VIRGINIA

Albemarle County

• North Garden. Octagon church. It might have been a school at one time.
  
  

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  Source: Ellen Puerzer. "Two Centuries of Black American Art," by David C. Driskell, published by the Los Angeles County Musueum of Art and Alfred A. Knopf, 1976, page 21. Submitted by Ginger Hill.
  Entered: March, 2010.

Arlington County

• Arlington. Built pre 1860. One of 3 octagon houses built here was the 2-story octagon house used as headquarters of General Irwin McDowell during the Civil War. (according to an old civil war picture which identifies it as McDowell headquarters. Other books credit it as Gen John Sedgewick headquarters but the Route 7 house was Sedgewicks.) This one was near Fort Albany. This was a simple 8-sided structure but had a sweeping verandah across the front. The flat roof held a tall cupola. Each window on the cupola was shuttered. An 1861 image of the house as the general's headquarters exists. McDowell would later headquarter at Arlington House. A photo of the house exists. The house stood until at least 1875.
  
  

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  		April 9, 1874
  September 11, 1861

  
  There appears to be a ladder on the roof leading to the cupola, perhaps for use as an observation post.
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2011.
  Updated: May, 2013
  Updated: April, 2014
  Updated: April, 2016
  Updated: June, 2016
• Arlington. The Glebe House 4527 17th St. N. Arlington County Clark Mills built the Glebe Octagon house here after 1850. It is actually a large wing of an earlier house. The Glebe House, first built in 1777, burned down and was rebuilt in 1820. It served as a hunting lodge and On Oct 9, 1826 the home was sold to John Peter Van Ness and wife Marcia. By 1846 both were dead and it was sold to Clark Mills who constructed the large octagonal portion which is the prominent portion of this house with the earlier structure acting as a wing. It has a circular porch. Clark Mills was a sculptor and during the civil war, the statue of Freedom atop the Capitol dome was cast here. He also did Andrew Jackson's bronze for DC's Lafayette square. His foundry was also octagonal. Razed circa 1900. The cupola has sawed running trim along the edge and windows on alternate walls. The angles of the house have pilasters. See DC
  
  

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  		1959
  1970	2006	1943

  
  
  Photograph..
  
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer. Dennis Gannon.
  Entered: September, 2003.
  Updated: April, 2009.
  Updated: September, 2011
  Updated: December, 2011
  Updated: August, 2013
  Updated: November, 2014
  Updated: July, 2015
• Arlington. Located at 2932 King St ( This was located a mile outside Alexandria on the pike to Leesburg, today Route 7. ) on grounds of the Baptist church
  
  Reportedly this cement exterior octagon was built in 1856 by New Yorker Rev Charles and Sarah W Hall for their family. There are varied histories about this house. The most recent & detailed compiled by historian Julia Claypool tells it owned by the Halls and of poor construction. ( ID'd as the Cole House according to a map.) At the start of Civil War widow Mrs Hall and daughters moved out leaving it vacant.
  
  General Henry Warner Slocum turned this and Powell house into hospitals and installed Amy Morris Bradley as lady superintendent. This became the 7th Brigade Hospital. In 1862 the troops marched to Centreville and abandoned the hospitals.
  
  An 1866 article reports the house was destroyed/consumed by fire/arson on Nov 23, 1866. It was then occupied by a Joseph Buller and still owned by Mrs Hall but in poor condition.
  
  It was a more architecturally fanciful than the McDowell hospital/house. The tall cupola had windows with 4 over 4 lights. The second floor windows rose up into the cornice and were flanked with decorative paired brackets. The front porch encircled the house on the first story with a gallery on the second floor. All second floor windows were paired except for front wall Some info from Alexandria Times. ( Some books credit it as Gen John Sedgewick headquarters. )
  
  

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  1866

  
  
  The image above, left, was taken in 1861, when the house was being used by Confederate soldiers during the US Civil War. In March of 1862 the house ceased to be used as a hospital.
  
  Sources: Dennis Gannon. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: June, 2009.
  Updated: September, 2011
  Updated: December, 2011
  Updated: April, 2014
  Updated: April, 2016
  Updated: June, 2016

Bedford County

• Near Lynchburg. "Poplar Forest"; octagon house. Built by Thomas Jefferson in 1804-1819.
  
  Photograph..
  
  Photograph..
  
  Source: Dale Travis.
  Entered: September, 2003.
  Sources: M. Culver; The Octagon Fad, p. 118; Ron Livingston, who provided a pointer to a photograph.
  Updated: February, 2002.

