  Photograph.

  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Source: Martha Irwin. Dale Travis supplies the photograph.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: July, 2003
  Updated: December, 2012

Tuscola County

• East of Mayville. Octagon house. Located at 5927 Treasurer Rd. Tuscola County Built: 1870. A master carpenter from Canada, William Grant Randall, constructed a house SE of this village in Dayton Township, 2 miles from Mayville. He then built an octagon home onto the original wood structure. Randall also built an octagonal carriage house, later used as a garage, which burned down 30 yrs ago. The porch encircles the house on the first story and the roof is topped with an octagonal cupola. On April 12, 1936, Emily Randall married Marvin Wingert (of Wingert Food Markets fame) in the octagon house. It was put on the Historical Register in 1976. It is now a bed and breakfast run by Randall's descendant, Minnie Randall.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Dale J. Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: July, 2007
  Updated: January, 2013
  Updated: October, 2013
• Richville. Octagon house. Located on Reese-Richville Road, off M-46. Nothing else known.
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: July, 2002

Van Buren County.

• Northeast of Covert. Octagon house. Built in 1888. Two story, cupola. Wood construction. Located at about 72500 32nd Avenue.
  
  Orlo William Shattuck was born on 20 Jun 1849 in Plainfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts. He married Evelyn Mary Rood,(b.Feb 8,1852; d. May 1935)) in Feb 4, 1873 In 1880 Orlo moved to Covert. Working as a grocer in 1888 he built the octagon house. In 1900 he moved to South Haven Village where he worked in the livery business. He died on 21 Jul 1906 in South Haven. and was buried Covert Cemetery, Lot 254-1 on 23 Jul 1906.
  
  Nicola Calabrese owned the house at one point, and his son Genaro was born in the house in 1926.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.300877, -86.253667.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	Orlo William Shattuck - the builder.	1954

  
  
  Above, bottom row, right, the house as it appeared in 2006. Above, top row, left, the house as it appeared in 1976. In 2006 the porch is gone, and a cupola has been added that does not seem to be historically accurate. One can see in the other items that there was also an octagon barn to go with the house. There is a barn in year 2012, but it's age and originality are not known at present.
  
  Photograph.
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer. Nick Calabrese.
  Entered: March, 2002
  Updated: March, 2011
  Updated: April, 2012
  Updated: June, 2012
  Updated: July, 2017
  Updated: February, 2019
• Northeast of Hartford. Round house. Woods Hole Silo House. Four story. Perhaps a converted silo.
  Photograph.
  Source: Dale Travis.
  Entered: March, 2002
• South Haven. Octagon house. Built in 1872. Located at 7371 North Shore Drive. Two story. Cupola Apparently the house has been significantly renovated as of July, 2003. The cupola may or may not be original. Possibly it has been restored. In the 1930s the house served as the offices of Barons, a resort which was started the 1920s by Morris Baron, and operated until the 1960s.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.427299, -86.262988
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  
  
  The photograph at right, above, was taken in the 1930s.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Kevin Berner. Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer. Ed Appleyard and the Historical Association of South Haven, MI.
  Entered: July, 2002
  Updated: July, 2003
  Updated: April, 2007
  Updated: May, 2010
  Updated: July, 2010
  Updated: January, 2013

Washtenaw County

• Ann Arbor. "Winchell House"; octagon house. Built in 1853. Razed in 1913. On North University Ave. at site where U-M's Hill Auditorium now stands. Demolished 1913. A portion of an 1880 map . shows the location of the house, at center of the image.
  
  Brief article, photos, floor plan..
  
  Alexander Winchell left the U. of Michigan in 1872 and became chancellor at Syracuse Univesity. In 1875 he became a faculty member at Vanderbilt. What he did with the house after 1872 is not clear. He came back to the U. of MI in about 1878, and stayed there until he died in 1891. Whether he'd sold the house when he moved in 1872 is not clear.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1899

  
  
  Sources: M. Culver; L. Kestenbaum; R. Schweitzer; The Octagon Fad, p. 40; R. Kline.Wystan Steven, Ann Arbor historian. Ellen Puerzer.
  Updated: October, 2003.
  Updated: March, 2008.
  Updated: December, 2012
  Updated: September, 2014
  Updated: February, 2017
• Near Dexter. "Henes House"; octagon house. Age unclear. 4360 Mast Road. Unusual roof. Wood exterior. Needs paint, but otherwise appears to be in good condition.
  
