CALIFORNIA

Los Angeles County

• Pasadena. Octagon house. Heritage Square, 3800 Homer Street, Los Angeles. Built in 1893 by Gilbert Longfellow (from Rogue Bluffs, Maine) in Pasadena and moved to Heritage Square in 1986, this is only one of two eight-sided houses remaining in California and the only one in Southern California. For tour information, call (323) 225-2700.
  Sources: The Octagon Fad, p. 14, and the Cultural Affairs Commission, Los Angeles, and photo and description..
  Entered: June, 2001.
• San Gabriel. Octagon house. Built of adobe blocks. Apparently gone now.
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: October, 2002.

Marin County

• Ross. Octagon house. Built by George and Annie Worm in 1863. Now the home of the Moya Del Pino Library and Ross Historical Society.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: June, 2001.

Mendocino County

• Sherwood. Octagon house. Built well before 1901, perhaps by Alfred E. Sherwood, the founder of the town. Sherwood was a logging town. After the lumber was all taken a fire swept through the town. It's not clear what the status of the octagon house is today. It was located about eight miles outside of Sherwood, and was a boarding house.
  
  1905 photograph
  
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: June, 2001.
  Updated: July, 2007.

Orange County

• Villa Park. Octagon house. Built 1876 by Joel Parker. Now gone. Two story. Cupola. The photographs below were taken in 1938, apparently just after new owners, the Arkley's, had purchased the house. Just when the house was demolished is not clear. It's clear the Villa Park area was much less developed then than it is in year 2006, and as so often happens, perhaps the house got in the way of some developers plans. Pre WWII California was a much more open place than it is today. The house appears to have a typical California tile roof. A lasting solution, it nevertheless requires a very strong structure, so it's easy to believe this was a very substantially constructed house.
  
  Photograph 1
  
  Photograph 2
  
  Photograph 3
  
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: September, 2002.
  Updated: May, 2006.

San Bernardino County

• Near Twin Peaks. Octagon house. Located less than 10 miles from Lake Arrowhead, at 26433 Lake Forest Drive, Twin Peaks, CA 92325. Lot 20, Block "B", Tract No. 1893, Alpine Glens Part No. 2, as per Plat recorded in Book 27 of Maps, Pages 46 and 47, Records of San Bernardino County. Two story. The first floor has additional rectangles for the kitchen and bath. Each wall on the first floor is 8 feet. Steeply pitched gabled roof.
  Source: Merna M. New
  Entered: August, 2002.

San Diego County

• San Diego. Octagon house. Built well before 1876. Two story, cupola. Porch around at least three sides.a Located on 6th Street, near the intersection of Ceder Street. Ash and Beech Streets are nearby. A segment of an 1876 map of San Diego shows the building at the center of the image.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: July, 2002.
• San Diego. Octagon house. Built well before 1876. Single story. Located on 11th Street. A segment of an 1876 map of San Diego shows the building at the center of the image.
  Source: R. Kline
  Entered: July, 2002.

San Francisco County

• San Francisco. "McElroy House". Octagon house. 2645 Gough Street. Two stories with octagonal cupola. Built 1861; moved 1952. The following is a view of the house just after the 1906 earthquake.
  
  After 1906 earthquake. . ( Photograph provided by the ELPuerzer archive, which obtained it from Eve Ruskin, in 1979. )
  
  Contemporary photo .
  
  The following photographs and information are from the Smithsonian HABS project.
  
  Photograph 4. . General view of the San Francisco area in about 1860. The McElroy house is near the bottom center of the image. The large island is Angel island.
  Photograph 5. . After the 1906 earthquake.
  Photograph 6. . Taken in April, 1936, by W. H. Knowles. Northwest view.
  Photograph 7. . Taken in 1956, by Joseph A. Baird. The house has been moved to a new location.
  Photograph 8. . Taken October 2, 1960, by Jack E. Boucher. West view.
  Photograph 9. . Taken October 2, 1960, by Jack E. Boucher. Entrance detail.
  Photograph 10. . Taken October 2, 1960, by Jack E. Boucher. North wall entrance, door detail.
  Photograph 11. . Taken October 2, 1960, by Jack E. Boucher. Remodeled living room.
  Photograph 12. . Taken October 2, 1960, by Jack E. Boucher. Remodeled upper hall ( to west ).
  Photograph 13. . Taken October 2, 1960, by Jack E. Boucher. Circular stairway and ceiling medallions ( second floor ).
  
