National Register of Historic Places

Octagon House

Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts
Listed
March 31, 1982
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
82004967

About this property

The Octagon House is an historic octagonal house located at 28 King Street in Westfield, Massachusetts. It was built sometime between 1858 and 1864 by Joseph Watson, and is the only one of three 19th-century octagon houses built in the city to survive. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and included as part of expansion of the Westfield Center Historic District in 2013. The Octagon House is located behind Westfield's City Hall, on the south side of King Street between King Avenue and Hampden Street. It is a two-story eight-sided structure with a hip roof and a central eight-sided cupola. A two-story rectangular ell with a gabled roof extends to the rear, and a single-story porch extends across portions of the front, formerly ending with an octagonal pavilion on the left. The pavilion has since been removed. The porch decoration is Queen Anne in style, with delicate turned posts and a spindled valance. The main roof line is adorned by carved brackets at the corners. Most faces of the octagonal section have a single window on each floor. The interior follows a plan typical for these buildings, with a central spiral staircase leading all the way up to the cupola, with chambers on the outside walls. The house was built by Joseph Watson, and was one of three octagon houses built in the community during the period when the published works of Orson Squire Fowler led to a fad in their construction. The ell was added in the 1870s and the porch in the 1890s. A prominent resident of the house was Albert Steiger, who founded Steiger's, a regionally prominent department store chain. National Register of Historic Places listings in Hampden County, Massachusetts

Location

28 King St.
Westfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts
42.12158, -72.75480

Categories

COMMERCEARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Westfield Municipal Building
Industrial
0.1 mi
State Normal Training School
Industrial
0.2 mi
Van Deusen, H. M., Whip Company
Industrial
0.2 mi
Westfield Center Commercial Historic District
Listed
0.3 mi
Westfield Center Historic District
Listed
0.3 mi

Nearby Battles

Attack on Springfield
1675Colonial
8.6 mi

Questions about this property

When was Octagon House listed on the National Register?

Octagon House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 31, 1982.

What type of historic resource is Octagon House?

Octagon House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Octagon House?

The period of significance for Octagon House is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Octagon House?

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