  GPS coordinates: 42.346352, -83.874387
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1976

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: M. Culver. Mark Comstock provides the photograph. R. Kline.
  Updated: May, 2004
  Updated: December, 2012
  Updated: October, 2018
• South Lyon. The "Nathan Devereaux Octagon" house. The house was completed in 1864 by Nathan Devereaux. A two story home with cupola is located at 66425 West Eight Mile Road, west of Rushton Road. The foundation is field stone. Construction is post and beam. The house is on a Centennial Farm and is listed in the National Registry of Historic Places.
  
  A rarity, the house has been in the same family since it was built, and because of the family's pride in the house, has been maintained extremely well, both inside and out. John and Vivian Devereaux were long the owners before the current owner, Marilyn Harrington.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	1976

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin, M. Culver, R. Devereaux, Dale Travis, and Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: September, 2002
  Updated: March, 2007
  Updated: June, 2009
  Updated: April, 2011
  Updated: October, 2018
• Ypsilanti. "McAndrew House" Octagon house. Built in 1854 by William McAndrew, a carpenter, and husband of Dr. Helen McAndrew, who ran her practice from the house. 105 S. Huron Street. Shown in an 1868 map segment of Ypsilanti.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  The house over the years.

  
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1930		1869
  	1888	1976

  
  
  The photograph at the left, top row, above, was possibly taken in the late 1850s, shows the home to be two story, with a large cupola, and a porch probably on five sides. A rectangular room hangs off one side of the house, and was likely part of the original construction.
  
  The photograph in the middle, above, top row is purportedly the same house, but this needs verification. If one looks at the Ross house, in Shirley, IN, one can see an example of where similar porches were replaced with a more tranditional octagon house porch.
  
  The photograph at the right, above, provided by the ELPuerzer archive, probably from the 1970s, shows how dramatically the house was altered over the years. A form of cupola exists, but it's not clear it has any windows, or just what it's function was. As is so often the case, the porch is gone. The original chimney is gone, and some kind of fireplace was added by 1931 already. Some kind of porch structure, shown at left, over what was probably the orgiginal front door, has also been added. The rectangular room to the right might or might not be part of the original. The camera angle does not permit enough view of the back of the house to know whether this is over and above the original rectangular structure.
  
  The photograph at the left, bottom row, above, was taken in 1930. The photograph at the right, bottom row, above, is undated.
  
  The house was destroyed by fire in December, 1983.
  
  Sources: M. Culver; The Octagon Fad, p. 43. Ellen Puerzer. Ypsilanti Historical Society, Fletcher-White archives.
  Entered: June, 2001.
  Updated: September, 2002.
  Updated: October, 2015
  Updated: January, 2017
  Updated: October, 2018
• Ypsilanti. Octagon house. Located at 114 N. River Street. Built in 1868, this 2-story home had a full porch surrounding its 8 walls that was replaced in 1906 with an entry porch over a door with 2 sidelights. The first floor French doors were also removed at that time. It also had a cupola that was removed. There are shingles on first floor exterior and the second is clapboard. This 2 story home was moved from Cross to River St. in 1966 and is currently an emergency clinic. hown in an 1868 map segment of Ypsilanti.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1915
  	1970

  
  
  Sources: M. Culver; L. Kestenbaum; R. Schweitzer; R. Kline; Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: June, 2002
  Updated: February, 2004
  Updated: July, 2006
  Updated February, 2010
  Updated: August, 2013
  Updated: December, 2013
  Updated: June, 2015
  Updated: February, 2019

Wayne County

• North of Plymouth Township. Octagon house. Perhaps the ohmstreitch-Roy house. Built in 1860. Located at 41701 Schoolcraft road - Wilcox Road in 2009. Razed about 1955. The original ownners were Lydia and Harman Roy.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin. Ellen Puerzer. Heidi Nielsen, archivist, plymouth_history.org.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated August, 2009
• Southeast of Plymouth Township. he Marion Guthrie Home originally was built in Westland, SE of Plymouth Township at 7352 Newburgh Road. The white structure was built by Emmett Smith & had a circular porch on the front wall. Reportedly it was plaster siding replaced with claboards, then vinyl. It was flanked by a semi-octagonal wings, both added in the 1937.
  
  chimney pierces the roof and there is a defined octagonal area on the roof that suggests a cupola once sat there. When threatened with demolition in the 1990s, it was moved to the Westland Historical Museum property - 857 North Wayne Road--just north of Ford Road and is now for public use, including weddings.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	1976	1976
  1976

  
  
  photograph. Showing the move in progress.
  
  Outside repairs
  
  Sources: Martha Irwin and Dale Travis.
  Entered: May, 2002
  Updated: January, 2007
  Updated August, 2009
  Updated: December, 2010
  Updated: January, 2015
  Updated: October, 2018