History of the Rich-Twinn Octagon House

The Rich-Twinn Octagon House was erected between 1850, the year Charles Rich purchased the land, and 1855, when it first appears on a local map. According to a Batavia newspaper of the time, The Octagon (as Charles Rich liked to call it) announced that that construction of the house was completed in 1857. The Village of Akron, which was incorporated in 1849 is located on the traditional territories of the Onödowa’ga:’ (Seneca Nation), one of the Six member Nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.

Rich was a successful businessman of his day: a respected federal Indian agent to the Senecas on the Tonawanda Reservation, whose signature is visible on the Treaty of 1857, granting the Tonawanda Senecas to purchase back a portion of their land from the government that was previously ceded in an 1842 treaty. Charles B. Rich was a general store merchant in the building at 15 Main St Akron, a buyer and shipper of grain, and a tax collector. Later in life Mr. Rich became an assemblyman. He most likely did a lot of entertaining, and the new fad of octagon houses provided a showplace home.

In 1848 Orson Squire Fowler wrote the book The Octagon House, A Home for All. In it, he spoke about the benefits of living in an eight-sided home, creating and marketing plans to do so, strongly suggesting using materials from the local terrain. He promoted fresh air and sunshine and believed that a “round” house eliminated the corners which trapped dark and evil humours which he believed caused disease and depression. The movement to build an octagon house was a unique piece of architectural history in America that took place primarily on the East Coast and lasted for about 20 years. Octagonal-shaped buildings have been built since 300B.C.

Fowler (1809 – 1887) was a traveling lecturer, often speaking on Phrenology, the mid-nineteenth century study of human character and intelligence that was measured by bumps and depressions on the head that was very briefly popular in the mid-nineteenth century. Families would have a model of a head with all areas on the scull outlined and identified as to where the areas of thought and reason resided in the brain. By 1840, phrenology had lost credibility due to no scientific evidence and at its core presented applications of racism and gender stereotyping. Fowler continued to give phrenological readings – presumably to persons of wealth in the New York City area. At the same time, Fowler championed the abolitionist movement and urged more rights for women. Some of his house plans included a gymnasium space for women.

This is the only octagon house built in Erie County in the nineteenth century during the 20-year fad of octagonal homes and stands on its original limestone foundation. 

This 3,500 (approx.) square-foot house has three floors plus a cupola. Each side of the house is 16 feet 2 inches long. The building is of Greek Revival style, highlighting symmetry, proportion, and simplicity, with a pediment above the windows and doors of the second and third floors. 

The cupola is Italianate noted by the top-rounded windows, and there are decorative brackets for the cupola and third floor roofs. Originally, the house was painted white with green shutters.

The Newstead Historical Society purchased the home from the last owner, Lucille Twinn, in 1981. The house was in poor condition and water damage from neglected burst pipes destroyed the ground floor. The entire inside of the house was gutted, and any removed framework was carefully numbered for re-installation. The floor plan of the original house was restored to the specifications of the National Trust. If the restoration had not started when it did, our engineers felt that the house would have collapsed within a year or two.

Currently, the house is furnished (primarily) as it may have been in the 1870s. This means wood and coal fireplaces, oil lamps - most likely whale oil at first, and no indoor plumbing. Gas lighting came to Akron c.1899. Electricity was not installed at the Octagon until 1940 when Clark and Lucille Twinn purchased the house.

Owners/Occupants

c.1857 - 1870  Charles B. Rich and family

1870 - 1879  Charles A. Clark and family 

1879 - 1882      Uriah Cummings and family rented the house

1882 - 1938  William and Sarah (Sadie) Gillings

1940 - 1981  Clark and Lucille Twinn