Octagon Hall is an eight-sided house in

Simpson County, Kentucky Simpson County is a county located in the south central portion of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the total population was 19,594. Its county seat is Franklin. History Simpson County was established in 1819 from Allen, L ...

near

Franklin, Kentucky Franklin is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Simpson County, Kentucky, United States. The county is located on the south central border of the state, and its population was 10,176 at the 2020 census. Kentucky Downs, formerl ...

completed around 1860. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980. It has also been known as the Andrew Jackson Caldwell House after the man who built the house. There is a second

contributing building In the law regulating historic districts in the United States, a contributing property or contributing resource is any building, object, or structure which adds to the historical integrity or architectural qualities that make the historic distr ...

on the property, a detached summer kitchen. Octagon Hall is located northeast of Franklin, Kentucky on U.S. Route 31W.

Architecture

It is a red brick, two-story octagonal house with a high basement. The octagonal plan was likely inspired by

Orson Squire Fowler Orson Squire Fowler (October 11, 1809 – August 18, 1887) was an American phrenologist and lecturer. He also popularized the octagon house in the middle of the nineteenth century. Early life The son of Horace and Martha (Howe) Fowler, he ...

's 1848 book, ''The Octagon House: A Home for All'', which developed a trend in American architecture starting in the 1850s. It is one of two surviving octagonal structures in Kentucky. The three front facades have brick laid in

Flemish bond Flemish bond is a pattern of brickwork that is a common feature in Georgian architecture. The pattern features bricks laid lengthwise (''stretchers'') alternating with bricks laid with their shorter ends exposed (''headers'') within the same cou ...

, while brickwork is common bond elsewhere. With

History

In 1847, Andrew Jackson Caldwell laid out the foundation for a distinctive new family home. By 1860, Caldwell was living there with his wife Harriet Morton Caldwell, daughters Frances, Mary, and Martha, and son Henry. During the Civil War, Octagon Hall served as a hospital for both Confederate and Union soldiers. It also doubled as a hideout for Confederate troops on the run from the Union army. Harriet Caldwell lived in the house after her husband's death in 1866. After 1916, the property was sold to Miles Williams, a Nashville doctor. In 2001, the property was purchased by the Octagon Hall Foundation. Director Billy D. Byrd has operated the site as a non-profit museum and local attraction, highlighting the paranormal experiences he has reported there. Currently, it is the site of the Octagon Hall Museum & Kentucky Confederate Studies Archive. It includes a library, a display of Civil War artifacts, Native American artifacts, and genealogical and historical research material. A slave cemetery and historic gardens are on the grounds.

In popular culture

Octagon Hall has been promoted and popularized as a haunted place. Octagon Hall has been featured on A&E, Syfy,

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

, and many others. It was featured on '' Haunted Live'' on the

Travel Channel Travel Channel (stylized as Trvl Channel since 2018) is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, who previously owned the channel from 1997 to 2007. The channel is headquartered in Manhattan, with ...

in 2018.

References

{{National Register of Historic Places Octagon houses in the United States National Register of Historic Places in Simpson County, Kentucky Houses completed in 1862 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Kentucky 1862 establishments in Kentucky Houses in Simpson County, Kentucky Historic house museums in Kentucky