The Pratt and Buckingham Octagon House is a historic octagon house in Fredonia, Chautauqua County, New York that was built in ca. 1865. It is a private home at 99 Chestnut Street; the rear of the property is on Canadaway Creek.
The site
The octagon house is situated on a promontory about 25 feet above and 75 feet westerly from a natural ford on Canadaway Creek. The promontory is located at the junction of the upper and lower portage trails that ran along the westerly side of the creek during Native American times. The lands in this region were occupied by the Erie people until the mid-seventeenth century, then by the Seneca people until the end of the eighteenth century. Following the Treaty of Big Tree in 1797, the lands were transferred to the Holland Land Company, which subdivided them for sale as farms. Canadaway Creek's name was derived from the Native American name pronounced "Ga-Na-Da Wa O," which was translated as "running through the hemlocks."Morgan, Lewis Henry and Herbert Marshall Lloyd. League of the Ho-De-No-Sau-Nee or Iroquois. Dodd, Mead. 1922, Appendix A, p. 127. The Seneca settlement of Ga Na Da Wa O extended from Lake Erie southerly to Laona, New York, and the later village of Fredonia and city of Dunkirk, New York were known as the settlement of Canadaway from 1809 to 1817.Taylor, H. C.. Historical Sketches of the Town of Portland. McKinstry & Sons. 1873, p. 94.
Construction and design According to tax and census records, the house was built between 1865 and 1867 by Levi Louis "L. L." Pratt (1818 - 1905) and his wife Sarah "Selina" Buckingham (1825 - 1907). Pratt, a native of Northampton, Massachusetts was a journalist and a brother of celebrated architect William Fenno Pratt (1814 - 1900), designer of the Evergreens in Amherst, Massachusetts.Hunt, Cynthia L. William Fenno Pratt and the Development of Nineteenth Century Northampton. Smith College. 1977. The layout of the Pratt and Buckingham octagon follows much of Amherst College graduate Orson Squire Fowler's recommendations in a drawing which he credited to others and labeled as the "best plan yet."Fowler, Orson Squire. A Home for All or the Gravel Wall. Fowler & Wells. 1854, p. 160.
In her 1966 book featuring this home, State University of New York at Fredonia professor Jewel Helen Conover noted that the grout walls are 24 inches thick.Conover, Jewel Helen. Nineteenth Century Houses in Western New York. State University of New York Press. 1966, p. 66. In his 1997 book containing references to this home, State University of New York at Fredonia professor Daniel D. Reiff further noted that the walls are composed of lime grout containing an aggregate of small stones, brick chips, and twigs.Reiff, Daniel D. Architecture in Fredonia 1811 - 1997. White Pine Press. 1997, p. 64. An octagonal carriage house of similar construction was noted by both Conover and Reiff; it remains on the premises. The house and the carriage house each feature a low-pitched, hip roof, which is topped by an octagonal cupola. As noted by Reiff, the wide, bracketed eaves of the house recall Italianate style, while the caps at each window of the house, and the pilaster strips along each corner, give hints of Greek Revival style.Ibid.
As explained by State University of New York at Fredonia archives volunteer Kathryn S. Silliman in her 1993 article, the home features pointed, decorative window caps, and the windows themselves are recessed, allowing for flower boxes on the ledges.Silliman, Kathryn S. "The Octagon House." Historic Preservation Series Vol II, No. 2. Fredonia Preservation Society. 1993. The front entrance is crowned by a curved cap with brackets, to match the ornate cornice brackets.Ibid. Although Fowler had advised that the first floor be raised enough so that the house could be entered through the basement, the Pratt and Buckingham octagon is not raised. However, as Silliman noted, the home is situated on a slope, allowing the basement to be entered by a few steps downward at the rear of the home. A kitchen was originally located at that sub-level, just as advocated by Fowler.Ibid.
Pratt was the editor of a Fredonia newspaper, and Buckingham was the daughter of well known Fredonians."Levi L. Pratt Obituary." McKinstry, Louis, Ed. The Fredonia Censor. 11 January 1905."Letter from Hon. H. A. Risley." McKinstry, Louis, Ed. The Fredonia Censor. 23 April 1890. In terms of the home's architectural significance, an examination of the floor plans and their relatively minor alterations over the years indicates that the style and layout of the house remain essentially as Fowler, Pratt, and Buckingham originally intended. Regarding the home's historical significance, folklore concerning an Underground Railroad connection with the house proves false. However, census records, deed records, tax records, and newspaper sources indicate that Pratt and Buckingham had at least an indirect connection with the significantly large anti-slavery movement in the Fredonia region.
