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- Item 41800
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Description
The Octagon House, 90 Hill Street, was built about 1850 by George Washington Pierson as the result of the teaching by the famous phrenologist, Orson Fowler, that an eight-sided house got more benefit from sunlight than a four-sided house. Fowler lectured in Biddeford in 1848 and several octagonal houses were built as a result of which only this one remains in Biddeford.
Orson Squire Fowler was the foremost proponent of phrenology in the United States when that pseudo-science was all the rage; he was the creator of the architectural design of octagon houses, a form which spread across the nation.
About This Item
- Title: The Octagon House, Biddeford, 1953
- Creation Date: 1953
- Subject Date: 1953
- Location: Biddeford, York County, ME
- Media: Photographic print
- Dimensions: 11.4 cm x 8.9 cm
- Local Code: 689b
- Collection: General Image Collection
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Architecture, Domestic--Maine--Biddeford
- Buildings, Octagonal
- Dwellings--Maine--Biddeford
- Fowler, O.S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887
- Health
- Houses--Maine--Biddeford
- Octagon House (Biddeford, Me.)
- Octagonal houses--Maine--Biddeford
- Peirson, George Washington--Homes and haunts--Maine--Biddeford
People
Other Keywords
For more information about this item, contact:
McArthur Public LibraryPO Box 346, Biddeford, ME 04005
(207) 284-4181
Website
This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. No Permission is required to use the low-resolution watermarked image for educational use, or as allowed by the applicable copyright. For all other uses, permission is required.
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