I had the opportunity to visit the Armour-Stiner Octagon House in Irvington, New York earlier this season and good god, what a beauty. The house has started giving inside tours throughout the autumn and winter seasons and I’m so glad I was able to get tickets.
Some history on the house: “It was built in 1859–1860 by financier Paul J. Armour based on the architectural ideas of Orson Squire Fowler, the author of The Octagon House: A Home for All Occasions. Fowler believed that octagonal houses enclosed more space, provided more interior sunlight, and that its rooms were easily accessible to each other. The architect of the house is unknown. It is the only known octagonal house based on the domed colonnade shape of a Roman temple. The dome was added and the house was enlarged during 1872–1876 by Joseph Stiner, who was a tea importer. The Armour–Stiner House is said to be one of the most lavish octagon houses built in the period, and is now one of only perhaps a hundred still extant.”
It’s truly just an incredible house, there have been haunting experiences (but really, if a house is older than a hundred years it has to be at least a little haunted, that’s just proper ghost etiquette) so that makes it even more exciting in my mind. If you have any desire to see it for yourself, you can find tickets and more information on the house over here.