In 1958, during the home's careful stewardship by Fredonia lawyer Donald C. Brandt and local teacher Kathryn Ogden and their family, the house was included in The Octagon Fad.Schmidt, Carl F. The Octagon Fad. Carl F. Schmidt. 1958, pg. 65. Conover's and Reiff's research began during the Brandt and Ogden ownership as well. Silliman's article appeared when the home was owned and under restoration by Fredonia architect William McGraw and his family. As Silliman noted, McGraw pointed out several more of the original, architectural features, which he and his family preserved.Silliman. Considering the structural research by Conover, Reiff, Silliman, and McGraw, along with further historical discoveries in local records, has helped to paint a clearer picture of the house in relationship to its earliest occupants.
Floor plans
The eight sides of the home each have an exterior dimension of 17 feet 2 inches. Of two exterior doorways that existed in the sub-level kitchen, one remains and is in use. The other is closed but visible. The former kitchen is now a furnace room and utility room. Also at the sub-level, two original, parallel, bearing walls of grout construction run the width of the structure, supporting the first and second floors as well as the cupola. A large work area between those two walls is now a recreation room. Two rooms that served as living quarters for hired hands are found on either side of the two bearing walls. They now function as an artist's studio and as a workshop, respectively.
Originally and today, on both the first and second floors, four rectangular rooms and four triangular rooms (or areas) alternately flank a central stairway and an L-shaped central hallway. The rectangular rooms on the first floor were most likely a dining room, a parlor, a library, and a kitchen, as they each remain today.
Also on the first floor, one of the triangular rooms retains its original use as the front entryway. It features a circular stairway to the second floor. The opposite triangular room was once the rear entryway, perhaps featuring another circular stairway and/or a dumb waiter to and from the basement kitchen. The other two triangular areas are now bisected by walls, such that approximately half of each of those triangular areas became parts of their respectively adjoining rectangular rooms. This most likely occurred in the 1920s, at which time, the window in one of those triangular rooms was closed and sealed.
In subsequent years, the triangular area that originally featured the rear entryway has contained a large closet and a full bath. The original, back entrance to the first floor of the home has been closed; instead, a rear entrance doorway to the first floor now stands in the location where an original window once stood in the adjoining kitchen.
The rectangular rooms on the second floor were probably a master bedroom, a boys' bedroom, a girls' bedroom, and a servant's or guest's bedroom. Their use today is essentially the same, with the exceptions that a few closets have been added, and that one of the children's bedrooms now contains a full bath. The open, triangular area above the front entryway features an original, wrap-around balcony. The opposite triangular room, which is now a full-bath, is located over the former, rear entryway. Therefore, the room may have once contained the upper terminus of the other spiral stairway.
As on the first floor, the other two triangular rooms have been split by partitioning walls, allowing the extra triangular spaces from each to be added to each of the adjoining bedrooms. Likewise, the window in one of those triangular rooms has been closed. Although architectural plans from the 1960s appear to have called for the re-opening of that window, it remains sealed both inside and out.
The central stairway is accessed from the L-shaped central hallway, which leads from an interior doorway in the kitchen. The hallway also provides entrance to the dining room and to the parlor. The central stairway featured a 3-step spiral at its base as late as the mid-1950s.Schmidt, pg. 191. That space now contains two landings instead. From the first landing, two steps downward through a former door once provided an additional entrance to the library. Beneath the first-floor stairway is a straight flight of stairs leading to the basement. On the second floor, at the top of the central stairway, there is an original stairway with one landing and one turn, leading to a trap door in the cupola. The central stairway, the circular stairway, and the cupola stairway all feature original, low handrails with three/quarter balusters.
Other alterations
Although a double-door entry from the parlor/living room to the dining room still exists, the matching double-door entry from the parlor/living room to the library has been closed, so that the library is now accessed only from the original front entryway.Schmidt. Four chimneys each had three fireplaces, which were situated one above the other on the ground floor, first floor, and second floor.Silliman. Most of those have been closed and sealed, but three remain in working order and in use (one in the basement and two on the first floor). At least one of the chimneys has been replaced and upgraded. The sub-level kitchen was most likely decommissioned in the 1920s or earlier. Upgrades to the first floor kitchen took place in the 1920s, the 1960s, and the 1980s, respectively.
Other changes to the home since its original construction have been the addition of lighting, plumbing, central heating, and security systems. The cucumber wood floors have been protected by suitable coverings, but the home features original, natural woodwork and period decor. An enclosed porch replaced the original rear steps during the early twentieth century, and the original brick and slate steps at the front entryway were replaced in the late twentieth century. In the 1920s, a two-car garage with a rear loft was constructed next to the carriage house. The loft and a shop beneath it served as work space for those who managed the Concord grape vineyards on the property.
History