PART I: HISTORY
In 1853 Franklin Pierce was inaugurated as the fourteenth President of the United States. Nathaniel Hawthorne published his Tanglewood Tales, and Henry Steinway and his three sons formed a family company in New York for the manufacture of pianos. The Gadsden Purchase, which would consolidate United States possession in the far west, was being negotiated; New York was connected to Chicago by railroad just as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed to the Ohio River; and trade was opened with Japan when Commodore Matthew Perry entered Yedo Bay with an armed squadron, thus ending two centuries of Japanese isolationism.
In that same year abroad Vincent Van Gogh was born, the first railroad cut through the Alps to link Vienna and Trieste, and widespread acceptance of chloroform in medical practice was assured when Queen Victoria allowed it to be administered to her during the birth of her seventh child.
Back in Massachusetts, Donald McKay launched "The Great Republic," the largest of his clipper ships. Boston residents were enjoying both the Public Gardens, which had recently been created out of marshland to the west of the Common, and the newly constructed Music Hall, opposite the Park Street Church. Commercial Wharf was the largest dock in Boston, and the center of its grain trade. It was not a particularly placid year in the City: Abolitionists were active in their efforts to do away with slavery; the Know Nothing Party was active in its efforts to restrain the Irish who were streaming in as a result of the Potato Famine;[1] and the rich were actively creating suburbs in an effort to avoid paying taxes in Boston.
Architectural activity in 1853 was diverse and reflected, as did international, national and local events, over a decade of growing technology, industrialization and urbanization. New ideology and aesthetic standards formulated by John Ruskin and Horatio Greenough fostered a revolt against the Classical, and new enthusiasm for the Gothic in a romantic picturesque landscape. Lewellyn Park, a country suburb catering to the upper class, was begun, and for the less affluent there were published pattern books which described for architect, builder and home owner alike every variety of style of house from Rustic to castellated, with Tudor, Gothic, Bracketted (sic) and Italianate motifs.
There was interest in Utopian concepts, such as harmony with the landscape, utility, expression of purpose, especially those as pertaining to domestic dwellings for the common man: "It is in the solitude and freedom of the family home in the country which constantly preserves the purity of the nation and invigorates its intellectual powers.[2]• Andrew Jackson Downing's, The Architecture of Country Houses had been published in 1850, following upon his 1837 edition of Rural Residences for the improvement of American country architecture.
Orson Squire Fowler's treatises on phrenology, marriage and a new concept in healthful home building, the octagon, had received wide and popular attention. Alexander Jackson Davis' "Lyndhurst", a monument of picturesque irregularity. Begun in 1838. was still under construction in 1853; James Renwick was building the Smithsonian and had been commissioned to design St. Patrick's Cathedral; John A. Roebling was involved in building a railway suspension bridge over the Niagara. A lithograph published of Richard Upjohn's Church of the Holy Communion showed it in a park-like setting rather than in the city street where it actually stood. The Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall was built in New York; fabricated of cast iron and glass it was the largest dome erected in the United States up to that time and was hailed as a ''reintegration of engineering and decorating in a new national style of architecture.[3]•In 1853 Orson Squire Fowler finished his celebrated 3-story octagonal dwelling in Fishkill, New York, and in Pembroke, Massachusetts, Luther Briggs, Jr. built a hexagonal house that was decidedly Greek Revival in character as well as "Fowlerian" in concept.
In rural Pembroke. some thirty miles south of Boston, the local economy was suffering from the decline of ship- building on the North River. Prior to 1850 it had been one of the world's great shipbuilding centers, but available timber gave out and the building of larger clipper ships made the winding shallow river less viable. Lobbying efforts by Luther Briggs, Jr. to cut a channel at the opening of the river to facilitate the building of bigger ships came to naught when then Senator John Quincy Adams visited the site but did nothing to advance the plan. (A booklet published by Briggs in 1848 to encourage development of a railroad network on the south shore to bring commerce and economic improvement -- as well as new settlers, who would build homes-- was also unrealized at that time.) But there was still activity in this historic town in 1853.
Pembroke was first settled in 1650 as an Indian outpost and acquired from these Indians by Robert Barker, the first settler, in exchange for a quart of wine.[4] Early industry included an iron mill, built in 1702, which depended on bog iron mined in the vicinity. There was a saw mill at Beaver Dam, "the first factory for the manufacture of wooden packing boxes in this section of the country."[5] Until machinery to do this was introduced by the owners, brothers George Francis and Martin Hatch in 1853, all sawing, fitting and planning was done by hand. Randall’s Stage and Express Line carried the U. S. mail and linked the Pembroke area to Boston. The old brick store sold everything one could think of: lozenges, candy, ladies kid gloves, thread and cotton cloth, which ran about 15 cents per yard. Francis Collamore was the doctor in town; Reverend Ebenezer Black was the pastor of the Methodist Church, and Horace Collamore, Luther Briggs, Jr.'s father-in-law, was State Senator. The Glover house, subject of controversy over ownership, was thought to be haunted when one night it was moved across the street to the surprise of the townspeople who noted that it was settled and underpinned on its new site as if it had always been there, and the housewife was getting breakfast just as if nothing had occurred! The Town
Treasurer's cash books showed that carpenters were paid about $11.00 per day; Martin Osborne was paid $2.50 for a cord of wood, and Ichabod Sturtevant was paid $17.25 by the Town for digging.
In 1853 there were 228 persons between the ages of 18 and 45 eligible for military duty listed in the Town records. Roads were being laid out, existing roads moved. Ira Porter added living quarters above his store in Pembroke center; a motion to raise $800 to build a schoolhouse in District 7 was turned down; and a petition was introduced to remove the seats of the Town House where Town meetings and elections were held and the floor "to be laid on a level and suitable settees to be provided for the convenience of seating an audience also to appropriate money for the payment of same.”[6] Thus Pembroke was a rural town concerned with farming, local small industry, the vestiges of a once great shipbuilding industry in which generations of Briggs as well as other families had been involved, and a lively Town government.
In 1853 Franklin Pierce was inaugurated as the fourteenth President of the United States. Nathaniel Hawthorne published his Tanglewood Tales, and Henry Steinway and his three sons formed a family company in New York for the manufacture of pianos. The Gadsden Purchase, which would consolidate United States possession in the far west, was being negotiated; New York was connected to Chicago by railroad just as the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was completed to the Ohio River; and trade was opened with Japan when Commodore Matthew Perry entered Yedo Bay with an armed squadron, thus ending two centuries of Japanese isolationism.
In that same year abroad Vincent Van Gogh was born, the first railroad cut through the Alps to link Vienna and Trieste, and widespread acceptance of chloroform in medical practice was assured when Queen Victoria allowed it to be administered to her during the birth of her seventh child.
Back in Massachusetts, Donald McKay launched "The Great Republic," the largest of his clipper ships. Boston residents were enjoying both the Public Gardens, which had recently been created out of marshland to the west of the Common, and the newly constructed Music Hall, opposite the Park Street Church. Commercial Wharf was the largest dock in Boston, and the center of its grain trade. It was not a particularly placid year in the City: Abolitionists were active in their efforts to do away with slavery; the Know Nothing Party was active in its efforts to restrain the Irish who were streaming in as a result of the Potato Famine;[1] and the rich were actively creating suburbs in an effort to avoid paying taxes in Boston.
Architectural activity in 1853 was diverse and reflected, as did international, national and local events, over a decade of growing technology, industrialization and urbanization. New ideology and aesthetic standards formulated by John Ruskin and Horatio Greenough fostered a revolt against the Classical, and new enthusiasm for the Gothic in a romantic picturesque landscape. Lewellyn Park, a country suburb catering to the upper class, was begun, and for the less affluent there were published pattern books which described for architect, builder and home owner alike every variety of style of house from Rustic to castellated, with Tudor, Gothic, Bracketted (sic) and Italianate motifs.
