Beautifully situated on the brow of Richards Hill in Watertown, it commands an imposing view of Rock River and the surrounding city and country.

It was built by John Richards, who was born in Hinsdale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts in 1806 and came to Wisconsin 1837. A graduate of Williams College, and an attorney at law, Mr. Richards was the first district attorney of Jefferson County, and at one time a mayor of Watertown, besides being owner and operator of a saw and grist mill. His wife, born in 1816, was the former Miss Eliza Forbes of Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

Although no direct reference to the date of the Octagon House has thus far been found in early Watertown newspapers or other contemporary documents, there is good reason to accept the Richards family tradition that it was built between 1854 and 1856. Old tax receipts show the Richards' property jumped in valuation from $750 in 1854 to $8,000 in 1856. This would seem to point to some enlargement of the dimensions of the Octagon House during that time.

In the early fifties Watertown was enjoying a boom. A village of only 1,500 in 1850, it had grown to be a city of 8,500 - the largest in the state with the single exception of Milwaukee. When the first railroad reached Watertown in 1855, the possibilities of the town as a distributing point for the west and the northwest seemed limitless. At that time the city's physical appearance was also undergoing a complete change. The establishment of the first two brickyards and the completion of the first brick house had been hailed as major events of the year 1847. But it was not until the middle fifties that the enthusiastic editor of the "Watertown Democrat," in commenting on the building activities in town, compared Watertown to ancient Rome, which Augustus had found a city of wood

Thus it was very likely in these years that Mr. Richards made his plans for what was to be one of the show places of a booming pioneer city. His own pencil sketches for his future dwelling place are preserved and on exhibition at the Octagon House. He was equally careful and thorough in its erection which occupied him three years and which he engineered.

The Richards, with their three children then living, moved into the Octagon House about 1854. After the death of Mrs. Richards in 1902 (Mr. Richards died twenty-eight years earlier), the eldest child, Mrs. Anna Thomas, continued to live there until her death at the age of 94, in 1936, Watertown centennial year. Her son, William Thomas, continued to make it his home for another year until he too passed away in 1937. Thus the Richards family occupied the home continuously for a period of over eighty years.

The structure, built in the shape of a perfect octagon, measures 50' X 50' and rests on a 17" foundation, which is entirely beneath the surface. The outside walls are 13" thick and contain three courses of brick. The partition walls inside, with the exception of those around the stairwell, have two courses of brick and are 8" in thickness.

The pressed, cream-colored Milwaukee brick, for the exterior was said to have been hauled from Milwaukee by ox-cart. The trip back and forth took four days and was made over the new corduroy, or plank road, which had been laid as far as Watertown by 1851. As originally planned, this road would have run directly over Richards Hill and thence down what is now Western Avenue. At the last minute, so the story goes, it was re-routed through Main Street because of the demands of the Main Street merchants. But the original gradings are still discernible about fifty yards east of the Octagon House.

The interior of the house was plastered throughout. Hand-split lath may be seen on the ceiling of the third floor, from which some of the plaster has been removed. Hand-hewn beams of solid oak support the floors. Those visible on the ceiling of the ground floor measure 10" X 14". The joists were mortised into them, thus giving no chance for settling. The ease with which casement windows and drawers in the built-in linen chests still work show that the house has not settled appreciably in over one hundred years.

The spiral stairway in the center of the house is one of its outstanding features. It rises in a central square or well, the walls of which consist of three solid brick courses. Each wall, furthermore, has a chimney flue and a hot air duct leading to a register in each of the twelve major rooms.

The stairway has been called a masterpiece of the stairmaker's art. It is one of the few of its kind in the country. Unsupported on one side, it is so rigidly anchored at the floor levels that it does not yield even to the heaviest step. Its plastered soffits are still without a crack. There are 54 treads on the main circular stairway and 14 from the basement to the first floor. They are spaced so perfectly that one feels no discomfort in climbing the four flights to the top. The treads

The house has four stories and a roomy octagonal lantern which is crowned with four broad chimneys and rises majestically above the center of the roof. Lanterns of this sort are said to have been common on houses near the New England seacoast. The served in part as watchtowers. From them the mothers, wives or children of seagoing men could get a first glimpse of long-awaited ships bearing their loved ones home. The Octagon House lantern is really the continuation of the stairwell. One of its main purposes is to provide light for the spiral stairway.

The ground floor is flush with the ground on the east side, and houses the kitchen, pantry, elongated furnace (long enough for four-foot logs, the Dutch oven (with 24" walls), and cider room. The entrance hall is paved with octagonal bricks.

Each of the four floors has the same general plan, four large and four smaller triangular rooms. The corners of the latter, however, are usually partitioned off. One of the closets thus formed serves the larger room, the other the smaller room itself. Each of the large rooms has a hot-air and a ventilating register. The outlets for the latter, though now closed, may still be seen in the cornice on the outside.

The chief rooms on the first floor are the parlor (containing the only fireplace in the house), the music room, living room, dining room, conservatory, and buttery. All are 10'-10" in height. Noteworthy features are the fine covered ceilings in the parlor and the music room, the built-in chest of drawers in the dining room, and a dumb waiter operating between the kitchen on the ground floor and the buttery on the first floor. From here the food was relayed to the dining room table.

Dining room in the Octagon House, where the pantry and dumb-waiter can be seen over to the right.

On the second floor, 9'-6" in height, were the family bedrooms (there is a stationary washstand in one of them) and a bathroom with a zinc tub. The small triangular rooms on this floor were used as children's bedrooms.

Perhaps Mr. Richards would not have built such a pretentious home if he had not wanted to provide accommodations for his many employees. He had enlarged his mill in 1853 and added machinery for extracting oil from flax and rapeseed. The third floor, consisting of bedrooms, were used exclusively by his mill hands. Its ceilings, about a foot lower than those of the second floor, sloped toward the center following the pitch of the roof, which is explained in the next paragraph.