Frederick County

• Winchester. Glen Burnie hexagon house. Built between 1871-1874 by James W. Burgess. Located at 530 Amherst Street. Brice Leatherman may have been the architect. Large hexagonal cupola. Located at the intersection of Amherst Street and Hawthorne Drive. Two story. Brick construction. A widow's walk surrounds the central chimney, The interior is thought to be 80% original. The original milk glass light fixtures have been replace with more elaborate gas or candle chandeliers retrofitted for electricity. Some plaster walls have been replaced with drywall.
  
  There were 10 rooms, including bathroom, wadrobes, and pantry. It was owned by W. M. Robinson in 1885. ( See the 1885 map. )
  
  In 1987 the house was going through the process of qualifying for NRHP status. The information below is from that application, and provides historical background about the house.
  
  

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  1885
  
  The left hand photograph above, top row, was taken in the spring of 2007. The middle photograph above, top row, is from the NRHP. The right hand photograph, third from bottom row, shows the color of the house before recent paint work was done.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Floor plan - cellar
  
  First floor plan
  
  Second floor plan
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Dale Travis provided photographs. Sandra Bosley provided photographs and the floor plans. Ellen Puerzer provided historical information. Duncan Campbell supplies the 1986 photograph showing the house before the exterior brick was painted.
  Entered: February, 2002.
  Updated: September, 2003.
  Updated: December, 2008.
  Updated October, 2009
  Updated: May, 2012
  Updated: November, 2012
  Updated: November, 2013
  Updated: July, 2015

Grayson County

• Mouth of Wilson. Octagon house. The Round House was built in 1874 by Dan Idol. Still standing. 140 Round House Road. It's been abandoned for about 8 years as of year 2014, and is probably beyond restoration or habitability now.
  
  GPS coordinates: 36.584024 -81.329723
  
  From the Grayson HS:
  
  "A few years back I was contacted by a gentleman from Missouri who owned another round house built there by Idol some years later. This gent wanted a photo of the Grayson house, so Rich and I trekked to it and sent him a couple. Never heard from him again. The house has not been lived in for a number of years and would be extremely expensive to restore. The two floods you mentioned were in 1916 and 1940. It is said that only the chimney of the house was visible during these floods."
  
  "And Mary Davis wrote:The roundhouse was my family's house, three generations having lived there at one time or another. I've attached some photos of it, the one with the family was taken around 1900 (Tom and Jeannette Duncan with Agnes and Mattie). My siblings and I are now scattered about the country, but we, too, lived in the roundhouse for a glorious year around 1959. A glorious year because the river provided non-stop entertainment. My understanding is that the house survived two floods, both of which covered it entirely. One of the floods was in the 1940s and I have a newspaper clipping which describes it."
  
  

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  		2014 - the house has been abandoned for 8 years as of 2014.

  
  
  Sources: Ellen Puerzer. Ginger Ballard Grayson County, Virginia Heritage Foundation. and Mary Cox Davis.
  Entered: October, 2009.
  Updated: April, 2014

Hanover County

• Ashland An octagon house stood on England street near the Masonic Lodge. In 1862 the land was owned by master carpenter, John S James and presumably he erected the octagon in the 1860s. It went through 2 more owners by 1872 when Dr Matthew Hale Houston purchased the home. He died 5 yrs later and his wife in 1901 when it was sold to W.B. and Annie Walton publishers of the Hanover Herald newspaper (from 1894 to 1920). During their ownership the newspaper was published in the octagon house rear addition. In 1923 the house was sold to the Bates family who. ran the neighboring store. Mary Bates sold the home to Clarice Bates, Mary Vaughn and Joan O. Bates. The 1940 census records Clarice, her daughters and Son-in-Law Ashton Vaughn resided here and were proprietors of the store. It was a 2 story building with a third story beneath the mansard roof. A sign on a n old photo suggests it rented rooms as a boarding house. In 1951 Ford Tractor moved into the store and and they sold it to Burley P. Loving (Loving Motor Co).By this time in 1953, it was in poor condition and torn down .
  

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  	1938
  1908	1908

  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered March, 2013.
  Updated: June, 2013
  Updated: July, 2015
  Updated: October, 2020

Henrico County

• Richmond Octagon house. An early octagon stood in Richmond in early 1800s. What was originally an office built 1803 became 3 octagonal units combined into a residence by 1811. Built by Alexander McRae who sold it in 1818 to John Preston. Col John Rutherford of the Mutual Assurance Society resided here until 1870 .He sold it to the Catholic Male Orphan Home who rented it to various people. It was razed for a gas station in 1929.
  
