Live in an octagon-shaped, Victorian style home in Westchester for $40,000 a month
The listing goes right ahead and calls this “one of the most visually unique homes in the world,” and it’d be hard to argue with that. This is known as the Armour–Stiner House, or the Carmer Octagon House, a unique octagon-shaped and domed Victorian style home located in Irvington, a town of Westchester County. It was built in 1860 by financier Paul J. Armour, enlarged between 1872 and 1876, and is now the only known residence constructed in the eight-sided, domed colonnaded shape of a classic Roman Temple. The current owner, Joseph Pell Lombardi, a preservation architect with his own firm, has listed it for rent asking a hefty $40,000 a month.
The Octagon House was inspired by the publication of The Octagon House, a Home for All by Orson Squire Fowler, a phrenologist, sexologist and amateur architect. Fowler advocated for octagonal instead of four-sided houses believing that the shape enclosed more space, created rooms which received twice as much sunlight, and had greater accessibility to one another. The expansion of the home added the Renaissance-style domed roof and cupola, Gothic molding and windows, rococo brackets flanking the dormer windows, and intricate detailing on the veranda.
The historic interior is indeed spacious, with 20 rooms over 8,400 square feet.
The home has housed a number of quirky owners. In the 1930s, it was occupied by Aleko E. Lilius, a Finnish writer and explorer who had lived with a female pirate who plundered ships off the coast of China. Carl Carmer, the author and historian, then lived in the house from 1946 to the time of his death in 1976. He claimed the property was haunted.
The “Egyptian revival music room” was restored right down to its ornate painted ceiling.
It holds seven bedrooms and three bathrooms. After Carmer passed away, the house was unoccupied for several years and fell into disrepair. The National Trust for Historic Preservation bought it to prevent it from being demolished, but was unable to fund the amount of renovation the property required. Joseph Pell Lombardi swooped in to both restore and conserve the house, interiors, grounds and outbuildings.
The 360-degree, wood-lined dance room on the fourth floor looks out toward the Hudson River.
The spiral staircase from the dance room leads tot the cupola, an observatory lined with windows and topped with a rounded skylight. A stunning top off to a stunning property.
The house, which sits on three acres, is surrounded by meticulous gardens, specimen trees, a carriage house, and an original Lord & Burnham conservator. The pictures here speak for themselves–it’s a truly impressive package, albeit for a very high price.
[Via Messy Nessy]
[45 West Clinton Avenue by Dalia Valdes for Sotheby’s William Pitt]
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Photos courtesy of Sotheby’s
