There's a house in Somerville, a suburb of Boston, that we've been smitten with ever since driving by on the way to a yard sale many years ago. It's simply referred to as the "Round House".
Tucked away on Atherton Street in a neighborhood in Somerville, the Round House, built in the 1850's, is vacant and its history and current state is a mystery to many of its admirers. We did a little digging into its past (and present!) to find out more about it.
The story is that the Round House was built in 1856 by inventor and manufacturer, Enoch Robinson. Robinson owned a Boston company that manufactured high-end decorative hardware -- window fasteners, knobs, hand-made lock mechanisms, door handles, escutcheons-- which you can still see in Boston's State House and Old City Hall. He was also an inventor who designed and built perpetual motion machines in his spare time.
We've read that Robinson had been annoyed that a previous house which he had built was copied by local builders, so he brought in a specialized team from France to build a totally unique structure. When they were finished, he immediately sent them back home. The design of his round house was based on that of the Column House in the French “folly garden” of Desert de Retz in Chambourcy.
When the Round House was built, it was a showpiece. Forty-feet in diameter, it has rooms on three floors including an oval parlor and round library on the first floor and 11 bedrooms. A glass dome in the middle of the roof added light to the inside, and a circular staircase is located in the middle. No timber was used in its construction. The walls are made of plank sawed on a circle of 40 feet (the diameter of the house), nailed together, one above the other. The windows are made of four large panes of glass, in a single sash, which slides up into the wall and out of the way. Inside, the parlor walls were a French scenic wallpaper. The doorknobs (his own) were molded glass with a white medallion at the center, sometimes with the image of flowers, and sometimes the silhouette of a United States president or other statesman.
The Robinson family lived in the Round House until Enoch died in the late 1880’s and the house went to his children. Its a little hard to follow what happened after that, but from what we gather, the house had passed out of the family by the 1960's. It was already in a pretty bad state of disrepair when a woman finally bought it and held onto it for years. Because she wasn't able to do the work on the house that it needed, it continued to deteriorate. Even when neighborhood and preservation groups offered her help with restoring the house, she turned them down (supposedly because of not wanting to yield control over the property to anyone else). The city was forced to stand by and watch it fall into worse disrepair over the years, despite offers of money to help.
In 2007 a Somerville Contractor finally purchased the home from her. He is the current owner and apparently intends to restore the house to its original architectural details and move his family into it. The Somerville Historic Commission Director has said that the owner has hinted that he will, at some point allow the public to tour the inside. If you live in Boston, you should drive by and see this amazing house, even from the outside.
You can find out more about The Round House here and here, and also here. There's also a Flickr pool.
Images: 1, 2: Wikipedia; 3: House Mouse blog, 4: CultureJunkie ; 5: Opacity.us blog
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Comments (39)
Glad to read that it is going to be restored and lived in.
Thank you for this update - I've always loved this house and it broke my heart to see it so neglected.
"...in Somerville, a neighborhood of Boston..."
No.
It's in the Spring Hill neighborhood of Somerville. It's an amazing house.
I am ASHAMED to say I have never swung by to see this. I think I'm saving it for a special treat. I wish it would be restored beautifully and I would LOVE to see the inside. If you ever find out there are going to be tours, please post here on AT for us Boston area folks.
There's a round house in Hastings, MN where I'm from. I'm so fascinated by these!
here's another funky historic house, this one isn't round, but 12-sided (dodecahedron) in Jamaica Plain:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_at_17_Cranston_Street
There's a hexagonal house in Jamaica Plain which, unlike Somerville, actually IS a neighborhood of Boston (Somerville is a nearby suburb).
woah, jinx on the comment. do i win based on geometry?
It's beautiful...
But... From the floor plans, it looks like it needs a bathroom or two...
Very interesting derivitive of the Octagon Houses...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octagon_house
This is a really interesting building and a great idea for a post. However, the writer or editor needs to learn the difference between "that" and "which". I can let the punctuation typos go, but this is pretty annoying :)
man if i had money
This house is so rad. It's so depressing that it's fallen into this state. I'm absolutely shocked that it hadn't been snapped up before this.
"No timber was used in its construction. The walls are made of plank sawed on a circle of 40 feet (the diameter of the house), nailed together, one above the other."
Huh? Since when is wood not timber?
bepsf, I was wondering the same thing. Not sure if this clears things up...
http://www.differencebetween.net/object/difference-between-lumber-and-timber/
This was interesting too...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumber
Learn something new everyday! :-)
Hi Nora, JonB- you're absolutely right-- I'm so sorry about that. Somerville is its own city and not part of Boston. I used to live there and know this-- I think in my head I meant to write something about its being a neighbor to Boston, but my fingers had a mind of their own.