  

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  Source: Ellen Puerzer. Houses of old Richmond Mary Wingfield Scott. 1941.
  Entered: July, 2016.
• Sandston In what was known as Fairfield but is now the Sandston area of Richmond, a 2 story octagon house was built of brick . (Looks like stone blocks in photo.) It was built in 1855 and stood 3 miles E of Richmond on 9 Mile rd. Constructed by J W Randolph he called it "Walnut Lodge" and resided there until 1866. It had a full porch and a cupola. The 16 rooms were divided into 4 rectangular rooms and 4 smaller triangular rooms per floor. George Brown lived there from 1866-70 when Dr I. J. Hawkes bought it and opened a sanitarium there. The house also served as a hotel for a time. The J. P. Marshalls owned it until 1936.
  
  During the Civil War, the house served as headquarters for Wade Hampton and Robert E. Lee. Dr Hawkes ran it as a field hospital at that time. The gatekeepers residence, stables and fence posts were all octagonal. An online geniology blog mentions in1892 James and Elizabth Woodall who ran a furnishings store lived in Walnut Lodge. But they aren't mentioned in the historical documentation. The house burned down on December 16, 1934.
  
  Dr. I. J. Hawkes, a Man of Many Interests and Endeavors, Tries Plunging into Watery Endeavors-- Henrico Historical Society newsletter
  
  Isaiah Jones Hawkes definitely found something in the water in Henrico County at least in the water at Como Lithia Springs in the county's east end. Among his business ventures was the bottling and marketing of the water and his plans for developing a resort on the site to share its restorative properties with visitors.
  
  Born September 28, 1830, in Hallowell, Maine, Hawkes married Mary W. Magoon in Lynn, Massachusetts, in 1850, lived in Kennebec, Maine, until 1860. WHen he lost his wife he married his second wife, Elvira from Ohio. And by 1870, they had come to Virginia and settled at Walnut Lodge on land between the Masonic Home on Nine Mile Road and the railroad lines. Gillie's Creek ran just below the property, but the water that interested him sprang from one of the springs on the land.
  
  Hawkes, however, did not act on that interest for twenty years, waiting until the 1890s to begin marketing Lake Como Springs Lithia Water.
  
  The last part of the decade meant a loss, a move and a beginning for Dr. Hawkes. In 1889, Elvira died, and her funeral took place at Walnut Lodge, which the Times-Dispatch referred to as "the beautiful home of Dr. Hawkes, in East Richmond" (March 13, 1989). Possibly he moved after the funeral as he was listed in 1890 census at I. J. Hawkes residing at 1100 East Broad Street in Richmond.
  
  And it seems that around this time, he embarked on the bottling, marketing and selling of Lake Como Springs Lithia Water taken from the spring on the land at Walnut Lodge. He had apparently sold the property to the East Richmond Co.; but the company became insolvent, went into receivership, and the receivers permitted Hawkes to take possession of it with the understanding that he would purchase it. He did so with L. R. Dennis, and the two organized the Como Lithia Water Company. Their headquarters was an office at 427 East Broad, and they sold twelve half gallon bottles of Lake Como Springs Lithia Water for $3.50 and cases of 50 quarts of Carbonized Water for $6.00.
  
  Drinking the water supposedly had quite salubrious effects, and their pamphlet suggested, "No rule can be laid down for its use.
  
  But a problem arose in 1893, requiring Hawkes and Dennis to bring suit against W. A. Woodall, a Richmond merchant dealing in house furnishings to whom Hawkes had rented the Walnut Lodge property. Woodall claimed in a letter of October 1, 1892 that alterations in the spring had deprived him of water for his house and farming operations so that he had no water to the house on "at least 20 occasions in the last three months," and concluded the letter stating, "I caution you or any one else not to interfere with the spring or it surroundings under penalty of the law." In May of 1893, Woodall sent a letter denying Hawkes the right to take the water and placed a locked chain across the entrance to the property to deny entrance. Hawkes and Dennis then went to the property, broke the lock to enter the property and got water then went to filed a complaint against Woodall, seeking an injunction to restrain him from interfering with their getting the water.
  
  The lease for Walnut Lodge had an addendum on the back signed by Hawkes and Woodall stating, "It agreed that Dr. I. J. Hawkes is to have the privilege of getting water from the spring provide [sic] it does not interfere with the quantity required by me, J. Woodall. Dr. I. J. Hawkes can at his own expense improve the spring to increase its capacity."
  
  At any rate, the court's decree ordered Woodall to pay the plaintiff's costs and upheld their injunction. The company continued to operate, and a May 5, 1895 advertisement in the Times-Dispatch announced that Lake Como Springs would open on May 29 for guests. It followed that information with the capitalized phrase, "PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO INVALIDS."
  
