West, Deacon, Octagon House
About this property
The Deacon West Octagon House, built in 1856 (1854) by Deacon Josiah West, is an historic eleven-room octagon house located at 370 High Street, in Pewaukee, Wisconsin, United States. The wooden sign posted in front of the house states, "Josiah West 1854 Octagon House." It is only one of 19 such structures in the state. Deacon West was a blacksmith in Pewaukee. Octagon houses (and barns) were a brief fad started in the 1850s, claiming to use less building material and less fuel to heat than conventional rectangular floorplans. West built his house on top of the only hill in Pewaukee - three stories tall, with walls of grout - an early form of concrete - covered with plaster. The roof was low-pitched and hipped. West sold the house to Ira Rowe in 1866, and around 1873 it was partially destroyed by fire, but its strong 18-inch-thick (460 mm) cement walls remained standing. In 1873 Col. N. P. Inglehart of Kentucky bought the house and rebuilt it more or less in its present form, with the Italianate-styled window frames and bracketed eaves, which were popular by the 1870s, but probably not the original 1850s ornamentation. The roof was crowned with a belvedere, allowing a better view of the lake, village, and the countryside, but it was destroyed in a windstorm in the early 1900s. The house passed through several owners until Margaret Ann Kirley sold the house to her son and current owner, Jeffrey D. Kirley in 1998. It features stucco covered walls and a metal peak in lieu of a cupola. On May 12, 1975, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
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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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Questions about this property
When was West, Deacon, Octagon House listed on the National Register?
West, Deacon, Octagon House was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on May 11, 1975.
What type of historic resource is West, Deacon, Octagon House?
West, Deacon, Octagon House is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.
What is the period of significance for West, Deacon, Octagon House?
The period of significance for West, Deacon, Octagon House is recorded as the industrial era.
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Yes. Aubrey Research reports search National Register listings, battlefield records, land patents, and other primary historical sources within any radius of a US address. A report for an address near West, Deacon, Octagon House will include this listing and all other historical records in the area.
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