The Clegg Octagon Home - 1854
- Building name: Clegg House
- Designer/Architect: Clegg family (after Orson Fowler)
- Date of construction: 1853-4
- Location: Valley Junction, Iowa
- Style: Victorian Style Home
- Number of sheets: 10 sheets measuring 18" x 24"
Sheet List
- Cover Sheet, Vicinity Map
- 4 sheets, Basement, First & Second Floors, Roof plans, 1/4"=1'-0"
- 3 sheets of Elevations, 1/4"=1'-0"
- 1 sheet of Sections, various scales
- 1 sheet of Details, various scales
This listing is for prints on 20# bond paper. It is for architectural drawings only. Any photos shown in the description are informational only and not included in this package.
Here is a delightful octagon home, for all you connoisseurs out there! The mid-1800s saw a brief flurry of interest in the Octagon type plan, due to the publication of Orson Squire Fowler's imaginative book, The Octagon House; A Home for All. This book proposed the construction of homes in concrete, ground breaking technology of the time, and the use of the octagon as a plan because of its efficiency. The octagon has a high volume for its surface area, which means more energy efficiency and less material cost, compared to a rectangular home of equal area.
Meet Abram Clegg, his wife Anna, and their four children Xerxes, Mollie, George and Edward. They've just arrived in the frontier country of Iowa by covered wagon. They've got their homestead land and now they need to build themselves a permanent home. Who better to turn to than that pioneer of American free thinking, Orson Fowler. Abram, or perhaps it was Anna, no doubt came across Fowler's provoking book just before leaving New Hampshire for the wide open west. Now was their chance to put his words into practice. Unlike others who accepted Fowler's advice on the benefits of the octagon plan but fell back on standard wood-frame construction, the Cleggs went all out, building in solid masonry, using something like Fowler's own early version of concrete. Perhaps this was because of its thermal benefits during Iowa's frigid winters and its ability to withstand strong winds. Whatever the reason, Abram and Anna made themselves a sturdy, solid home in which to raise their brood.
As far as a plan for their home, Figure 21 in Fowler's book met their needs just about perfectly. Built over a full basement, the ground floor has a entry/stair hall, dining room, kitchen and parlor. The upper floor has 3 spacious bedrooms and a large stair hall. With a bit of imagination the Cleggs of our day could easily adapt this plan to accommodate a couple of baths on the upper level. After all, very few enjoy a trip to the outhouse on a cold winter's night, even if they don't live in Iowa.
As a work of art these prints are worth purchasing in their own right. For those of you interested in building a historically inspired house, these plans offer an excellent starting point. The plan is ideally suited for a flat site. This house would be comfortable in a suburban or country setting. This spacious home has outside dimensions of approximately 31' x 55'.
Please visit my other listings for many other drawings I am offering. I have house plans in wide variety of styles including Colonial, Craftsman, and Prairie, as well as plans of architects such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Irving Gill, Purcell & Elmslie and others.
SHIPPING: Your drawings are shipped to you, rolled, not folded, in a Priority Mail tube. This listing includes architectural prints ONLY. Any photos shown in the description are for information only and are NOT included in your purchase. Thanks.
IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO BUILD: These plans are not complete architectural drawings as might be required by your local permitting agency and do not contain all the structural, waterproofing and other details and information necessary for construction. But your local builder or architect should be able to adapt these drawings and add to them as necessary. What they do provide is accurate design information about a REAL historic house, not a pseudo-historic tract house as you will find in the house plan magazines on your supermarket shelf.
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS PLEASE NOTE: Orders shipped to addresses outside the USA may be subject to customs duties at their destination. The buyer is responsible for any such duties.
The original drawings from which these dimensionally accurate scans were made are kept at the Historic American Building Survey, in the Library of Congress.(VI022)
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