Muscogee County GaArchives Photo Place.....The Folly House 1 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Christine Thacker http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00033.html#0008100 May 9, 2007, 11:44 am

Source:             Sesquicentennial Supplement III, Ledger- Enquirer
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/photos/thefolly12786gph.jpg
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   The Folly
                           Octagon House Gives History a Unique Angle

  A Columbus structure,  known both as the Octagon  House and. "The Folly," was 
named a National a Historic Landmark by  Secretary of the Interior  Rogers C.B. 
Morton on March 3, 1974. It was dedicated on Nov. 8 of that same year, with Dr. 
William J. Murtagh,  Keeper of the National  Register, as guest speaker. 
   The first building in  Columbus to receive such  designation, "The Folly" 
was among 17 buildings in the  South cited as "significant examples of American 
architecture." Nine of these are in Georgia and include the State Capitol, the 
Governor's Mansion in  Milledgeville, the Lapham-Patterson House in  
Thomasville, the Hay and Carmichael houses in  Macon, Bellevue in  LaGrange, 
the Tupper-Barnett House in Washington and the Scarborough House in Savannah. 
  Cited as one of the major  examples in Clay Lancaster's "Architectural 
Follies' in America," the Octagon House was noted as  part of a building style 
or "fad" that was brought  into popularity by the a publication of Orson 
Squire  Fowler's book, "A Home for All; or, The Gravel Wall  and Octagon Mode 
of Building." This was first  printed in 1848, but enlarged and reissued at 
last four  times more, In this volume, Fowler presented a lengthy  and involved 
thesis that the  octagon form is superior to  right angular forms, particularly 
in achieving more  room volume. In the larger front section of the Columbus 
dwelling there are four six-sided rooms, built around a centra1 chimney, 
providing a fireplace for each room. The remaining triangles  are utilized as 
closet, entry  and a bathroom, the latter  being a 20th century feature.
  The most generally agreed upon date of the construction of the neo-Gothic 
house. Located  in Columbus' Historic District at 527 First Avenue is 1863 when 
a local carpenter by the name of Leander May made the octagonal addition to an 
existing rectangular frame dwelling, which probably dated back to the founding 
year of Columbus, 1828.
  However, it was not until the house was damaged by fire in December of 1969 
that the present owner, F. Clason Kyle, made extensive investigation of the 
rear (or rectangular) section of the house.
  This exploration revealed concealed foundations and other structural details 
indicating that this back portion had also been octagonal in shape. So when 
restoration was made, Kyle returned the house to its mid-War Between the States 
form, making it the only known, fully realized doubie octagonal house in 
Georgia and perhaps the United States.
  A dwelling has existed at 527 First Ave. since 1831, when Julia, daughter of 
Georgia Gov. John Forsyth, married a Princeton University graduate, Alfred 
Iverson. Iverson was then practicing law in the new city of Columbus, which had 
been founded three years previously. He was later a congressman, U.S. senator 
and brigadier general in the Confederate Army. 
  The Iverson home was probably a modest two-to-four-room affair, and as  such 
it remained until Leander May, a carpenter-contractor acquired the property 
just prior to the War Between the States. May had an eye for the flamboyant and 
was obviously aware of the book on octagonalism.
  May set about catching up with the vogue for eight-sided houses. Some of 
these structures were as elaborate as four-story "Longwood" at Natchez, Miss. 
Such houses were known as "follies," usually so dubbed by local residents as 
they watched the fanciful structures being constructed. Just as Natchez 's 
Longwood quickly became known as "Nutt's Folly," after the name of the builder, 
Dr. Nutt, so the house May was remodeling  became "May's Folly" to his fellow 
Columbusites.
Architectural historian Lancaster, dates the octagonal front as having been 
built in 1853. The present owner, however, considers 1861-62 as a more accurate 
date. Kyle, who does not live there himself  but rents it to a tenant, also  
feels that May did more  than add an octagonal to the existing Iverson cottage 
as Lancaster wrote.
  Evidence discovered after the fire in 1968 revealed basement pillars and 
rafters in the older part of the structure that exactly fit a smaller 
octagonal. "May altered the shape of  the Iverson house to that of  an 
octagonal to complement the larger octagonal front  he was building. The result 
is a unique double octagonal,"  Kyle explains.
                                     

Special Sesquicentennial Supplement III
Ledger- Enquirer, Sunday, April 30, 1978, pg S-14.



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