There was interest in Utopian concepts, such as harmony with the landscape, utility, expression of purpose, especially those as pertaining to domestic dwellings for the common man: "It is in the solitude and freedom of the family home in the country which constantly preserves the purity of the nation and invigorates its intellectual powers.[2]• Andrew Jackson Downing's, The Architecture of Country Houses had been published in 1850, following upon his 1837 edition of Rural Residences for the improvement of American country architecture.
Orson Squire Fowler's treatises on phrenology, marriage and a new concept in healthful home building, the octagon, had received wide and popular attention. Alexander Jackson Davis' "Lyndhurst", a monument of picturesque irregularity. Begun in 1838. was still under construction in 1853; James Renwick was building the Smithsonian and had been commissioned to design St. Patrick's Cathedral; John A. Roebling was involved in building a railway suspension bridge over the Niagara. A lithograph published of Richard Upjohn's Church of the Holy Communion showed it in a park-like setting rather than in the city street where it actually stood. The Crystal Palace Exhibition Hall was built in New York; fabricated of cast iron and glass it was the largest dome erected in the United States up to that time and was hailed as a ''reintegration of engineering and decorating in a new national style of architecture.[3]•In 1853 Orson Squire Fowler finished his celebrated 3-story octagonal dwelling in Fishkill, New York, and in Pembroke, Massachusetts, Luther Briggs, Jr. built a hexagonal house that was decidedly Greek Revival in character as well as "Fowlerian" in concept.
In rural Pembroke. some thirty miles south of Boston, the local economy was suffering from the decline of ship- building on the North River. Prior to 1850 it had been one of the world's great shipbuilding centers, but available timber gave out and the building of larger clipper ships made the winding shallow river less viable. Lobbying efforts by Luther Briggs, Jr. to cut a channel at the opening of the river to facilitate the building of bigger ships came to naught when then Senator John Quincy Adams visited the site but did nothing to advance the plan. (A booklet published by Briggs in 1848 to encourage development of a railroad network on the south shore to bring commerce and economic improvement -- as well as new settlers, who would build homes-- was also unrealized at that time.) But there was still activity in this historic town in 1853.
Pembroke was first settled in 1650 as an Indian outpost and acquired from these Indians by Robert Barker, the first settler, in exchange for a quart of wine.[4] Early industry included an iron mill, built in 1702, which depended on bog iron mined in the vicinity. There was a saw mill at Beaver Dam, "the first factory for the manufacture of wooden packing boxes in this section of the country."[5] Until machinery to do this was introduced by the owners, brothers George Francis and Martin Hatch in 1853, all sawing, fitting and planning was done by hand. Randall’s Stage and Express Line carried the U. S. mail and linked the Pembroke area to Boston. The old brick store sold everything one could think of: lozenges, candy, ladies kid gloves, thread and cotton cloth, which ran about 15 cents per yard. Francis Collamore was the doctor in town; Reverend Ebenezer Black was the pastor of the Methodist Church, and Horace Collamore, Luther Briggs, Jr.'s father-in-law, was State Senator. The Glover house, subject of controversy over ownership, was thought to be haunted when one night it was moved across the street to the surprise of the townspeople who noted that it was settled and underpinned on its new site as if it had always been there, and the housewife was getting breakfast just as if nothing had occurred! The Town
Treasurer's cash books showed that carpenters were paid about $11.00 per day; Martin Osborne was paid $2.50 for a cord of wood, and Ichabod Sturtevant was paid $17.25 by the Town for digging.
In 1853 there were 228 persons between the ages of 18 and 45 eligible for military duty listed in the Town records. Roads were being laid out, existing roads moved. Ira Porter added living quarters above his store in Pembroke center; a motion to raise $800 to build a schoolhouse in District 7 was turned down; and a petition was introduced to remove the seats of the Town House where Town meetings and elections were held and the floor "to be laid on a level and suitable settees to be provided for the convenience of seating an audience also to appropriate money for the payment of same.”[6] Thus Pembroke was a rural town concerned with farming, local small industry, the vestiges of a once great shipbuilding industry in which generations of Briggs as well as other families had been involved, and a lively Town government.
PART II: THE HOUSE AND ITS BUILDER
Luther Briggs, Jr. was born in Pembroke in 1822. He was descended from generations of shipbuilders. His mother, Susan Stetson, was the sister of Silvina Stetson, wife of Alexander Parris, the Greek Revival architect and builder who had worked with Charles Bullfinch on the construction of Massachusetts General Hospital. Alexander Parris had grown up in Pembroke, but had moved to Maine, returning to Boston following the War of 1812. After this time, he settled in Boston, designing neo-classical buildings and churches. He was known for his rational simplicity, verging on austerity, of design. In 1840 he returned to Pembroke, buying a farm there (See illustration, p. g). Luther Briggs, Jr. was three years old when his uncle built Quincy Market. Instead of following his forebears into the shipbuilding industry, Briggs went to work in Alexander Parris’ office in Boston. There he received training as an engineer and as an architect. Briggs cited Parris as his instructor for his ''technological education.[7]•This education was essentially a classical one, emphasizing designs of proportion and restraint, severity of line and detail. In 1842 Briggs left Parris' office and went to work for Gridley J. F. Bryant as a draftsman, working on civic and commercial projects. It was in Bryant's office that Briggs may have been introduced to the Gothic style, for in 1843 Bryant submitted, for a design competition, an elevation of a chapel for Mt. Auburn Cemetery that, while symmetrical, incorporated decidedly Gothic detail. In 1844 Briggs left Bryant to go into partnership with Joseph Howard (who may have worked with him in Parris’ or Bryant’s office), Certainly they had known each other and had corresponded in the years before. Their short partnership produced drawings Greek Revival in style. After this he was essentially on his own in business. During this time he applied his engineering skills to such projects as a beacon on Cape Ann and factories at Salem and Rockport, among other works.
Briggs married Adeline, daughter of Senator Horace Collamere in 1847, and began to work on residential commissions in addition to civic and government contracts.
Briggs was self-taught in the Gothic style, following closely the picturesque pattern books of Davis, Calvert and Vaux and Downing in particular; at first close-copying, later combining and adapting and, finally, producing his own designs (See illustrations, p. a., and b), As Zimmer states in his article to SPNEA, “Brigg’s training as and engineer, as a draftsman and as a competent structural architect probably was thorough, but probably prepared him little for the shift in taste in domestic architecture from the Greek Revival to the eclectic picturesque styles that coincided with the beginning of his practice."[8] He was not the only architect following pattern books: the east façade for Upjohn’s "Kingscote" in Newport is very similar to a plan for a two-story cottage in Rural Residences by Alexander Jackson Davis.
The inspiration for "Queset", Oakes Angier Ames' house built by an unknown architect came from Downing's Cottage Residences. Even Davis drew from Downing for the Delamater House, and in 1863 a pattern book by Henry Hudson Holly takes one of Luther Briggs, Jr.'s designs for the Bigelow House as inspiration for ''design #10.[9](This is well documented by Edward Zimmer and is only used here to round out a professional profile of the man who built the Hexagon House.)
In 1852, Luther Briggs, Jr. purchased a piece of land abutting the Parris farm from his aunt and uncle, Alexander Parris and Sylvina B. Parris, some 31,680 sq. ft. for $50. The deed was dated 6/3/52. Thirteen days later, Alexander Parris died and was buried in a family cemetery on a hillside overlooking his farm, including the piece of land he had sold to his nephew. Fifty-three years later Luther Briggs, Jr. would be buried next to his uncle on that hilltop.