  The success of the sanitarium is not clear, but by the late 1890s, Hawkes was back in residence at Walnut Lodge; and in 1899, at age 69, he married his third wife, Sallie Goddin Sullivan. She was the daughter of Captain Eugene Sullivan, a former Confederate officer, and was Hawkes' junior by forty years. In 1910, the last year of his life, Sallie sent a letter to The American Journal of Clinical Medicine, extolling a treatment regimen that had earlier helped the doctor and asking for advice for his current illness. The letter provided some details about the couple's earliest meeting. She wrote that her parents were among Dr. Hawkes' earliest patients in Virginia, and that he had been called in "through a mistake of one of the servants. . Over their eleven years, they had three children, making one wonder if Lake Como Lithia Water didn't have some beneficial effects. Isaiah Jones Hawkes died on September 8, 1910 and is buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Richmond.
  
  
  
  

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  		Hawkes family

  
  
  Sources: Ellen Puerzer. Joanie Evans, Architectural Historian
  Entered November, 2013.
  Updated: December, 2013
  Updated: November, 2014

Independent City County

• Poquoson. Hexagon lighthouse building. York Split Light. Built 1855. Screwpile construction. Two story. Second story smaller. Light and walkway.
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.
• Portsmouth 1342 Mount Vernon Ave, in the Olde Town section of town a red brick octagon house was built between 1915-1920. Clarence Mosby, druggist. was the first owner. After him The Lucian Avera's and The Wm. H. Brown' families resided there. And its currently owned by E.J. Wyche. Its a 2 story house with dormer window and a porch extending across 3 walls.
  
  GPS coordinates: 36.83312 -76.336874
  
  

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  1920

  
  
  Sources: Ellen Puerzer. Edie Carmichael and Gregg Grunow, Portsmouth Public Library.
  Entered November, 2013.
  Updated: February, 2017
  Updated: October, 2020

King County

• West Point. Octagon lighthouse building. Built in 1881. Single story. Cupola, which houses the light, and walkway.
  
  Photograph and history.
  
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.

King William County

• Aylett. Octagon house. An octagon house stood a mile west of Aylett in King William County. It was two stories with a clapboard exterior, covered with asbestos siding in the 1970. Dr Claude Kelly resided here. Eva Jo Kelly owned it in the 1970s. McCauley Chenault also own it. It was standing in 1994 according to a King William Co. Historical Bulletin.
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: September, 2002.
  Updated: September, 2013
  Updated: November, 2013

Louisa County

• Piedmon, near Gum Spring Octagon house, church, or school. Built in 1858. By the 1930's only three walls remained.
  
  

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  Source: Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: December, 2014.

Middlesex County

• Deltaville. Hexagon lighthouse building. Stingray Point Light. Built in 1858. Screwpile construction. Single story. Light and walkway.
  Photograph and history.
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.

Montgomery County

• Christianburg. Round house. 1919. Architecture unusual. Located at 303 S. Franklin.
  
  Photograph..
  
  Source: Dale Travis.
  Entered: September, 2003.

No County

• Fort Eustis. Nearest city is Newport News. Octagon lighthouse building. Deep Water Shoals Light. Built in 1868. Single story. Cupola, which houses the light, and a walkway. Demolished in 1966.
  
  Photograph and history.
  
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.

Norfolk County

• Norfolk. Octagon lighthouse building. Built in 1859. Two story. Second story has four dormers. Cupola, which houses the light, and a walkway.
  
  Photograph and history.
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.

Northumberland County

• Coles Point. Octagon lighthouse building. Ragged Point Light. Built in 1910. Screwpile construction. One story, two dormers, cupola with light and walkway.
  Photograph and history..
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.
  
  
• Near Fleeton. Hexagon lighthouse building. Great Wicomico River Light. Built in 1889.
  Photograph and history.
  
  Source: Ron Livingston
  Entered: March, 2002
  
  
• Reedville. Hexagon lighthouse building. Windmill Point Light. Built in 1869. One story, cupola, light and walkway. Screwpile construction.
  Photograph and history..
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.
  
  
• Sunnybank. Octagon lighthouse building. Smith Point Light. Built in 1897. Two story, square cupola, light.
  
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.

Powhatan County

• Northwest of Midlothian. Round House. Built in 1713. Located on the Keswich Plantation.
  
  Photograph..
  
  Source: "More About Octagons," Carl Schmidt, and Dale Travis, who supplies the photograph.
  Entered: October, 2002.
  Updated: September, 2003.

