The Rich-Twinn House

145 Main Street

Akron, New York

The Rich-Twinn House is the only period octagon house in Erie County.  This geometric wonder was constructed circa 1850 on what was then the outskirts of town by Charles Rich, a mulifaceted local businesssman.

Akron was settled originally by the Seneca people and by the late 1850s, Akron grew to be a valuable gypsum and limestone cement source for the rest of the area. Octagon houses were a phenomenon from the 1850s to the 1870s.  They were constructed from all the major building materials, including cobblestone and concrete, but most of them were wooden.  Only an estimated few thousand were ever built, with approximately 120 of them in New York State.  

Because of the era in which they were built, octagon houses tended to be either Greek Revival or Italianate in style, but some were Gothic Revival or Moorish as well. They ranged from one to four stories, but the majority were two stories.  Many of them sported octagonal cupolas.  The most famous, or infamous, octagaon house in the United States is the two -and-a-half story brick mansion called Longwood in Natchez, Mississippi.

One of the more interesting aspects of the Rich-Twinn House is that the primary working entrance leads into the basement where the receiving area and kitchen are located. The more ornate exterior entrance brings visitors to the first-floor hall, through which they access the dining room and drawing room.  On the second floor are the bedrooms and a curved staircase to the cupola.  As with most octagon houses, the forty-five-degree angles produce rooms that are not rectangular. 

The building passed through a series of owners after it was sold by the Rich family and over the decades the deteriorating process of time was not kind to the house.  The Newstead Historical Society has been its custodian since 1981 and over the following two decades, restored the structure as close as possible to its original grandeur.  It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 10, 1995 and is currently operated as a house museum and is occasionally open for touring.