The six-sided house (see illustrations, pp. h & i) at 206 Washington Street in North Pembroke sits on a brick foundation with a cellar lined with fieldstone underneath. Its two-story clapboarded facade is painted white. The roof (now asbestos shingle), as well as the roof cap are hexagonally shaped to match the shape of the house. Each side of the house is articulated by a flush, flat end post which rises to the flat wide wrap-around cornice which runs directly under the roof. Each of the six sides has a pair of shuttered French doors below, and shuttered casement windows above.[10]
The second story windows have two panes on each side and fit right up under the cornice. Downstairs, the French doors have four panes on each side. They are simply framed by flat architraves and slightly pitched headers like shallow inverted V's. Their treatment is more like that of a window than a door. On the street side there is a shallow projection, rather like a bay window, but running to the floor. It looks like the entrance, but it is not; the entrance is to the left, facing the Parris homestead, with its large granite slab step, and there is no indication that it was ever moved. The entrance opens into a small hall with a steep turned stairway running up one side and a shallow closet on the other side. Inside, the house is divided in half on both levels, with one large room to the rear and one small room, hallway, stairs and a closet in the front (See illustration p. m). A thick vertical cedar post serves as a center support and runs from the basement up through the middle of the house to the roof. In the basement (its dirt floor recently covered over) one can see how the horizontal supporting beams radiate from the central post in a honeycomb effect. The interior of the house is utilitarian, slightly more ornamented than the very plain, undecorated exterior.
All of the major doors have been changed, but the openings to these and to the French doors have simply grooved framings punctuated by rosettes rather like bosses. A simple ogee molding decorates the top of the baseboards.
There are no records that show that Briggs either built or lived in the house, but deeds prove that he owned the land. When, in 1854, he sold the property to William Young of Chelsea for $1500, he described it in the deed as "being the same lot I bought of Alexander Parris by Warranty Deed 6/3/1852, and which, with the house erected thereon." See title rundown) There was no house mentioned in the earlier deed, so we must surmise that the house was built between 1852 and 1854. Briggs took a $700 mortgage and when Young could not keep up the payments, it was passed back to him by foreclosure. In 1862 Briggs and his wife sold the house to his sister, Susan S. Smith, and for the first time the deed noted "hexagonal" in describing the dwelling house. The land has changed hands fifteen times in all, the latest owners being Mr. and Mrs. David Congalton.
A brochure on the area for newcomers put out by the Rockland Trust noted that the Hexagon House was reputed to be the only one of its kind in America. The Pembroke house was also called “The Octagon House.” Perhaps people forgot to count. At any rate, as a geometric form, it does share with the octagon a long history going back to the period when Greek culture was in flower. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture lists the octagon as an eight-sided (!) figure frequently used as a ground plan during Rowan, Carolingian, Medieval, Renaissance periods and later. Carl F. Schmidt lists octagonal and round buildings in history beginning with the Temple of Jupiter at Spalatro and continuing through the centuries to the 19th century in the United States and Canada. There were apparently many in Italy and Holland; the first Protestant church in Holland, built in 1595, was octagonal.[11]In and around New York because of the Dutch influence there, some early churches and schools were built in this mode, called ''eight square.[12] buildings. There were also hexagonal schools and meeting houses built in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Southwestern New Jersey. In 1763 an Annapolis architect named Anderson submitted a design for an eight-sided stable to house the race horses of Governor Horatio Sharpe.[13] (See illustration p. j.) At Mt. Vernon, General George Washington built a sixteen-sided horse stable (now gone). Dr. William Thornton had added "the Octagon" to Enfant's Washington. Thomas Jefferson appreciated the octagon mode, using it in his designs for garden temples in the 1970's. He also built an octagonal retreat at Poplar Forest, a farm he owned near Lynchburg. Robert Mills, who had early training with Jefferson, built two octagonal churches: the Monumental Church of Richmond in 1811 and the Unitarian Church in Philadelphia in 1813.
In Boston, Charles Bullfinch, while Parris was working in his office, designed the New South or Octagon Church, described as ''peculiarly attractive."[14]The Eastern State Penitentiary, designed by John Haviland in 1823, had cell wings radiating from an octagonal structure, and octagonal towers on the corners. Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis were also involved in this design mode as seen by an article in the Society of Architectural Historians Journal in 1966, entitled "The Meaning of Town and Davis' Octagonal Schoolhouse Design."[15] The red brick Tayloe House (now headquarters for the A.I.A.), built in Washington, DC in 1800, was called an octagon but is actually an elongated hexagon with a rounded front. Therefore, it is not surprising that people called the Pembroke Hexagon House an octagon -- the two seem to be interchangeable in thought and in building modes.
In 1844 Joseph Goodrich built a hexagonal house in Milton, Wisconsin, of poured concrete which attracted the attention of Orson Squire Fowler, lecturer and phrenologist, who liked its solidity and strength. He saw the octagon as the house of the future, efficient in form and construction. It became his "invention"; for while the octagon shape had been used through the centuries, never before had it been applied to domestic architecture, particularly for the "common man." Innovator that he was, he plunged into the construction of a house for himself in Fishkill and wrote A Home for All, or, the Gravel Wall, and Octagon Mode of Building. First published in 1849, it was so popular that new editions were published every year for the next eight years.
In order to understand Fowler's success and huge following, one must understand the feeling of the period. Pierson, in his Vol. II, sums it up: ''The individual, political and religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution resulted in a gradual breakdown in the narrow and relatively homogeneous cultural patterns of colonial society and gave encouragement to diversity in thought and institution... judgement became more...a matter of individual preference rather than accepted convention.[16]There was complexity and confusion; there was choice. ''A blind partiality for any one style in building is detrimental to the progress of improvement," wrote Downing in The Architecture of Country Houses. Orson Squire Fowler enjoyed a varied career: he was a vegetarian and a reformer involved in Abolition and Temperance movements; he was interested in improvement of memory, intellect, sex education, marriage, society, humanity and housing and wrote treatises or lectured on all of these topics. He was best known as a practitioner of Phrenology, a pseudo-science purported to reveal a person's character from the shape of his head. He went to Amherst College, studying theology. While there, he and classmate Henry Ward Beecher became interested in Phrenology. He abandoned the ministry after graduating in 1834 and instead took to lecturing on this "science", which had aroused such universal interest that by 1832 more than thirty societies had been found in Great Britain dedicated to its study.[17] Thus, Fowler was "a characteristic product of the day, with a mass of ill-digested information, many enthusiastic theories and much reformatory zeal."[18]
His work is summarized by one reference work as an "...amazing mélange of scientific facts, popular superstitions and personal fancy... charming ignorant audiences equally by...assumption of scientific knowledge and by the extreme sentimentality of its (sic) fundamental outlook on life. 19] Interested in social reform, Fowler wanted more comfortable houses for the working people. He advocated the octagon mode because he said that it contained one-fifth more room for its wall area than a square structure, that eight walls would receive twice as much sunlight as four, that it would be easier to heat in the winter because there would be less exterior wall surface for heat loss, and easier to cool in the summer because windows opened on all sides for good ventilation.
