Human Rights, Phrenology, Sexual Liberation and Octagon Houses...

Uh, what do these things have to do with Historic Preservation you ask? I know it sounds strange, but they have a lot in common....Orson Squire Fowler! Never heard the name before? Well be prepared to be wowed, this man was something else.
Picture taken from http://www.steubencony.org

I'm currently doing a paper for my Research and Documentation class on an Octagonal home in Loveland, Colorado. So naturally I had to do a bit of research on Octagonal homes in general. I have to say they're pretty fascinating, well at least Fowler is. He was the name most credited with the promotion of the eight-sided homes. He didn't exactly create it, there are plenty of examples of octagons dating back several hundreds of years, but it was responsible for making it popular in the general housing market.

Fowler lived from 1809-1887. He began his varied careers as a phrenologist. You know, the study of the shape of the skull as an indication of mental abilities and character traits.
Image taken from Amazon.com

Fowler would lecture around the country on phrenology and felt your head for assessment at a measly 25 cents a pop! Me next! I really like this chart...

Ok, so on to human rights and sexual liberation. Yes, Fowler was a proponent for these too, and in the Victorian days nonetheless! As a proponent of various forms of self-culture, he published his book in 1843 "Perfection of Character." He was also the author of one of the more notorious sex manuals in Victorian times, "Sexuality Restored And Warning And Advice To Youth Against Perverted Amativeness: Including Its Prevention And Remedies As Taught By Phrenology And Physiology."
As taken from the website http://www.crookedlakereview.com "Orson Fowler held forth for the equality for women at a time when women had virtually no legal rights in the United States, and he stood for children's rights when child labor was quite acceptable in the burgeoning industrial factories of his country. He proposed ideas on how to discover the ideal mate, on marriage counseling, sex education, hydropathy (the curing of diseases by internal and external use of water), mesmerism, the improvement in farming as well as in the enhancement of health and daily life. Moreover, he condemned the use of tobacco by men and tight corsets for women. Orson Fowler was obviously a universal reformer whose ideas were much ahead of his time, but above all he was a nineteenth century individualist in what many have seen as an age of orthodoxy, piety, and conformity."
And he was doing this in the 1800's!!

So again you ask me, what does this have to do with Historic Preservation. Well, these philosophies led Fowler to his octagon homes. For an octagonal house was much healthier for its inhabitants. The open space with a cupola allowed for much better ventilation throughout the home, and more sunlight. It was heated more efficiently in the winter as the heat could reach the top floors easily. And, it was much cheaper to build. Sounds pretty good to me!

Here we see the floorplan for a Fowler designed home (taken from Wikipedia) and a picture of the Hyde Octagon House from Mumford, New York. (image taken from http://www.usgennet.org/usa/ny/county/allegany/.
So if these houses were so great, then why weren't they more popular? There were only a few thousand built, and only about 500 remaining today. Well, if you look closely at the floor plan above, you'll see that though Fowler promoted this shape for ventilation, sunlight, and eliminating useless corners, the inside rooms were actually square. And this further caused some triangular shaped rooms as well. This didn't exactly follow his line of thinking. We still have some useless corners, and even more so awkwardly shaped rooms. Now these smaller rooms like closets and pantries receive the ventilation, not the living rooms, and they only have one exposure to light. Hmmmm, maybe this is why they didn't exactly take off in popularity. Furthermore, the argument that these homes were cheaper to build wasn't because of the shape of the house, but because Fowler was promoting this new "gravel-wall construction" aka, poured concrete. In fact, most of the octagon homes were built of wood or brick, actually making them more expensive because the materials then had to conform to the 135 degree angles.
Well, it was certainly a good try. I think they look pretty cool. I'm not sure I could live in one everyday though. Here's a picture of the McCreery House which I am currently researching for my paper.

It was built between 1888-1901 by W.H. McCreery, a Presbyterian Minister from the east coast. Today it is a Bed and Breakfast and is the sight of many beautiful weddings and other fun events in Loveland. This house was officially registered on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. Rightly so, this a fine example of the few remaining octagonal homes. All thanks to Orson Squire Fowler!