This is the Lincoln Bedroom in the Octagon House. It featured a Walnut wood bed made in St. Louis in 1860, and was similar to Lincoln's bed in the White House. The Franklin stove was a wedding gift.

The house had its own water system. There were neither gutters nor drains. The roof formed sort of funnel from which the water flowed toward the center through an opening into a tank on the third floor. Made of basswood and lined with zinc, this tank measures 12' x 3' x 2'-6" and is ingeniously suspended several inches above the floor. An overflow discharged into the cistern, while other pipes took the water to the washstand and bath on the second floor and to faucets that may be seen in two niches along the stairway. The overflow into the basement cistern was drained down the hillside.

The 63 doors in the house, as well as their trims, are also of pine. The front door with its window trims, its hand-carved lintels, and all of the limestone bears comparison with famous doorways of old New England houses. It is worthy of more than this passing glance.

Lumber used in the building was cut in Mr. Richards' mill. The basswood of the interior floors, the cherry of the spiral stairway, and the oak beams were undoubtedly obtained from nearby woods. But the pine came from forests further north. In the 1850's thousands of pine logs were annually floated down the Rock River from upstate forests. Their arrival in early spring was always a signal for celebration and newspaper comment. The nine sawmills in the city would begin to hum and remain busy all summer long, if there was enough rain to keep the water level at the necessary height. One of the largest advertisements in the "Watertown Democrat" about the time the Octagon House was completed, announced that John Richards had just installed a new double saw guaranteed to turn out twice as much lumber as before. The demand for building material was often greater than the supply. Items in the local paper often spoke of temporary shortages both of brick and lumber.

After the forest disappeared, the houses for many years stood in the midst of the farm. Fields of corn and grain surrounded it. But it was also the center of much entertaining of the dignified New England type, for the Richards' were a hospitable family. Then the family grew smaller and the farm disappeared. For many years the house led a quiet existence, standing like a lone sentinel on the hilltop. But times change again. Today the Octagon House is once more the scene of lively activity. Modern homes have arisen around it, the neighborhood having become one of the choice residential sections of the city. The new life, of which it is the focal spot, however, comes from another generation.

When the house lost its last occupant with the death of Mr. Thomas in 1937, the owners, Mrs. Estelle Bennett Richards, and her son, Harvey Richards, a grandson of the original builder, immediately planned to donate the house to the city as a memorial. A plan was soon formed by which the local Historical Society in 1938 become its sole owners on the condition that in the future it should be opened to the public at stated times. This plan has now been in effect for many years. Since that time thousands of people from all parts of the country have come to view the house, its contents, and its beautiful grounds.

In the mean time, the edifice has become the hub for the activities of the Watertown Historical Society. Its officers and members have been unceasing in their efforts to enlarge the already impressive collections, to landscape the grounds, to advertise the house, and to welcome all guests.

Note: On the Octagon House grounds, moved to the site, restored and maintained by the Watertown Historical Society, is THE FIRST KINDERGARTEN IN THE UNITED STATES, founded in 1856 by Margarethe Meyer Schurz, a pioneer barn which houses early farm implements, and other exhibits of a century ago, and the Gladys Mollart tour center.

This is a representation of the kindergarten room, with children playing happily, and watched over by a young teacher.

Margarethe Meyer Schurz (1832 - 1876), wife of the famed Carl Schurz, was the teacher who established the first Kindergarten in the United States at Watertown, Wisconsin, in November 1856.

Historical Note by Dr. E.A. Richards:

In the definitive volume of the Richards Family, "Genealogical Register of the Descendants of Several Ancient Puritans, Volume III," by the Reverend Abner Morse, A.M., it is noted that Richard Richards arrived in the new world in 1633, a Puritan who settled in Lynn, MA, and had one son, Edward Richards.

Edward Richards, a soldier in King Philip's war, and his wife Ann had a son, John Richards, who married Mary Brewer on November 18, 1674. John and Mary had Crispus Richards who married Sarah Collins on October 26, 1681.

Crispus Richards and Sarah had a son, Joseph Richards, who married Mary Bowden on May 5, 1726, moved to Scarborough, and had a son, William Richards who married Elizabeth Knapp on November 21, 1753.

William Richards had a son, Col. William Richards, who married Monica Frizell, and resided in Hinsdale. They had John Richards in 1806. John, the builder of the Octagon House, married Eliza Forbes, daughter of Moses and Eliza Taylor Forbes, and they of course resided in Watertown, Wisconsin.

The rest, as they say, is history...

The Octagon House is open to all visitors from May to November. Mrs. Alice Richards is one of many in the Richards Family who make the pilgrimage to Watertown each year.

The Octagon House is at 919 Charles St., Watertown, Wisconsin, just off Richards Avenue. It is a wonderful experience. The tour prices are as follows:

Adults: $7.00

Seniors 65+ and AAA members: $6.00

Children and teens, 6 to 17: $4.00

Children under six: No charge

If you can't get to Watertown, and would still like to learn about John Richards and his Octagon House, you may send for the book that describes it all.

The bound, hard cover volume, with high quality, illustration grade paper, is 8 1/2 inches by 11 1/2 inches, and has 115 pages filled with interesting information and both full color and black and white quality photographs. It was Authored and Published by Sylvester L. Quam of Watertown, WI, and printed by GJ Graphics, also of Watertown, WI.

The cost of this magnificent history is $12.00 plus 4.50 postage and handling. Order from:

The Octagon House

919 Charles St., Watertown, WI 53094

Dr. E.A. Richards, P.E.

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