He called for the application of nature's spherical form to the construction of houses. According to Fowler the sphere was closest to beauty: the more acute the angle the less beautiful; the more the angle approaches the circle the more beautiful. Therefore, he rationalizes, the octagon is more beautiful than the square. It is a rather Utopian concept in an era of Utopian communities such as Oneida and Hopedale, Massachusetts. In this context "Fowler's concept of the octagon in domestic architecture caught the imagination of the country. [20]
In the 1850's octagons popped up all over the place. "The distinctiveness of the design and the reasons Fowler presented in his books appealed to many people. The decade between 1850 and 1860 was the age of the octagons. Eight-sided house, school houses, barns, carriage houses, smoke houses, chicken houses, bath houses and even an octagonal blacksmith shop were built.[21]
As far west as Honolulu, ''Beckwith's Folly'', an eight- sided house, was built on the grounds of the Punahou School. Other pattern books carried adaptations of the mode. "The density of octagon houses was greatest in the Hudson River Valley (the direct influence of Fowler), in intellectual Massachusetts and in the homeland of the gravel wall, Wisconsin.[22] All were not built in cement, as Fowler had advocated. A new type of construction, the balloon (sic) frame, made structures even like this easier and more economical to erect, depending on the geographical location. Designed for the common man, the houses were simple, with no fancy ornament or entrances, and the interiors were equally simple, with no carving, ornamental plaster ceilings or molded cornices. Exceptions to this were "Longwood" in Natchez, built but not finished by Samuel Sloan, an architect from Philadelphia; the Armour-Cormer House in Irvington, NY and the Richards House in Watertown, Wisconsin all of these were large and elaborate mansions. At the other end of the scale was an octagon settlement projected for Kansas where participants would be expected "to work for Free Soil by nibbling nature's roots in eight-sided dwellings."[23]
Two hexagonal houses were mentioned by Schmidt in The Octagon Fad: the S. Rubino house in Columbiaville, NY is a two-story hexagonal. (See illustration for comparison with the Pembroke house) Each side is 18 ft. long (the Pembroke house is 11 ft.) faced with clapboards topped with a small bracketed (sic) cornice. No building date is given, nor is there a picture of either of the houses mentioned.
Architectural details date the Tarbox-Bauer house in Lydonville, NY, around the 1850's, the author thinks, although he includes background information which states that Godfrey Tarbox bought 50 acres from the Holland Land Co. in 1836 with the provision that he build within 6 months. Schmidt calls the hexagon a Greek Revival type. What would Fowler, who ridiculed the Greek Revival style, think of this?) The home is described as having 18'4" sides with 17" wide pilasters on each side of the six angles. A three-member entablature with frieze windows encircles the house. The exterior walls are covered with clapboards. There is a flat roof which once had a cupola, the author states. (Oh, for some pictures!)
There was architectural experimentation stemming from a different (but perhaps parallel) rationale going on near Pembroke. A round house was built in Plympton (see illustration, page 1) in 1857 by Zenas Washburn on guidance from “the spirits.'' Its shape was designed to prevent evil spirits from hiding in the corners.[24] An octagonal house built in Kingston in 1855, looking very much like the Pembroke hexagon house but with a Fowler porch, central chimney and many windows, may have been built along the same rationale: that not having right angled corners was supposed to ward off evil spirits.
According to the present owners, the Congaltons, the hexagon house was built by health fanatics to get as much fresh air and sunlight to keep away consumption which was prevalent at the time.
Who built the hexagon house, and why? Did Alexander Parris design it before he died? If not, did he influence Luther Briggs who may have built it? Or did Briggs build from a pattern book as he certainly was in the habit of doing as seen by his other designs? According to the League of Women Voters, who included the hexagon house in their 1973 House Tour: "It was built in 1853 by William Young for Nathaniel Smith, who believed the sun would protect against the tuberculosis germ, and wanted as much sunlight in each room as possible."[25] Certainly Nathaniel Smith's wife, Susan Stetson Briggs Smith, did own the house, but not until 1862, and their deed of ownership states that a hexagonal dwelling house was already on the property (see title rundown). As far as the hexagon house being Fowler inspired, a look at Fowler's octagons and plans shows little overt similarity (see illustration, p. m). I think, instead, that the Pembroke house reflects several influences. Certainly, shape and the philosophy of sunlight and ventilation could be Fowler inspired. If Luther Briggs built the house (and I believe he did), as an engineer and architect and as a student of architectural pattern books of the day, he may have built the house as an "exercise" in mastering one of the popular modes of the day. It is quite a small house, each side being only 11 ft. long. Moreover, I believe the most insistent influence is that of Alexander Parris.
The Briggs and Parris families were very close (see illustration, p. n.). Briggs' brother, Alexander Parris Briggs, who lived but a year, was named after his uncle, and a sister, Silvina Parris Briggs, born in 1816, was named after Alexander Parris' wife, the sister of the Briggs' children's mother. Letters addressed to "Aunt Parris" and ''Uncle Parris'' by Luther and his sister Susan discuss plans for outings to the Parris farm and other family reunions. It is clear that they visited back and forth frequently. Parris may have sold a parcel of the family farm to his nephew because there is no mention of surviving Parris children and Luther Briggs was the only male to survive on the Briggs' side. The fact that the property eventually ended up in the possession of Susan S. (Stetson)(Briggs) Smith and her husband Nathaniel (Luther Briggs had no heirs, either), thus keeping the land in the family, strengthens this theory. Luther Briggs' ties with Alexander Parris went beyond the familial to the ideological and professional: Son and grandson of shipbuilders on the North River, Briggs chose to follow his uncle into his profession and trained under him in his office and in his style. There were also similarities in their lives: Luther Briggs, Jr. had taught school in Pembroke for a period of time before 1839; Alexander Parris had also taught school in Pembroke thirty- odd years before. The two were also involved in engineering projects in the local area, particularly 1850 plans for a horseboat (a specially built ferry propelled by horsepower) "for the purpose of collecting and transporting sea manure from the vicinity of the mouth of the North River...[26] Like other of Briggs' projects to economically improve the North River area, this one, also signed by Alexander Parris, was not realized. Briggs' training with his uncle introduced him to a style of rationalism which eschewed the waste and inefficiency of ornate styles for the simplicity and utility of geometric shapes. (Certainly Fowler, despite other differences, would concur with this ideal!)
Although Luther Briggs concurrently and in later life studied and built in the more popular Gothic and Italianate styles, one can see in the Pembroke hexagon the austerity, the rigid verticality, the severity of sparse detail and the geometric shape that characterized Parris' Greek Revival buildings. The flat, simple wraparound cornice, the flush corner posts, the sheer surfaces, flat framing of the elongated windows on the first floor that are actually French doors, the lack of any ornamentation save for the lintel which is crowned with that ubiquitous Greek Revival detail, the shallow arch suggestive of the top of a pediment, and perhaps the shutters (although I don’t know if they are original) place this house clearly in a Greek Revival frame of reference. Certainly, there was some use of Greek motifs after 1840 (See p. o). Pierson, who says "...neoclassical doctrine would never completely die out in this country,"[27] cites A. J. Davis' design for the Delamater House which used the Gothic mode for the outside and on the inside used detailing that was "rather simple and entirely Greek,"[28] and says that such a mixture of styles is not unusual during this period. In 1850 a strictly Greek Revival house was built in Eastham, Massachusetts, and in the same year in Petersborough, New Hampshire, a board and batten Gothic cottage was built with Greek Revival proportioned corner posts and a classic entablature on the veranda roof.
So, anything was possible in this age of architectural experimentation and individual accomplishment. It would seem that for himself Luther Briggs adapted some of Orson Squire Fowler's philosophies and built a "radical" house that was strictly vernacular New England in its white paneled clapboarding; and in tribute to his uncle who lay buried on an overlooking hill, the house spoke not only of Fowler's theories but of Alexander Parris' rational clarity in execution of design.
