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Bowyer-Gleaves House

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c. 1870; 1890 wings; c. 1910 portico. 585 W. Main St.

Constructed by Dr. Henry Quincy Adams Bowyer, this is one of Virginia's two-story octagonal dwellings inspired by Orson S. Fowler's The Octagon House, A Home for All (1848). Among other arguments, Fowler claimed the shape promoted the greatest amount of space within the smallest wall surface. Two decades after its construction, frame wings with mansard roofs were added to the brick house with its hipped roof and central chimney. Around 1910, a two-story semicircular Doric portico was added that bears a striking resemblance to the colonnade added c. 1914 to the Hendricks-Stuart House (RU8) in Russell County.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Anne Carter Lee
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Data

What's Nearby

William S. Trinkle House
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
U.S. Post Office
Wythe County Courthouse
Commercial Building (Bank)

Citation

Anne Carter Lee, "Bowyer-Gleaves House", [Wytheville, Virginia], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-WY3.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Virginia vol 2

Buildings of Virginia: Valley, Piedmont, Southside, and Southwest, Anne Carter Lee and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2015, 453-453.

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