This was the second home he built in Bristol Rhode Island, the first being the Richmond-Herreshoff House I featured previously. Lemuel Clarke Richmond (1782-1876), a whaler, built this Octagon home in his seventies. The dome is sprinkled with 709 small colored glass windows, making it one of the finest buildings on a college campus in the United States! Octagon, Schenectady, Victorian Gothic Architectural History Blog, Architecture Blog, Blog, Edward Tuckerman Potter, Historic Building, Historic Preservation, History Blog, Joseph Jacques Ramee, New York, New York Architecture, New York Architecture Blog, New York Travel Blog, Nott Memorial, Ruskinian Gothic, Schenectady, Schenectady Architecture, Schenectady History, Schenectady NY, Union College, Upstate NY, Upstate NY Architecture, Victorian Architecture, Victorian Gothic Lemuel Richmond House // 1856 The Nott Memorial as completed, is 89 feet in diameter and capped with a ribbed dome. Construction finally began on the building in 1858, based on designs by Edward Tuckerman Potter, grandson of President Nott, but apparently took nearly 20 years to complete due to the Civil War and funding issues. The building never materialized in Unions early days. The Union College campus thus became the first comprehensively planned college campus in the United States! As part of Remee’s plan for the campus, a round, Neo-Classic “pantheon” building was proposed at the center of campus (a prescendent for Thomas Jefferson’s plans for the University of Virginia just four years later). Ramée worked on drawings for about a year, and construction of two of the college buildings proceeded quickly enough to permit occupation in 1814. In 1812 French architect Joseph-Jacques Ramée, equally skilled in landscapes and structures, was then hired to draw up a comprehensive plan for the new campus. In 1806 a large tract of land was acquired to the east of the Downtown Schenectady, on a gentle slope up from the Mohawk River. Eliphalet Nott became college president in 1804, and envisioned an expanding campus to accommodate a growing school. Union was the first non-denominational institution of higher education in the United States, and the second college established in the State of New York. The 16-sided Nott Memorial Hall is one of America’s most dramatic High Victorian buildings, is the centerpiece of the Union College campus (and a major reason for my stop in Schenectady when driving through New York). Kennebec County, Octagon Architectural Design, Architectural History, Architectural History Blog, Architecture, Architecture Blog, Architecture Style, Historic Building, Historic Preservation, history, History Blog, Maine, maine architecture, maine history, Maine Real Estate, New England History Blog, Octagon, Octagon House, Octagon House New England, Octagon Style, West Gardiner Nott Memorial Hall // 1858 The home remained in the Tucker family until the 1950s. The home was completed, and it was seemingly acquired by Jesse’s twin brother David. The new octagon house was being constructed as a gift to Jesse’s soon-to-be wife, but tragically fell from the roof of the barn when building, and died. This home in West Gardiner, Maine, was built by Jesse Tucker in 1856 on land his father had cleared, replacing a more standard structure. His book A Home for All, or, the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building struck the fancy of a certain few, and Octagon homes were built across the country, for just about a decade until they fell out of favor almost overnight. The Octagon form of architecture was conceived in 1848 in the prolific mind of Orson Squire Fowler, phrenologist and author of books on sex, family relations, and many other subjects.