Built 1864 Opened 1864 Architectural style Octagon house | NRHP Reference # 03000177 Area 8,094 m² Added to NRHP 2 April 2003 | |
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Similar Kalamazoo State Hospital, Harsens Island, American Museum of Magic, Bay City Recreation Area, Mackinac Island | ||
The Nathan B. Devereaux Octagon House is an historic octagonal house located at 66425 Eight Mile Road in Northfield Township, Washtenaw County, Michigan. The house is one of only three extant octagonal houses in Washtenaw County, and remains in excellent and near original condition. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.
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History
At some point in the 1850s, Nathan Bartlet Devereaux travelled to Ann Arbor to attend a lecture by Orson Squire Fowler, the leading proponent of octagonal houses. Inspired, Devereaux purchased a copy of Fowler's book, "A Home for All; or the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building. New, Cheap, Convenient, Superior and Adapted to Rich and Poor." In 1864, Devereaux put Fowler's ideas to use and built this house.
Nathan Bartlet Devereaux died in 1897 and passed the house along to his son John Wilson Devereaux. Nathan Devereaux's grandson John Francis Devereaux lived in the house until 1997. As of 2006, it was still being occupied by descendants of Nathan Bartlet Devereaux.
Description
The Devereaux house is a one-and-a-half story, octagonal frame structure with a hipped roof surmounted with an octagonal cupola. The house sits on a fieldstone foundation, and is symmetrially shaped with eight equal sides. A small utility room is attached to the rear of the structure. The house is clad with white asbestos siding and asphalt shingles on the roof. There is little ornamentation on the exterior or the interior. Interior rooms are generally rectangular in shape, with triangular closet space.