History Tuesday – The Octagon House of Copake Falls, New York

History Tuesday at Old Houses Under $50K is for informational purposes only – NOT for sale. We feature properties that cost less than $50K sometime in their history. This one sold in 2019 for $40,000. It is the Octagon House of Copake Falls, New York.

 

History

The last time I saw this octagon house in Copake, New York, was 20 years ago when we were on our way to Bash Bish Falls, just a few miles from the house. Our  son fell on his head at the falls, and was taken by ambulance to the emergency room. We always tell him, “Well, if you had to fall and bash your head, Bash Bish Falls was apropos.”

Reynolds Family

The octagon house was built for Dr. John D. Reynolds (1837-1883) a Union College graduate and a surgeon with the 44th New York Volunteers during the Civil War. Dr. Reynolds expanded Orson Squire Fowler’s octagon design by adding his doctor’s office. John, wife Anna and their three children lived here. After Anna died in the 1870s, John left his children with family, remarried and moved to Seattle. He died there of cancer in 1883.

Subsequent Owners

The Wilsey family owned the octagon for almost a century from approximately 1880 to 1971. Then Chris Rose and Elsie Grozinger purchased it. In 1973 James Carlson bought it, and later in the ’70s Helen Mang, an employee of the Independent Living Center, purchased the octagon house. Somewhere along the line a cobblestone chimney was installed and Greek Revival style trim, unusual features for an octagon house.

By the late 1970s, the Copake octagon house was one of only about 100 such structures in New York, and one of only three in Columbia County. As Helen Mang aged, it became increasingly difficult for her to maintain the house, so in 2011, a neighbor, Ruth Thomas, founded Copake Community Cares to help clean up, repaint and repair the home. For some reason, however, the work was never completed.

 

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