Skyscrapers! Covered bridges! Golden arches! American architecture – sublime, utilitarian, or delightfully goofy – is recognized round the world.

And one unmistakable sign of bygone America is the octagon house – which in its heyday was NOT a symbol of quaintness, but a proclamation that the owner was on the cutting edge – perhaps worryingly so.

Not the inventor of the octagon house, but its great philosopher and promoter, was Orson Squire Fowler of Cohocton. A noted publisher, he also boosted the “science” of phrenology… diagnosing personality from the contours of the skull.

Sheer bunk, of course, but the octagon house had a firmer foundation. The same square footage of floor space could be built with less labor and less materials, for a dramatic saving in cost. On top of that, more of the floor space was truly USEABLE space, since the corners opened more widely. PLUS ventilation was better, and so was lighting – no more dark corners where the candle or oil lamp couldn’t reach. Fowler figured that besides the advantages in construction and use, the octagon house would pay dividends in mental and emotional health.

Many tales are told of octagon houses being Underground Railroad stops, and many of them are probably fairy tales. But they certainly would be easy for a stranger on the run to spot, and the folks inside were likely to be a little eccentric, or at least more open-minded – perfect candidates for a clandestine, illegal, and dangerous humanitarian activity.

Think of the octagon house as the geodesic dome of the 19th century.

Many, alas, have been lost over time. Pleasant Valley once had an octagon school, now known only through a grainy photo in a newspaper, published maybe a hundred years ago.

Nearby, on Pleasant Valley Road leading into Hammondsport, is the 1859 Younglove home, now known far and wide as the Black Sheep Inn bed-and-breakfast. The Youngloves originally also had an octagonal barn and an octagonal smokehouse, but they’re long since gone.

There’s also an 1852 octagon house on State Route 53, south of Prattsburgh… a private home, so drive by, but don’t disturb. For quite a while the house had been looking rather neglected and dejected, but things have been looking up lately.

I know of two other octagonal features in Steuben County. The tower of the old Bath Memorial Hospital on Steuben Street (now Pathways) is an irregular octagon. And the old Cohocton Central School (now Wayland-Cohocton Elementary School) has an octagonal tower – a nod, I like to think, to Cohocton’s own Orson Squire Fowler.

Erie County is said to have three octagon houses, though I’ve only located The Rich-Twinn House (Akron 1849). Closer at home is the Denton House (Geneva 1853). The 1856 Wilcox House is now home to Camillus Historical Society. The Pratt and Buckingham House (Fredonia 1865) still has its octagon carriage house. The huge Corporal Hyde House, originally in Friendship, can now be visited at Genesee Country Village and Museum in Caledonia. The Potter House in Alfred is now rented for student housing.

Canandaigua has a single octagon house, on Gorham Street, while Naples has the tiny 1844 McKay house, whose builder/owner set out the first vineyard in the Naples Valley.

As we’ve already seen, “houses” are not the only uses for octagons. A small octagon building at Lily Dale was apparently put up for meetings, and never intended or used as a dwelling. Mark Twain’s octagonal study has been moved a few miles to the campus of Elmira College, and nearby Cowles Hall has a large octagonal tower. A former octagon school in Hector is now a vacation rental. DeWitt Historical Society now hosts modern-day school classes on field trips to the 1827 “Eight Square” school in Dryden. There’s an octagon carriage house on Clinton Street in Penn Yan.

So – looking for a field trip of your own, in these socially-distanced days of coronavirus? Make your own checklist, and take a drive to see some octagon houses. Don’t disturb the private dwellings, but otherwise, have fun!