NEW HAMPSHIRE

Carroll County.

• Wolfeboro. Located at the corner of Green and S. Main Streets. Two story. Charles E. Ham, whose father was the town's leading builder, erected the octagon house on the corner in 1870. It was a 2-story clapboard structure with bay windows. Ham sold it in 1872 to Dr Oliver Dowlin. The Christian Science Society purchased it in 1939. At that time it was the Emma Bassett home. They remodeled the entire first floor to create one room and added an addition to the right of it. The Society still owns the octagon house today. 1940 era photo shows original entry between 2 bays - now gone.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1917

  
  
  The image in the middle, above, shows the location of the house in 1889, from a bird's eye map. The image at the right is a 2012 street view.
  
  Source: R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2002.
  Updated: October, 2010
  Updated: May, 2011
  Updated: May, 2012
  Updated: August, 2013
  Updated: October, 2014
  Updated: November, 2017

Hillsborough County.

• Manchester. Octagon house. The Henry Lenz house. Located at 130 Mast Road. Two story. Large cupola. The photograph at the left, below, shows the house as it appeared around 1899, with the original porch and gingerbread trim that extended around at least 5 walls.
  
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  Circa 1899

  
  
  Sources: "More About Octagons," Carl Schmidt.Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: October, 2002.
  Updated: April, 2009.
  Updated: April, 2012
  Updated: December, 2012
• Manchester. Octagon house. Located at 481 Hanover Street. The name of the first owner and architect of this building is unknown. The 2-story brick home has granite windowsills and lintels. It was built with a slate roof, a cornice embellished with brackets, and a large cupola. The mansard style roof has 4 dormers. A charming Victorian porch leads to beautiful double doors. A wing in back connects the house to an 8-sided carriage house which was already connected in 1867. That frame building is covered with shingles and also has a cupola. The wing has a side porch with Victorian trim similar to the rest of the house. In 1885 the owner auctioned off the home and it became the residence of Mr Joy and later, his daughters Barbara and Maud, who resided here until 1955.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  	Satellite - 2013	Satellite - 2013
  		1891

  
  
  Source: R. Kline.Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2002.
  Updated: April, 2009.
  Updated: May, 2009.
  Updated: July, 2009.
  Updated: April, 2012
  Updated: August, 2013
  Updated: October, 2013
  Updated: July, 2014
  Updated: September, 2014
  Updated: September, 2017
• Manchester. Octagon house. The Richardson-Ela house. Built about 1855. Located at 585 Beech Street.Two story. Porch on one side.
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1893	1897	1891

  
  
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: September, 2002.
  Updated: April, 2009.
  Updated: July, 2013
  Updated: November, 2015
  Updated: August, 2019

Rockingham County.

• Portsmouth. Octagon house. Located at the corner of Middle and Richards Street. The home (Jonathan Folsom was Architect/builder; built on Middle & Richards st. in 1813 by Thomas Haven was later owned by Admiral George Washington Storer. His claim to fame was having sat in George Washington's lap as a baby in 1773 Storer’s daughter Mabel married the grandson of Stephan Decatur, a hero of the War of 1812, Around 1866 another Storer daughter had the home razed and built a victorian mansion on the site.
  
  

  Left click on the image below for a larger version.

  

  The daguerreotype from which the image above was made is now lost. It seems to be the best image now available.
  
  Sources: "More About Octagons," Carl Schmidt. Ellen Puerzer. Tom Hardiman, Keep, Portsmouth Athenaeum.
  Entered: October, 2002
  Updated: May, 2009

Strafford County.

• Dover Octagon house. The exact date of construction for this octagon building/house isnt known but it shows up on an 1877 birdseye map on 5th St. approx 53 5th St. Its difficult to ascertain if it was built as a house but it has been a dwelling since 1878. By 1887 an insurance map shows it as a stone building on the J W Tapler paper box factory lot with the lot beside it listed as a garden. (see images of Sanborn maps below)
  
  There were entries on all walls and a porch across the front 2 walls. After 1892 but by 1898 an addition was added and the 1898 map shows it as stucco on front half and wood the latter half that merges with the additions. The number of entry points had been reduced to 2.
  
  Today the home exterior is wood with vinyl soffits. Thanks to historian, Peter Michaud for bringing this octagon to my attention.
  
  GPS coordinates: 43.200528 -70.879694
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1877	1887	1892
  1898	1905	1912
  1892

  
  
  Sources: Peter Josmichaud. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2014.
  Updated: October, 2015
• Somersworth. Formerly Great Falls. Irregular octagon house. Built in or before 1877. Located at 32 Prospect Street, which is not the original location. Two story. Cupola. Shown at the center of a segment of an 1877 map of Great Falls.
  
  A partial octagonal house was located at the intersection of Beacon Street and Prospect. It has an octagonal front connected to a gabled structure in the rear. At some point it was moved up the street 200 feet from its original site. The 2-story house of clapboard exterior has no cupola just a widow's walk. Much of the interior is original with original sinks, cabinets, etc.
  
  Most likely built by Daniel and David Buffam. (David was a senator & millowner.) Buffam had a safe built into a desk where he kept papers from the Mills. There are now six sides to the house.. There was no foundation under the house until it was moved . The house is currently owned by Howard Gross a Durham attorney. He rents it out. Former owner John Jackman refers to it as the octagon house.
  
  Original GPS coordinates: 43.263577, -70.865534
  
  Current GPS coordinates: 43.263189, -70.866145
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  1880s stereoscope image.
  	Bath	Second bath
  Front bedroom	Second front bedroom	Front door
  Hall	Living room.	Living room.
  Front stairway	Front stairway	Front stairway
  Front stairway	Front

  
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: August, 2002
  Updated: January, 2013
  Updated: August, 2013
  Updated: October, 2015

Sullivan County.

• Charlestown. 1096 South Hemlock Rd. at Octagon Dr. Sullivan County. Built: 1850 Albert Whitaker bought land to erect a 2-story octagon house in Charlestown. It was a beautiful and simple structure with clapboard walls and large double windows with triangular lintels. By the 1970s it was asphalt sided. Since then it was dismantled and rebuilt on the same site, but slightly closer to the road. Today the second story is recessed beneath a hooded porch and there are dormers on the roof. The front door is also recessed. It looks like an entirely new building and bears no resemblance to the home pictured; completely rebuilt into modern octagonal structure. Sold to the Smiths in 1999 for $77,000.Estimated to be worth $114,000 today.
  
  The photo at the top, left is circa 1900. The one on the right is contemporary. It's unknown for now whether the house ever had a cupola or a porch. When the 1900 photograph was taken the house was already 50 years old, and the porch might have rotted away. Though there's is no shadow of a porch on the clapboards.
  
  GPS coordinates: 43.212908 -72.366568
  
  

  Left click on the images below for larger versions.

  		1929

  
  
  Sources: Edgar Alan Nutt. Ellen Puerzer. Sandra Perron Silsby - Free Public Library - supplied the photographs.
  Entered: December, 2001.
  Updated: June, 2009.
  Updated: September, 2017
  Updated: June, 2022