Rockingham County

• Grottoes. Octagon house. The Stephen Harnsberger House. Built in 1856. Located at 1403 Holly Ave. Two story. Brick. Excellent condition
  
  The owners relate the following information:
  " Additionally, the house is known as the Stephen Harnsberger House. It is listed on the Virginia and National Registry of Historic Places. Stephen Morgan Harnsberger lived from November 30, 1827 to November 11, 1863. The Harnsbergers lived in the Shenandoah Valley for at least three generations prior to the erection of this house and were of German Swiss origin. The oldest section of the house is a summer kitchen enclosing (reputedly) the largest fireplace in Rockingham County which dates from 1790. We have been told that the federalists occupied the house twice during the War Between the States.
  
  Stephen's brother Robert Samuel Harnsberger built an octagonal barn a few years after Stephen built his house. It is on a side road off of Weyers Cave Road between Grottoes and Weyers Cave. "
  
  The barn is listed in Augusta county.
  
  

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  		2007
  2007

  
  
  Sources: Roberta Mitchell and Peter Calvert, the current owners.
  Entered: September, 2003.
  Updated: September, 2003.
  Updated: December, 2003.
  Updated: December, 2011
  Updated: June, 2017
• In Harrisonburg, Sometimes said to be in Rockingham. Octagon house. Built in 1885. Located at 292 Liberty Street. Two stories, eight rooms, including four bedrooms. One bathroom. Pillared porch on three sides. Stucco siding. Metal roof. 2,624 square feet, on a 7,527 square foot lot.
  
  

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  Photograph.
  
  Sources: Dale Travis. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: September, 2003.
  Updated: June, 2010
  Updated: December, 2010
  Updated: March, 2013
  Updated: June, 2013
  Updated: September, 2013
  Updated: November, 2013
  Updated: October, 2014
  Updated: October, 2020
• Southeast of Broadway. Octagon wing of a house. Appears to be pre 1900 construction. Exact location unknown. Two story. Porch on at least three sides.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Source: Dale Travis.
  Entered: September, 2003.

Smyth County

• Near Marion. Octagon house. Mountain View. Built by Abijah Thomas in 1856. Located on the South Fork, in the southwest region of the state, at 631 Octagon House Road. Google Maps: 36.774273, -81.569865. Details in a book, "Abijah Thomas and the Octagon House," written by Mack Sturgill, available in the Smyth-Bland Regional library in Marion.
  
  

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  House with porche - undated.	House with porche - undated.	House without porche - 1936
  The house in the 1970's.	Foundation brochure.

  
  
  Photograph..
  
  

  The house in September, 2009

  
  
  Deborah Brent, who supplied the photos of the house in September, 2009, believes the house was last occupied in the late 1930s or the early 1940s.
  
  

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  The aerial view above shows both that the house still exists in year 2011, and four chimneys. The older photograph above suggests the house is very large, and probably couldn't get by with just a central heating arrangement, even in Virginia.
  
  Sources: R. Kline. Dale Travis and Cecilia Hoff supplied the photographs. Deborah Brent. Ellen Puerzer.
  Entered: March, 2001.
  Updated: September, 2003.
  Updated: March, 2006.
  Updated September, 2009
  Updated: April, 2012
  Updated: November, 2014

Suffolk County

• Suffolk. Octagon lighthouse building. Built in 1878. One story. Cupola, which houses the light, and a walkway.
  
  Photograph and history.
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.

Warwick County.

• Newport News. Hexagon lighthouse building. White Shoal Light Station. Built in 1871. Screwpile construction.
  Photograph and history.
  
  Source: Ron Livingston
  Entered: March, 2002

Westmoreland County

• Stratford. Octagon structure. Age and function unclear, although, located on a plantation it might well be quite old. Single story. Located at 485 Great House Road.
  
  Photograph..
  
  Source: Dale Travis.
  Entered: September, 2003.

Wythe County

• Wytheville Octagon house. 585 W. Main St. Wythe Co. Built in 1870. Standing as of 2013. Built by Henry Quincy Adams Bowyers. Its exterior is brick and it has a circular 2 story portico. He sold it uncompleted in 1874 to Rev Dexter Snow. Side wings were added in 1890 by James Gleaves. When the circular portico was added isnt known. Its on the Historic register
  
  GPS coordinates: 36.946192 -81.087757
  
  

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  		1994
  Survey - 1994 - 1	Survey - 1994 - 2	Satellite - 2013
  1926

  
  
  Source: Ellen Puerzer. Michael J. Pulice Architectural Historian Western Regional Preservation Office
  Entered November, 2013.
  Updated: October, 2020

York County

• Near Yorktown. Octagon lighthouse building. Pages Rock Lighthouse. Built in 1893. One story. Cupola, which houses the light, and a walkway.
  Photograph and history.
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.