Luther Briggs, Jr. was born in Pembroke in 1822. He was descended from generations of shipbuilders. His mother, Susan Stetson, was the sister of Silvina Stetson, wife of Alexander Parris, the Greek Revival architect and builder who had worked with Charles Bullfinch on the construction of Massachusetts General Hospital. Alexander Parris had grown up in Pembroke, but had moved to Maine, returning to Boston following the War of 1812. After this time, he settled in Boston, designing neo-classical buildings and churches. He was known for his rational simplicity, verging on austerity, of design. In 1840 he returned to Pembroke, buying a farm there (See illustration, p. g). Luther Briggs, Jr. was three years old when his uncle built Quincy Market. Instead of following his forebears into the shipbuilding industry, Briggs went to work in Alexander Parris’ office in Boston. There he received training as an engineer and as an architect. Briggs cited Parris as his instructor for his ''technological education.[7]•This education was essentially a classical one, emphasizing designs of proportion and restraint, severity of line and detail. In 1842 Briggs left Parris' office and went to work for Gridley J. F. Bryant as a draftsman, working on civic and commercial projects. It was in Bryant's office that Briggs may have been introduced to the Gothic style, for in 1843 Bryant submitted, for a design competition, an elevation of a chapel for Mt. Auburn Cemetery that, while symmetrical, incorporated decidedly Gothic detail. In 1844 Briggs left Bryant to go into partnership with Joseph Howard (who may have worked with him in Parris’ or Bryant’s office), Certainly they had known each other and had corresponded in the years before. Their short partnership produced drawings Greek Revival in style. After this he was essentially on his own in business. During this time he applied his engineering skills to such projects as a beacon on Cape Ann and factories at Salem and Rockport, among other works.
Briggs married Adeline, daughter of Senator Horace Collamere in 1847, and began to work on residential commissions in addition to civic and government contracts.
Briggs was self-taught in the Gothic style, following closely the picturesque pattern books of Davis, Calvert and Vaux and Downing in particular; at first close-copying, later combining and adapting and, finally, producing his own designs (See illustrations, p. a., and b), As Zimmer states in his article to SPNEA, “Brigg’s training as and engineer, as a draftsman and as a competent structural architect probably was thorough, but probably prepared him little for the shift in taste in domestic architecture from the Greek Revival to the eclectic picturesque styles that coincided with the beginning of his practice."[8] He was not the only architect following pattern books: the east façade for Upjohn’s "Kingscote" in Newport is very similar to a plan for a two-story cottage in Rural Residences by Alexander Jackson Davis.
The inspiration for "Queset", Oakes Angier Ames' house built by an unknown architect came from Downing's Cottage Residences. Even Davis drew from Downing for the Delamater House, and in 1863 a pattern book by Henry Hudson Holly takes one of Luther Briggs, Jr.'s designs for the Bigelow House as inspiration for ''design #10.[9](This is well documented by Edward Zimmer and is only used here to round out a professional profile of the man who built the Hexagon House.)
In 1852, Luther Briggs, Jr. purchased a piece of land abutting the Parris farm from his aunt and uncle, Alexander Parris and Sylvina B. Parris, some 31,680 sq. ft. for $50. The deed was dated 6/3/52. Thirteen days later, Alexander Parris died and was buried in a family cemetery on a hillside overlooking his farm, including the piece of land he had sold to his nephew. Fifty-three years later Luther Briggs, Jr. would be buried next to his uncle on that hilltop.
The six-sided house (see illustrations, pp. h & i) at 206 Washington Street in North Pembroke sits on a brick foundation with a cellar lined with fieldstone underneath. Its two-story clapboarded facade is painted white. The roof (now asbestos shingle), as well as the roof cap are hexagonally shaped to match the shape of the house. Each side of the house is articulated by a flush, flat end post which rises to the flat wide wrap-around cornice which runs directly under the roof. Each of the six sides has a pair of shuttered French doors below, and shuttered casement windows above.[10]
The second story windows have two panes on each side and fit right up under the cornice. Downstairs, the French doors have four panes on each side. They are simply framed by flat architraves and slightly pitched headers like shallow inverted V's. Their treatment is more like that of a window than a door. On the street side there is a shallow projection, rather like a bay window, but running to the floor. It looks like the entrance, but it is not; the entrance is to the left, facing the Parris homestead, with its large granite slab step, and there is no indication that it was ever moved. The entrance opens into a small hall with a steep turned stairway running up one side and a shallow closet on the other side. Inside, the house is divided in half on both levels, with one large room to the rear and one small room, hallway, stairs and a closet in the front (See illustration p. m). A thick vertical cedar post serves as a center support and runs from the basement up through the middle of the house to the roof. In the basement (its dirt floor recently covered over) one can see how the horizontal supporting beams radiate from the central post in a honeycomb effect. The interior of the house is utilitarian, slightly more ornamented than the very plain, undecorated exterior.
All of the major doors have been changed, but the openings to these and to the French doors have simply grooved framings punctuated by rosettes rather like bosses. A simple ogee molding decorates the top of the baseboards.
There are no records that show that Briggs either built or lived in the house, but deeds prove that he owned the land. When, in 1854, he sold the property to William Young of Chelsea for $1500, he described it in the deed as "being the same lot I bought of Alexander Parris by Warranty Deed 6/3/1852, and which, with the house erected thereon." See title rundown) There was no house mentioned in the earlier deed, so we must surmise that the house was built between 1852 and 1854. Briggs took a $700 mortgage and when Young could not keep up the payments, it was passed back to him by foreclosure. In 1862 Briggs and his wife sold the house to his sister, Susan S. Smith, and for the first time the deed noted "hexagonal" in describing the dwelling house. The land has changed hands fifteen times in all, the latest owners being Mr. and Mrs. David Congalton.
A brochure on the area for newcomers put out by the Rockland Trust noted that the Hexagon House was reputed to be the only one of its kind in America. The Pembroke house was also called “The Octagon House.” Perhaps people forgot to count. At any rate, as a geometric form, it does share with the octagon a long history going back to the period when Greek culture was in flower. The Penguin Dictionary of Architecture lists the octagon as an eight-sided (!) figure frequently used as a ground plan during Rowan, Carolingian, Medieval, Renaissance periods and later. Carl F. Schmidt lists octagonal and round buildings in history beginning with the Temple of Jupiter at Spalatro and continuing through the centuries to the 19th century in the United States and Canada. There were apparently many in Italy and Holland; the first Protestant church in Holland, built in 1595, was octagonal.[11]In and around New York because of the Dutch influence there, some early churches and schools were built in this mode, called ''eight square.[12] buildings. There were also hexagonal schools and meeting houses built in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Maryland and Southwestern New Jersey. In 1763 an Annapolis architect named Anderson submitted a design for an eight-sided stable to house the race horses of Governor Horatio Sharpe.[13] (See illustration p. j.) At Mt. Vernon, General George Washington built a sixteen-sided horse stable (now gone). Dr. William Thornton had added "the Octagon" to Enfant's Washington. Thomas Jefferson appreciated the octagon mode, using it in his designs for garden temples in the 1970's. He also built an octagonal retreat at Poplar Forest, a farm he owned near Lynchburg. Robert Mills, who had early training with Jefferson, built two octagonal churches: the Monumental Church of Richmond in 1811 and the Unitarian Church in Philadelphia in 1813.
In Boston, Charles Bullfinch, while Parris was working in his office, designed the New South or Octagon Church, described as ''peculiarly attractive."[14]The Eastern State Penitentiary, designed by John Haviland in 1823, had cell wings radiating from an octagonal structure, and octagonal towers on the corners. Ithiel Town and Alexander Jackson Davis were also involved in this design mode as seen by an article in the Society of Architectural Historians Journal in 1966, entitled "The Meaning of Town and Davis' Octagonal Schoolhouse Design."[15] The red brick Tayloe House (now headquarters for the A.I.A.), built in Washington, DC in 1800, was called an octagon but is actually an elongated hexagon with a rounded front. Therefore, it is not surprising that people called the Pembroke Hexagon House an octagon -- the two seem to be interchangeable in thought and in building modes.