  Sources: The Octagon Fad (photo), pp. 13, 156, Brief article, photos, the Smithsonian HABS project, and Ellen Puerzer.
• San Francisco. Octagon house. Built 1858. 1067 Green Street. Original owner, George Kenny, produce merchant. Louis Feusier added the mansard roof and cupola, probably in the 1880's. In an 1860s photograph, the George Kenny house is likely the one on the right.
  
  1860s photograph.
  
  Contemporary photograph.
  
  Another contemporary photograph.
  
  Source: The Octagon Fad, p. 14
  Entered: June, 2001.
• San Francisco. "John P. Bull House". Octagon house (gone). Was located on Russian Hill. Source: The Octagon Fad, p 14.
• San Francisco. Octagon house (gone). Was located on Leavenworth Street. Source: The Octagon Fad, p. 14.
• San Francisco. Octagon house (gone). Was located on Harrison Street near the Second Street Bridge. The house shown in the lower right corner of an 1868 photograph is located near Harrison Street is very likely the house.
  Source: The Octagon Fad , p 14, and R. Kline
  Updated: January, 2002.
• San Francisco. Octagon house shown in an 1870 photograph. It's likely one of those 1860s houses already mentioned, but since no street information is available for location of the home in the photograph, it's not clear which one. It is a two story unit with a cupola. It has some kind of design on the edge, and might well be the McElroy house. It is said that the Harbor View Baths are in the background. The view is out the Golden Gate.
  
  Photograph.
  
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: January, 2002.
• San Francisco. Octagon houses shown in an 1860s photograph. Said to be Green Street looking east toward Telegraph Hill, there are two single story octagon houses in the photograph, one with a cupola. It's quite likely that the house to the right is the house built by Georgey Kenny, and now called the Feusier house (see above).
  
  Photograph.
  
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: January, 2002.
• San Francisco. Octagon house shown in an 1867 photograph. Near the top of the hill, near the center of the photograph. The street in the foreground is Powell Street. If the hill is Russian Hill, then this is likely the "John P. Bull House" mentioned above. More needs to be known about the area or the house to be sure. An 1876
  
  photograph
  
  of the same house, seen in the upper left hand corner..
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: January, 2002.

San Mateo County

• Fifty miles south of San Francisco. Hexagon lighthouse building. Ano Nuevo Island Light. Off Highway 1.
  Photograph. .
  Source: Ron Livingston.
  Entered: March, 2002.
• San Carlos. Octagon house. Built in 1872. Now gone.
  Source: R. Kline.
  Entered: September, 2002.

Sonoma County

• Two Rock. Octagon house. The house was built about 1857 by Charles Blackburn, who came west in 1852 in the same wagon train as Silas and Nancy Martin. A diary suggests the Martin's lived in the house by 1857. Evelyn McClure relates the following information:

  He was born in Kentucky but moved to Illinois at age 4. he learned the harness making trade. he served as justice of the peace in Iowa and California. He served a term in the CA State Legislature from 1867 and in 1882. a charter member of the Grange and Odd Fellows and a deacon of the Presbyterian Church. He established a dairy herd on 326 acres in Two Rock in 1853. Silas married Nancy Cameron of Illinois. they had 4 daughters and 2 sons. Silas Martin died in 1894. The house stood vacant for a about a 20 year period, but miraculously was not badly vandalized, and was then occupied by Harold Martin, a great grandson of Silas Martin, in 1946.

  Two story, with a large cupola, the house no longer has the porch which extended entirely around it. There is a spiral staircase to the second floor from a circular hallway in the center of the house.

  According to information supply by Carolyn Winters, a great great granddaughter of Silas Martin, and who lived in the house starting in 1946, the seventh generation of martins is living in the house today.

  
  
  Photograph.
  
  Contemporary photograph.
  
  Satellite photograph, showing the context of the house.
  
  Sources: Evelyn McClure, who also supplied the photographs,and "The Valley of the Trail Between the Two Rocks," by Margaret Martin Paull, self published, 1993. Carolyn Martin Winters, a great granddaughter of the builder, Silas Martin. Vanessa Pritchard supplied the contemporary photograph. Dale Travis located the satellite image.
  Entered: February, 2003.
  Updated: October, 2003.
  Updated: January, 2007.