Here's a cool site with an inventory of Older Octagon, Hexagon, and Round Houses around the country:
http://www.octagon.bobanna.com/main_page.html
It looks like New York and Michigan have the most!
Jeanine
Jeanine Brennan, congratulations on a fine piece of journalism. The research you did paid off -- the images and the history you provided gave me a great sense of the house. I've never seen it, but after reading your article, I'm in love! The way you wove the wonderful "mystery of what happened to this house" throughout the piece and then paid off with that great happy ending gives this piece a memorable quality. Well done, and thank you for all your hard work.
I think the distinction between timber and planks here is meant to indicate that the building is not framed with 8 or 10 or 12 foot long pieces of wood that measures two by four, four by four, or four by six. I think what is meant is that the house is made like a Doberge cake (see one at http://bit.ly/CxyjM). I assume that if you cut an opening in a wall, it would resemble the inside of this cake.
Clever solution to building a round house out of wood, a task that could be easily accomplished using straw and plaster, but is much harder to achieve in wood.
You might be interested in checking this place out too! Historic building on an island on Lake Erie in Ohio.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3296/3025347829_95dd962af9.jpg
It is now a bar called, you guessed it, 'The Round House'!
Hmm, looks suspiciously familiar to late antique imperial mausolea...interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Theodoric
Thanks for this! I always walk by this house but have never been able to find out anything about it.
Fencing just went up around the house and I got worried that something bad might be happening!
There is a round house in plympton, mass that my uncle had the privilage to restore for the current owners. He mentioned that the original owner believed that the devil lived in corners, hence the "round" house. Creapy! http://www.octagon.bobanna.com/images/plympton_ma_1.jpg
The Philadelphia police have a headquarters building called the Roundhouse: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philadelphia_Police_Department_HQ.png
great post & comments!
Thanks for the link. I am simply enamored with this house, and sad that it still hasn't been updated. Let's hope it gets some TLC soon!
I remember this house so well from childhood, when my father would take us to visit friends in Somerville. I used to wonder how people would furnish it, where would they put the tub/shower stall, and what the kitchen would be like. I still wish I could tour it just to satisfy my inner 8 year old.
An eight sided brick house in Ohio can be fournd here. They do give tours.
http://www.zimmermanburyoctagonhouse.org/
People freak out when you call Cambridge part of Boston too. My personal feeling on the subject is that if I can easily walk from spot to spot without breaking a sweat, I consider them all part of the same general area. Besides, people outside Eastern Mass are probably going to have no idea where "Somerville" is, but saying Boston gives 'em a pretty good idea. :D
Wish I'd seen this article when I was still hanging out all the time in Somerville, I moved only a month ago!
This house is so old, I wonder if the railings, window boxes, and other metal house trimmings disappeared during wartime (maybe the Spanish-American War, WWI or WWII ?) ...lots of metal was gathered and recycled for military use during the wars, so if the building was already falling apart, maybe that's where those old pieces went.
If not, it would be really cool to find the originals and put them back.
The detailing that you see in the last pic aroung the windows and along the edge borders of the roof lines is quintessential european.
I wish the new owner a lot of luck. I lived in this neighborhood back when it was still known as "Slum-erville" over 20 years ago and the round house was vacant then. I hope he can bring it back.
In the mid-90s, I lived half a block from this house, and right across the street from the owner. A sweet elderly woman, but also very stubborn. It saddened me that she refused to restore the house or allow others to help, so I'm glad to hear it's finally getting the rehab it's long deserved.
What a great post! I love a good back story. Thanks!
I have been to the Round Bar on Put-in-Bay in Ohio and also there is another round bar in Columbus, Oh
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dania_h/3392762058/
It just recently closed down. I loved that place. There were no corners to hide in so you could see everything going on! Like watching live reality tv. It was mid century round awesome.
Great post. I’m glad its original beauty will be restored.
Alright there regionalists of Mass, here's a question- does the MBTA get to your neighborhood by the T and not the commuter rail alone? If so, great, you're part of the Boston area and/or a Boston suburb! Whether you're across the river or not. Get off your high horse.
Next you'll suggest Brighton isn't a Boston neighborhood. Or Southie... or JP...
What a coincidence that I was going to visit friends in Somerville just as this was posted. We trekked acrossed town and took a look. It is a cool house. I want to see inside!
LacyBones, not to beat a dead horse, but Brighton, Southie and JP are Boston neighborhoods. They vote for the Boston mayor. If you work for the city of Boston, you are allowed to live in those areas. Somerville is a neighbor of Boston, as said ahead, but is not a neighborhood of Boston. We have our own mayor, our own school system, etc etc.
Also - just drove by this the other day for the first time and had to stop and stare. Beautiful building! Thanks for answering so many of the questions I had about it!!