Architecture ~ Octogon House, Georgiaville (Smithfield)

J.S. Sweet Octagon House

108 Farnum Pike

Georgiaville, Rhode Island

updated 11/17/2025

Update: the building is on the Rhode Island Historic Properties Map (which I hadn't started at the time I first saw the house). The RIHPHC's description is below: 

A 2-story octagonal residence with a bracketed cornice, two brick interior chimneys, and an entry with side and transom lights. The house is on a small rise on a relatively large, simply landscaped lot. Although a relatively plain structure and altered from its original appearance by the application of false stone siding, the house is important since it is a rare example of its type.

Weird Island podcast and Quahog.org both have lists of octagon houses in Rhode Island. You can bet they're going on The List, if they're not already there. 

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Bear and I stumbled across this great octogon house while out on a fall foliage drive over the weekend. I haven't seen it on any list of sights to see, but it seemed very unusual to me, and worth stopping to photograph.

An architect friend of mine was able to identify the style and give me some information:

"The style was popular from about 1850-1870, but there were probably only a few thousand built and, of those, few remain. A guy named Orson Fowler is credited with popularizing them, although Thomas Jefferson's Poplar Forest is one of the better known and was designed and built in the early 1800s. Most are on the east coast."

After digging a little, I discovered this is building is called the J. S. Sweet octagon house, built circa 1865. I haven't yet found any information on J.S. Sweet, however.