In 1844 Joseph Goodrich built a hexagonal house in Milton, Wisconsin, of poured concrete which attracted the attention of Orson Squire Fowler, lecturer and phrenologist, who liked its solidity and strength. He saw the octagon as the house of the future, efficient in form and construction. It became his "invention"; for while the octagon shape had been used through the centuries, never before had it been applied to domestic architecture, particularly for the "common man." Innovator that he was, he plunged into the construction of a house for himself in Fishkill and wrote A Home for All, or, the Gravel Wall, and Octagon Mode of Building. First published in 1849, it was so popular that new editions were published every year for the next eight years.
In order to understand Fowler's success and huge following, one must understand the feeling of the period. Pierson, in his Vol. II, sums it up: ''The individual, political and religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution resulted in a gradual breakdown in the narrow and relatively homogeneous cultural patterns of colonial society and gave encouragement to diversity in thought and institution... judgement became more...a matter of individual preference rather than accepted convention.[16]There was complexity and confusion; there was choice. ''A blind partiality for any one style in building is detrimental to the progress of improvement," wrote Downing in The Architecture of Country Houses. Orson Squire Fowler enjoyed a varied career: he was a vegetarian and a reformer involved in Abolition and Temperance movements; he was interested in improvement of memory, intellect, sex education, marriage, society, humanity and housing and wrote treatises or lectured on all of these topics. He was best known as a practitioner of Phrenology, a pseudo-science purported to reveal a person's character from the shape of his head. He went to Amherst College, studying theology. While there, he and classmate Henry Ward Beecher became interested in Phrenology. He abandoned the ministry after graduating in 1834 and instead took to lecturing on this "science", which had aroused such universal interest that by 1832 more than thirty societies had been found in Great Britain dedicated to its study.[17] Thus, Fowler was "a characteristic product of the day, with a mass of ill-digested information, many enthusiastic theories and much reformatory zeal."[18]
His work is summarized by one reference work as an "...amazing mélange of scientific facts, popular superstitions and personal fancy... charming ignorant audiences equally by...assumption of scientific knowledge and by the extreme sentimentality of its (sic) fundamental outlook on life. 19] Interested in social reform, Fowler wanted more comfortable houses for the working people. He advocated the octagon mode because he said that it contained one-fifth more room for its wall area than a square structure, that eight walls would receive twice as much sunlight as four, that it would be easier to heat in the winter because there would be less exterior wall surface for heat loss, and easier to cool in the summer because windows opened on all sides for good ventilation.
He called for the application of nature's spherical form to the construction of houses. According to Fowler the sphere was closest to beauty: the more acute the angle the less beautiful; the more the angle approaches the circle the more beautiful. Therefore, he rationalizes, the octagon is more beautiful than the square. It is a rather Utopian concept in an era of Utopian communities such as Oneida and Hopedale, Massachusetts. In this context "Fowler's concept of the octagon in domestic architecture caught the imagination of the country. [20]
In the 1850's octagons popped up all over the place. "The distinctiveness of the design and the reasons Fowler presented in his books appealed to many people. The decade between 1850 and 1860 was the age of the octagons. Eight-sided house, school houses, barns, carriage houses, smoke houses, chicken houses, bath houses and even an octagonal blacksmith shop were built.[21]
As far west as Honolulu, ''Beckwith's Folly'', an eight- sided house, was built on the grounds of the Punahou School. Other pattern books carried adaptations of the mode. "The density of octagon houses was greatest in the Hudson River Valley (the direct influence of Fowler), in intellectual Massachusetts and in the homeland of the gravel wall, Wisconsin.[22] All were not built in cement, as Fowler had advocated. A new type of construction, the balloon (sic) frame, made structures even like this easier and more economical to erect, depending on the geographical location. Designed for the common man, the houses were simple, with no fancy ornament or entrances, and the interiors were equally simple, with no carving, ornamental plaster ceilings or molded cornices. Exceptions to this were "Longwood" in Natchez, built but not finished by Samuel Sloan, an architect from Philadelphia; the Armour-Cormer House in Irvington, NY and the Richards House in Watertown, Wisconsin all of these were large and elaborate mansions. At the other end of the scale was an octagon settlement projected for Kansas where participants would be expected "to work for Free Soil by nibbling nature's roots in eight-sided dwellings."[23]
Two hexagonal houses were mentioned by Schmidt in The Octagon Fad: the S. Rubino house in Columbiaville, NY is a two-story hexagonal. (See illustration for comparison with the Pembroke house) Each side is 18 ft. long (the Pembroke house is 11 ft.) faced with clapboards topped with a small bracketed (sic) cornice. No building date is given, nor is there a picture of either of the houses mentioned.
Architectural details date the Tarbox-Bauer house in Lydonville, NY, around the 1850's, the author thinks, although he includes background information which states that Godfrey Tarbox bought 50 acres from the Holland Land Co. in 1836 with the provision that he build within 6 months. Schmidt calls the hexagon a Greek Revival type. What would Fowler, who ridiculed the Greek Revival style, think of this?) The home is described as having 18'4" sides with 17" wide pilasters on each side of the six angles. A three-member entablature with frieze windows encircles the house. The exterior walls are covered with clapboards. There is a flat roof which once had a cupola, the author states. (Oh, for some pictures!)
There was architectural experimentation stemming from a different (but perhaps parallel) rationale going on near Pembroke. A round house was built in Plympton (see illustration, page 1) in 1857 by Zenas Washburn on guidance from “the spirits.'' Its shape was designed to prevent evil spirits from hiding in the corners.[24] An octagonal house built in Kingston in 1855, looking very much like the Pembroke hexagon house but with a Fowler porch, central chimney and many windows, may have been built along the same rationale: that not having right angled corners was supposed to ward off evil spirits.
According to the present owners, the Congaltons, the hexagon house was built by health fanatics to get as much fresh air and sunlight to keep away consumption which was prevalent at the time.
Who built the hexagon house, and why? Did Alexander Parris design it before he died? If not, did he influence Luther Briggs who may have built it? Or did Briggs build from a pattern book as he certainly was in the habit of doing as seen by his other designs? According to the League of Women Voters, who included the hexagon house in their 1973 House Tour: "It was built in 1853 by William Young for Nathaniel Smith, who believed the sun would protect against the tuberculosis germ, and wanted as much sunlight in each room as possible."[25] Certainly Nathaniel Smith's wife, Susan Stetson Briggs Smith, did own the house, but not until 1862, and their deed of ownership states that a hexagonal dwelling house was already on the property (see title rundown). As far as the hexagon house being Fowler inspired, a look at Fowler's octagons and plans shows little overt similarity (see illustration, p. m). I think, instead, that the Pembroke house reflects several influences. Certainly, shape and the philosophy of sunlight and ventilation could be Fowler inspired. If Luther Briggs built the house (and I believe he did), as an engineer and architect and as a student of architectural pattern books of the day, he may have built the house as an "exercise" in mastering one of the popular modes of the day. It is quite a small house, each side being only 11 ft. long. Moreover, I believe the most insistent influence is that of Alexander Parris.
