This is part of my series on octagon houses. Links to the related posts are below and will be added to as I create more blog posts.
Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest
Octagon Houses - The Richards Octagon in Watertown, Wisconsin
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The Richards Octagon House, Watertown, WI - Photo: Wikipedia
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The Watertown, Wisconsin, Octagon House is deservedly one of the most famous in the country. It has a very attractive plan and an even more attractive Victorian exterior.
The year was 1853. Orson Fowler had just released his book, The Octagon House, starting a craze. John Richards, lawyer, mill owner, ambitious fellow, and resident of Watertown, determined to build the largest house in Wisconsin, settled on the octagon and came up with this own plan of his own devising.
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Basement & First Floor Plans
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Second, Third and Cupola Plans
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It has 4 large, elegant and well shaped rooms (a challenge within the octagon form) on the first floor. The second and third floors echo the first, but with lots and lots and lots of bedrooms. Finally, a cupola crowns it all, bringing light down into the central, dizzying spiral stair.
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Elevation showing wrap-around porches and cupola
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The amazing central spiral stair
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On the first and second levels porches wrap entirely around.
The house is built very solidly, of brick throughout. It is crowned by two bracketed cornices with bold Victorian profiles.
If I was going to build a house to operate as a B&B this would be it! (I'd add some bathrooms though.)
If you have questions about the Watertown Octagon, please leave them in the comments and I will do my best to answer them.
All
the images shown, aside from the last 3, are from the Historic American Building Survey. I have
printed copies of the drawings, but not the photos, available at my eBay store, Historic American Homes. Here is the listing for the Watertown Octagon House. Please drop by and feel free to browse. In addition to the Watertown Octagon I have prints of many other historic American homes.
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