The Octagon House in Montandon, Pa

 
The Octagon House  of "East Lewisburg" , Northumberland County PA
"East Lewisburg" is the area between the Lewisburg bridge and the town of Montandon.  Today, that area has a Milton address.  

The house was built for John Diffenderfer, owner of the Planing Mill, sometime in the 1850s.

Octagon houses were a unique house style briefly popular in the 1850s in the United States and Canada. They are characterized by an octagonal (eight-sided) plan, and often feature a flat roof and a veranda all round.

Orson S. Fowler published The Octagon House - a Home for All.

The book extolled the virtues of an octagon home, claiming it had many advantages over rectangular and square structures and that they were cheaper to build.  His book included plans and recommendations for constructing them.  

Fowler asserted, in his book, that housewives could do twice the amount of housework in an octagon because it had fewer angles.  He also claimed the shape offered better ventilation and better communication between rooms.

Fowler was also  largely responsible for the mid-19th century popularity of phrenology, the pseudoscience of defining an individual's characteristics by the contours of the head.

It was during this time frame, when Octagonal Homes were popular, that John Dieffender was building a new home in East Lewisburg, where he owned a planing mill.  He chose to build an octagonal design, and had a contractor from Fishkill NY do the construction.

"It may not be known to persons who have not visited this locality for a few years, that quite a village has sprung up opposite Lewisburg, known as East Lewisburg.  Messrs J.D. Diffenderfer, Jos. M. Nesbit and a few other enterprising gentlemen of that vicinity have been the principal spirits of the enterprise.  The village is handsomely located between the canal and the road leading to the depot; the new railroad runs right through it, affording therefor, all sorts of facilities for transportation." - Lewisburg Chronicle, 1869

The house in Montandon is 14.5 feet long on each side.  It featured a stariway from the second floor to an eight sided glass cupola in the roof.  A 1957 newspaper article said that "Squire Diffenderfer" used to pray in the cuppola.

The kitchen was located in the basement, and a dumbwaiter was installed to bring the food from the basement to the first floor dining room.

The first floor windows were French doors with transoms that  opened onto the circular porch.

John was born in 1822, the son of Henry & Elizabeth Diffenderfer.  The census shows him and his wife in White Deer, as a merchant, in 1850.  By 1860, he is listed as a lumberman in Chillisquaque twp, in his new Octagon home.  He died in 1878, and is buried in the Lewisburg cemetery.

In the photo of the family on the porch of the home, the family members shown are, left to right: Daughter Jessie [married a McClelland], John Diffenderfer, Wife Leah Jane [Hatfield] Diffenderfer, daughter Grace [Married Armstrong], daughter Candice [married Whitman] and son Jerome.

The back wing of the house is thought to have been added about 1870.

In 1896, the John Butler family resided in the home.

This aerial photo, during the 1936 flood, shows the octagonal home.

I'm not certain, but I believe that may be the planing mill behind the home?

In the 1950s, Bruce Mitchell, artist in residence at Bucknell, lived in the octagon home in Montandon.  Some of his works hang in the Metropolitan museum of art and the Whitney Museum in New York City.  

Mitchell purchased the house in 1953,  after it had stood empty for ten years. He had planned to use the glass cupola as an art studio, but it turned out too small.  

The Mitchells tore off the back wing, which had been added in 1870 and "spoiled the line of the house".  They, out of necessity, replaced the porch, and restored and repaired the woodwork, as well as building an interior kitchen.

In the 1960s, the house was owned by the Edwin Brodnax family. In an interview, Mrs Brodnax was asked why they purchased an octagonal home.  She said" We never intended to, really.  Mrs Mitchell was living here at the time and advertised a Victorian sofa for sale, and we were interested in that.  We came over to look at the sofa, saw the house instead, and fgell madly in love with it.  Mrs. Mitchell said she'd advertised the house for two years and no one wanted it, but we did, and we bought it."  The Brodnax family moved in in 1962.

A fire burned one side of the cupola while it was owned by the Vels family.  It was repaired by a contractor.  The Velz family were part owners of Donehowers Sporting Goods in Lewisburg.  They purchased the Octagon home in 1987.

David Velzs rebuilt most of the front door, and his wife Leslie designed the stained glass on the transom above the door.  All of the windows in the home were replaced, and the house was painted a pale green.  The house was brick red when purchased by the Velzs, but they were unsure what the original color had been.

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The town of Montandon also has an eight sided school house, The Sodom School House

Read more about it here:

https://susquehannavalley.blogspot.com/2011/02/sodom-one-room-schoolhouse.html

In Sullivan County there is an Octagon House named Estella. Built about 1858 by William Marsden, a German immigrant as a summer home. Two stories, cupola. Wood made to look like block construction. The house has been massively restored. 

In 1954, there were 9 octagon houses in Connecticut, including one in Bridgeport that once was the home of P.T. Barnum.

1869

1860

1957