The Briggs and Parris families were very close (see illustration, p. n.). Briggs' brother, Alexander Parris Briggs, who lived but a year, was named after his uncle, and a sister, Silvina Parris Briggs, born in 1816, was named after Alexander Parris' wife, the sister of the Briggs' children's mother. Letters addressed to "Aunt Parris" and ''Uncle Parris'' by Luther and his sister Susan discuss plans for outings to the Parris farm and other family reunions. It is clear that they visited back and forth frequently. Parris may have sold a parcel of the family farm to his nephew because there is no mention of surviving Parris children and Luther Briggs was the only male to survive on the Briggs' side. The fact that the property eventually ended up in the possession of Susan S. (Stetson)(Briggs) Smith and her husband Nathaniel (Luther Briggs had no heirs, either), thus keeping the land in the family, strengthens this theory. Luther Briggs' ties with Alexander Parris went beyond the familial to the ideological and professional: Son and grandson of shipbuilders on the North River, Briggs chose to follow his uncle into his profession and trained under him in his office and in his style. There were also similarities in their lives: Luther Briggs, Jr. had taught school in Pembroke for a period of time before 1839; Alexander Parris had also taught school in Pembroke thirty- odd years before. The two were also involved in engineering projects in the local area, particularly 1850 plans for a horseboat (a specially built ferry propelled by horsepower) "for the purpose of collecting and transporting sea manure from the vicinity of the mouth of the North River...[26] Like other of Briggs' projects to economically improve the North River area, this one, also signed by Alexander Parris, was not realized. Briggs' training with his uncle introduced him to a style of rationalism which eschewed the waste and inefficiency of ornate styles for the simplicity and utility of geometric shapes. (Certainly Fowler, despite other differences, would concur with this ideal!)
Although Luther Briggs concurrently and in later life studied and built in the more popular Gothic and Italianate styles, one can see in the Pembroke hexagon the austerity, the rigid verticality, the severity of sparse detail and the geometric shape that characterized Parris' Greek Revival buildings. The flat, simple wraparound cornice, the flush corner posts, the sheer surfaces, flat framing of the elongated windows on the first floor that are actually French doors, the lack of any ornamentation save for the lintel which is crowned with that ubiquitous Greek Revival detail, the shallow arch suggestive of the top of a pediment, and perhaps the shutters (although I don’t know if they are original) place this house clearly in a Greek Revival frame of reference. Certainly, there was some use of Greek motifs after 1840 (See p. o). Pierson, who says "...neoclassical doctrine would never completely die out in this country,"[27] cites A. J. Davis' design for the Delamater House which used the Gothic mode for the outside and on the inside used detailing that was "rather simple and entirely Greek,"[28] and says that such a mixture of styles is not unusual during this period. In 1850 a strictly Greek Revival house was built in Eastham, Massachusetts, and in the same year in Petersborough, New Hampshire, a board and batten Gothic cottage was built with Greek Revival proportioned corner posts and a classic entablature on the veranda roof.
So, anything was possible in this age of architectural experimentation and individual accomplishment. It would seem that for himself Luther Briggs adapted some of Orson Squire Fowler's philosophies and built a "radical" house that was strictly vernacular New England in its white paneled clapboarding; and in tribute to his uncle who lay buried on an overlooking hill, the house spoke not only of Fowler's theories but of Alexander Parris' rational clarity in execution of design.
FOOTNOTES
[1] According to Naomi Congalton, the present owner, the Know Nothing Party held a meeting at the hexagon house at one point.
[2] Downing, Andrew Jackson, The Architecture of County Houses.
[3] p. 238, The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates.
[4] Massachusetts' Profile of Pembroke.
[5] Bryantville News, "Historic Pembroke."
[6] Pembroke, Town Records, 1852-1858.
[7] p. 36, Zimmer, Luther Briggs and the Picturesque Pattern Books.
[8] Ibid., p. 55.
[9] Ibid., p. 52.
[10] A one-story rectangular ell is added to the rear and takes up one of the six sides. This addition was
apparently added soon after the house was built and probably replaced a massive fireplace and chimney
rather than a French door and window above. This later addition houses kitchen, dining room and bath.
[11] p. 21, Society of Architectural Historians Journal.
[12] Ibid., p. 21
[13] Ibid., p. 22
[14] p. 475., Winsor, Memorial History of Boston.
[15] Article listed but not available at Gund.
[16] p. 6, Pierson, American Buildings and Their Architects, Vol. II.
[17] p. 3, Schmidt, The Octagon Fad.
[18] p. 565, Vol. III, Dictionary of American Biography.
[19] Ibid., p. 566.
[20] XI, Stern, Madeline B., introduction to A Home for All.
[21] p. 9, Schmidt, The Octagon Fad.
[22] p. 141, Lancaster, Architectural Follies in America.
[23] VI, Stern, introduction to A Home for All.
[24] The Silverlake News, November 18, 1976.
[25] Mrs. Anne B. Henderson's letter to me.
[26] Briggs, History of Shipbuilding on the North River.
[27] p. 408, Pierson, American Buildings and Their Architects.
[28] Ibid., p. 408.
[1] According to Naomi Congalton, the present owner, the Know Nothing Party held a meeting at the hexagon house at one point.
[2] Downing, Andrew Jackson, The Architecture of County Houses.
[3] p. 238, The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates.
[4] Massachusetts' Profile of Pembroke.
[5] Bryantville News, "Historic Pembroke."
[6] Pembroke, Town Records, 1852-1858.
[7] p. 36, Zimmer, Luther Briggs and the Picturesque Pattern Books.
[8] Ibid., p. 55.
[9] Ibid., p. 52.
[10] A one-story rectangular ell is added to the rear and takes up one of the six sides. This addition was
apparently added soon after the house was built and probably replaced a massive fireplace and chimney
rather than a French door and window above. This later addition houses kitchen, dining room and bath.
[11] p. 21, Society of Architectural Historians Journal.
[12] Ibid., p. 21
[13] Ibid., p. 22
[14] p. 475., Winsor, Memorial History of Boston.
[15] Article listed but not available at Gund.
[16] p. 6, Pierson, American Buildings and Their Architects, Vol. II.
[17] p. 3, Schmidt, The Octagon Fad.
[18] p. 565, Vol. III, Dictionary of American Biography.
[19] Ibid., p. 566.
[20] XI, Stern, Madeline B., introduction to A Home for All.
[21] p. 9, Schmidt, The Octagon Fad.
[22] p. 141, Lancaster, Architectural Follies in America.
[23] VI, Stern, introduction to A Home for All.
[24] The Silverlake News, November 18, 1976.
[25] Mrs. Anne B. Henderson's letter to me.
[26] Briggs, History of Shipbuilding on the North River.
[27] p. 408, Pierson, American Buildings and Their Architects.
[28] Ibid., p. 408.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Briggs, L. Vernon. History of Shipbuilding on the North River. Boston, MA: Coburn Brothers, Printers, 1889.
Briggs, Lloyd Vernon. History and Genealogy of the Briggs Family, Vol. II. Boston, MA: Charles Goodspeed & Co., 1938.
Bryantville News. "Historic Pembroke", 1742-1912.
Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. III. New York: Charles Scribner & Co., 1931.
Downing, Andrew Jackson. Architecture of Country Houses (1850).
Fitch, James Marston. American Building. New York: Schocken Books, 1973.
"Fowler and Octagon Lore". Yankee Magazine, November, 1973.
Fowler, Orson S. The Octagon House: A Home for All. New York: Dours Publications, 1973.
Gifford, Don, ed. The Literature of Architecture. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1966.
Gorton Carreth & Associates. The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Inc., 1972.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.
Jones, Howard Mumford, Zahan, Bessie. The Many Voices of Boston. 1630-1975. Boston, MA: Little Brown & Co., 1975.
Kirker, Harold, Kirker, James. Bullfinch's Boston 1787-1817. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.
