Loren Andrus Octagon House

This brick octagon dwelling was built for Washington Township pioneer Loren Andrus beginning in 1858. The Andrus family first occupied the home in 1860. Andrus commissioned his brother-in-law, David Stewart, to build the house, the design of which was inspired by the writings of Orson Squire Fowler, who had espoused the octagon-shaped house as the ideal dwelling in his 1854 book, A Home For All. Fowler's book touched off a minor craze of octagon building during the mid-nineteenth century.

Ceilings in the Andrus octagon house are 12 feet high throughout, and the rooms on each level are arranged around a circular staircase the ascends to the cupola perched on the roof in the center of the building. Andrus lived in his octagon home until 1894, when he sold the property and moved to Detroit to live with one of his children.

When Andrus died in 1901, the Michigan Historical Collections eulogized him as follows:

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Loren Andrus died April 12, 1901, aged about 76 years. Mr. Andrus had been a resident of Washington township over seventy years. He was born in Covington, Genesee county, New York, and came to Michigan in 1822 when a boy of six years of age, with his parents, who located at Washington, where he resided from that date. In 1840 he was married to Lucina Davis, whose parents located in Macomb county, about 1828. Both families are known as the earliest pioneers of that part of the State.

Mr. Andrus was a farmer and was always prominent in the advancement of agricultural industries, having been for years a director of the Macomb County Agricultural Society and at one time its president. He was also identified with the Michigan Agricultural Society. He was one of the organizers of the Macomb and St. Clair and later of the Macomb County Fire Insurance company. For many years he gave special attention to the breeding of fine wool sheep. 

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After the death of Loren Andrus, his Washington Township property passed through a number of hands. In the 1930s, it was called the Paul Weyer Farm, and was owned and operated by well-known Detroit-area restaurateur Paul J. Weyer. Weyer opened a restaurant called Paul Weyer's Farm Inn in the house in 1938, but it closed not long after his sudden death in 1939. From 1945-1954, the property was operated as the Albert H. Schmidt Foundation Farm, an agricultural education initiative of Wayne State University which sought to teach farming skills to students in a hands-on environment. The university sold the property in 1962 to an investment firm, which leased it to tenants.

In 1974, Bill and Phyllis Hamilton bought the distressed and neglected property that had been condemned and threatened with demolition. The Hamiltons operated the property as Apple Barrel Farms, a living history museum open to the public, until 1984. A non-profit organization was formed in 1986 to save the Loren Andrus Octagon House when it was again threatened with demolition. Today, the house is operated as a museum by the Friends of the Octagon House, Inc.

The Loren Andrus Octagon House is listed on both the Michigan Register of Historic Sites and the National Register of Historic Places.

State of Michigan to Loren Andrews [sic], 6 March 1849, consideration $650, southwest quarter of Section 34, Township of Washington, Macomb County Record of Deeds, liber 26, p.262.

"United States Census, 1870", database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MHCQ-1KK : 19 March 2020), Lorin Andrus, 1870.

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWST-ZF3 : 14 August 2017), Loren Andrus, Washington, Macomb, Michigan, United States; citing enumeration district ED 214, sheet 600D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,593.

Anders, Judith A. The Loren Andrus Octagon House 1860 Washington, Michigan: Myths, Facts and Legends. Grand Rapids, MI: Color House Graphics, 2003. 

Allen, Robert D. and Cheryl J. Allen. The Andrus Family: A Pioneer Family of Washington Township, Michigan. Washington, Mich.: The Authors, 2006.

Fowler, O. S. (Orson Squire), 1809-1887. A Home for All, Or, The Gravel Wall And Octagon Mode of Building: New, Cheap, Convenient, Superior And Adapted to Rich And Poor .... New York: Fowler and Wells, 1854. 

"Pioneer of Macomb County: Loren Andrus Passed Away in Detroit Yesterday," Detroit Free Press, April 13, 1901, p.5.

Michigan State Historical Society, and Michigan Historical Commission. Historical Collections. Lansing, 1880-1929, v.31 (1901), pp.75-76.

"Paul Weyer [obituary]," Detroit Free Press, May 10, 1939, p.26.

Bransdorfer, Arnold. "Agriculture Students Work Acres," The Daily Monitor-Leader [Mount Clemens, Mich.], June 2, 1950.

Gabler, Dave. "Fascination of Old Octagon House Grows Yearly: Its Interior Proves Interesting Also," The Daily Monitor-Leader, May 23, 1952.

Walquist, Kelly. "Move to Preserve Octagon House as Historical Landmark Hits Snag," The Daily Monitor-Leader, July 9, 1963, p.1.

Magee, Dorothy. "Face-lift For Macomb's 'grand dame,'" The Macomb Daily, September 30, 1974, p.1B.

Dolezal, Suzanne. "Home Sweet Heartache," Detroit Free Press, March 7, 1982, magazine section, p.19.

Lehr, Nannette. "Dream House Becomes Couple's Nightmare," Detroit Free Press, March 17, 1983, p.3A.

Ratliff, Rick. "Trip Into Past Nears its End," Detroit Free Press, March 13, 1984, p.3A.

Musial, Robert. "Group Tries to Rescue Farmhouse With 8 Sides," Detroit Free Press, May 13, 1984, p.3A.

Holmes, Jennifer. "State Grant Saves Octagon House," Detroit Free Press, December 23, 1986, p.4A.

May, Jeanne. "Upward Spiral: Octagon House Restoration Begins With the Circular Stairs," Detroit Free Press, June 1, 1995, p.C1.