91A.489.1-2

The "octagon house," around 1940. Built in the 1870s for S. J. Starr, an Ames physician, its octagonal shape enabled its residents to use less wood while heating more efficiently than contemporary rectangular houses. The Octagon Center for the Arts used this house as its headquarters from 1966 to 1968 and adopted the shape of the house in its name even after it moved to its location in the Masonic Building on the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Douglas Avenue. The octagon house was burned down in June, 1982, as part of the fire training at the annual Iowa State Fire School practice. The house had been located at 128 Sumner.