Lancaster, Clay. Architectural Follies in America. Rutland, VT.: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1960.
Langer, William L., ed. An Encyclopedia of Work History. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968.
Massachusetts Profile of Pembroke. Massachusetts Department of Commerce and Development, Boston, MA 02202.
Pembroke, Town Records, 1852-1858.
Pierson, William H., Jr. American Buildings and Their Architects, Vols. I & II. New York: Anshor Books, 1976 & 1980.
Rifkind, Carol. A Field Guide to American Architecture. New York: The New American L1brary, Inc., 1980.
Ross, Marjorie Drake. The Book of Boston: The Federal Period. New York: Hastings House, 1961.
Roth, Leland M. A Concise History of American Architecture. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
Schmidt, Carl F. The Octagon Fad. Scottsville, NY: Carl F. Schmidt, 1958.
Society of Architectural Historians Journal, Vol. 12, March 1953.
Winsor, Justin, ed. The Memorial History of Boston, Vol. IV Boston, MA: James R. Osgood & Company, 1881.
Zimmer, Edward F. "Luther Briggs and the Picturesque Pattern Books", Vol. LXVII Nos. 3 & 4, Old-Time New England, SPNEA.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Congalton, Mrs. David
Henderson, Mrs. Anne Bonney, Susan Smith paper, 1974.
O'Hara, Robert G., Pembroke Historical Commission
Records, Pembroke Historical Association
Registry of Deeds, Plymouth County
Briggs, L. Vernon. History of Shipbuilding on the North River. Boston, MA: Coburn Brothers, Printers, 1889.
Briggs, Lloyd Vernon. History and Genealogy of the Briggs Family, Vol. II. Boston, MA: Charles Goodspeed & Co., 1938.
Bryantville News. "Historic Pembroke", 1742-1912.
Dictionary of American Biography, Vol. III. New York: Charles Scribner & Co., 1931.
Downing, Andrew Jackson. Architecture of Country Houses (1850).
Fitch, James Marston. American Building. New York: Schocken Books, 1973.
"Fowler and Octagon Lore". Yankee Magazine, November, 1973.
Fowler, Orson S. The Octagon House: A Home for All. New York: Dours Publications, 1973.
Gifford, Don, ed. The Literature of Architecture. New York: E. P. Dutton & Co., 1966.
Gorton Carreth & Associates. The Encyclopedia of American Facts and Dates. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., Inc., 1972.
Grun, Bernard. The Timetables of History. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1963.
Jones, Howard Mumford, Zahan, Bessie. The Many Voices of Boston. 1630-1975. Boston, MA: Little Brown & Co., 1975.
Kirker, Harold, Kirker, James. Bullfinch's Boston 1787-1817. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.
Lancaster, Clay. Architectural Follies in America. Rutland, VT.: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1960.
Langer, William L., ed. An Encyclopedia of Work History. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1968.
Massachusetts Profile of Pembroke. Massachusetts Department of Commerce and Development, Boston, MA 02202.
Pembroke, Town Records, 1852-1858.
Pierson, William H., Jr. American Buildings and Their Architects, Vols. I & II. New York: Anshor Books, 1976 & 1980.
Rifkind, Carol. A Field Guide to American Architecture. New York: The New American L1brary, Inc., 1980.
Ross, Marjorie Drake. The Book of Boston: The Federal Period. New York: Hastings House, 1961.
Roth, Leland M. A Concise History of American Architecture. New York: Harper & Row, 1979.
Schmidt, Carl F. The Octagon Fad. Scottsville, NY: Carl F. Schmidt, 1958.
Society of Architectural Historians Journal, Vol. 12, March 1953.
Winsor, Justin, ed. The Memorial History of Boston, Vol. IV Boston, MA: James R. Osgood & Company, 1881.
Zimmer, Edward F. "Luther Briggs and the Picturesque Pattern Books", Vol. LXVII Nos. 3 & 4, Old-Time New England, SPNEA.
ADDITIONAL SOURCES:
Congalton, Mrs. David
Henderson, Mrs. Anne Bonney, Susan Smith paper, 1974.
O'Hara, Robert G., Pembroke Historical Commission
Records, Pembroke Historical Association
Registry of Deeds, Plymouth County
TITLE RUNDOWN
6/3/1852 Alexander Parris abd Sylvina B. Parris to Luther Briggs, Jr., $50. 31,680 sq. ft.
1854 Luther Briggs, Jr. et Ux to William Young of Chelsea $1500. Luther Briggs, Jr. taking $700. 1st mortgage. "Being the same lot, I bought of Alexander Parris by Warranty Deed 6/3/1852 and which, with the house erected thereon."
1856 Foreclosure Deed. William Young to Luther Briggs, Jr. Breach of conditions of mortgage.
1862 Luther Briggs, Jr. and Adeline Briggs to Susan S. Smith (sister of Luther Briggs) Hexagonal Dwelling House. 31,680 sq. ft.
* Susan s. Smith to William A. Josselyn
* William A. Josselyn to Eunice T. Caldwell
1903 Lillian M. Josselyn (daughter and sole heir of Eunice T. Caldwell) to Myra A. Torrance.
1927 Myra A. Torrance to Gilbert H. West et ux.
1930 Gilbert H. West and Annie L. West to Bryon Leonard et ux.
1950 Bryon Leonard and Hazel F. Leonard to George R. Osborne et ux.
1964 George R. Osborne and June A. Osborne to Old Associates Inc.
1965 Old Colony Associates, Inc., John A. Libatino, Treasurer, to Marcus A. Turner, et ux.
1966 Marcus A. Turner and Diane E. Turner to Gary W. Robinson and Naomi D. Robinson.
1972 Gary W. Robinson to Naomi D. Robinson.
1973 Naomi D. Robinson Congalton to J. David Congalton and Naomi D. Congalton. Plan 5/3/28 drawn by Dana M. Pratt C.E. Recorded Plan 4, page 814, Lot marked Gilbert H. West.
*Books not available.
6/3/1852 Alexander Parris abd Sylvina B. Parris to Luther Briggs, Jr., $50. 31,680 sq. ft.
1854 Luther Briggs, Jr. et Ux to William Young of Chelsea $1500. Luther Briggs, Jr. taking $700. 1st mortgage. "Being the same lot, I bought of Alexander Parris by Warranty Deed 6/3/1852 and which, with the house erected thereon."
1856 Foreclosure Deed. William Young to Luther Briggs, Jr. Breach of conditions of mortgage.
1862 Luther Briggs, Jr. and Adeline Briggs to Susan S. Smith (sister of Luther Briggs) Hexagonal Dwelling House. 31,680 sq. ft.
* Susan s. Smith to William A. Josselyn
* William A. Josselyn to Eunice T. Caldwell
1903 Lillian M. Josselyn (daughter and sole heir of Eunice T. Caldwell) to Myra A. Torrance.
1927 Myra A. Torrance to Gilbert H. West et ux.
1930 Gilbert H. West and Annie L. West to Bryon Leonard et ux.
1950 Bryon Leonard and Hazel F. Leonard to George R. Osborne et ux.
1964 George R. Osborne and June A. Osborne to Old Associates Inc.
1965 Old Colony Associates, Inc., John A. Libatino, Treasurer, to Marcus A. Turner, et ux.
1966 Marcus A. Turner and Diane E. Turner to Gary W. Robinson and Naomi D. Robinson.
1972 Gary W. Robinson to Naomi D. Robinson.
1973 Naomi D. Robinson Congalton to J. David Congalton and Naomi D. Congalton. Plan 5/3/28 drawn by Dana M. Pratt C.E. Recorded Plan 4, page 814, Lot marked Gilbert H. West.
*Books not available.