Octagon House

The 1861 Octagon House is home to the small Museum of Colonial and Federal Decorative Arts, but is most notable as one of two surviving examples of eight-sided homes in the city. Across the nation, 700 such houses were built in the belief that they improved their occupants' health by letting in more natural light. Once owned by a wealthy dairyman named Charles Gough (back when nearby Cow Hollow still contained cows), the Octagon House stands on the street to which he magnanimously gave his name while on the city's naming commission; he also named an adjacent street 'Octavia' in honour of his sister.