Inside The Octagon House: A Failed Utopian Experiment from the 1800s (Armour-Stiner House)

In the mid-1800s, new inventions were being introduced to society. Machines, engines, appliances, all of these were new ideas, revolutionizing the daily lives of people everywhere. With new technology now flooding homes, some began to rethink how we should live. Orson Squire Fowler was one of these visionaries. He was a phrenologist who measured skulls to predict people's traits, something we now know as a pseudoscience, which was also used to justify slavery. Basing his theories on his own non-verifiable observations, he developed a utopian system to dictate how people should live. He wrote a treatise on architecture named The Octagon House, a home for all occasions, in which he theorized that the octagon was the ideal shape for a house. He argued that the geometry of the shape would allow for room configurations which would more cohesively flow together and allow for natural light to illuminate more interior space, all while cutting down on the amount of materials used due to the substitution of diagonal walls for right-angled corners. Fowler's theory caused a frenzy in the architectural world, leading to hundreds of octagon-shaped houses being built all around North America, including a failed utopian project named Octagon City in Kansas, where over 100 settlers attempted to build an entire city out of octagon-shaped buildings. It ended up being more like a cult, and the settlers became malnourished while illness raged through their community, so the project was quickly abandoned. Nevertheless, there were still people willing to spend their life savings building octagon houses elsewhere. In 1860, Paul Armour, a wealthy financier, searched for the perfect location to test this theory. He discovered a surreal landscape along the old Crotton Aqueduct in Westchester County, New York. A knoll sat high above the Hudson River, offering panoramic views no matter which direction he faced. He decided this would be the spot to build his octagon house. Over the years, it had several owners, each of whom made slight changes, but regardless of those changes, the key principles remained the same. Looking at the section of the house, we can see the interior spaces adjusted for height at each level, with the central staircase turning from the basement until it spiraled into the crow's nest. Seeing the floor plan of the first level, we will notice that large, rectilinear spaces were met with smaller, wet-shaped rooms on their sides, each feeding into the next larger room. Stepping onto the veranda, each bay boasted elaborate gingerbreading below a strict grid of ceiling beams conveying the octagon's structural geometry. As the front doors swing open, the house appears like any normal Victorian-era home, with a grand staircase to greet you at the end of a rectangular room. To one side is the library, behind etched glass doors which manipulate the space into feeling larger than it is. There is only a small clearing in the center of the room to circulate about. To the other side was the living room, finished out with ornate plasterwork, which nuanced the Egyptian Revival style. To the side, we can see the music room through the opening, its wet shape allowing only for a tight walking path around heavy furniture. Behind the staircase, the dining room stretched from side to side, with rounded corners at each end. Going upstairs, the second floor landing once again assumed a regular shape, if you did not know what waited for you behind the doors, you might forget that you were in an octagon-shaped house, but just for a moment. Up here we can find the bathroom, crammed into a wedge between bedrooms, with a clawfoot tub nearly obstructing the walkway. On the third floor, the space really opens up, with a large third floor reception room finished out with built-ins and unique millwork, once again referencing the Egyptian Revival style, with walls sloping and curving along the interior of the domed roofline. We can follow the dome to its apex by traveling up the last straight flight of stairs to arrive in the billiards room, where a tightly spun spiral staircase will lead us to the crow's nest. Up here, a circular banister punctures the octagonal footprint of the room, allowing you to walk 360 degrees about it, absorbing the scenic views framed in all directions. You might have noticed interior damage in each photo we viewed, with water damage and cracks running from floor to ceiling in some places. While there is nothing inherently wrong with an octagon-shaped building, the additional angles allow for more places for water to seep through. When you couple this with dormers puncturing each face of the octagonal dome twice, we can assume why this style quickly came and went out of fashion. To this day, the Armour Steiner house has been restored, and is believed to be the only surviving domed octagonal house in North America. If you enjoyed learning about this whimsical bit of history, and seeing a truly one-of-a-kind house, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of This House. I would also like to say a very special thank you to our This House supporters, whose names you can see on screen right now. If you would like to show the world your support for the creation of these videos, and see your name on this screen, join our membership program today. I'll see you next time on This House.