Another in our series of amazing Winchester Historic Houses and Buildings, today Taste Winchester History brings you a very rare and unique home known as The Hexagon House.  The Hexagon House is located at 530 Amherst Street in Winchester, Virginia.  It is another on the National Register of  Historic Places, from where we get some excerpts of its origin and historical significance.  It is also on the Virginia Historic Landmarks Registry.  It is one of only two Hexagon Houses on the National Register of Historic Places.

Statement of Significance:

The Hexagon House, 530 Amherst Street, Winchester, is significant as the only 19th-century hexagonal house standing in Virginia. The residence was built between 1871 and 1873 by B. Leathers for James W. Burgess in what was then Frederick County. The building was partially influenced by Orson S. Fowler’s ‘A Home for All’ or the ‘Gravel Wall Mode of Building’ (1853), a handbook that popularized the polygonal house as the most practical, economical and healthful in plan for Americans. In keeping with Fowler’s recommendation, the Hexagon House has ventilators in the principal rooms to remove “bad” air. The house remains in an excellent state of preservation.

Historical Background Excerpt:

The Hexagon House sits on land that was originally part of a much larger tract owned by James Wood who platted the Town of Winchester. In the late 1860s the property was purchased by James W. Burgess who, between 1871 and 1873, erected the Hexagon House. The builder of the Hexagon House was B. Leathers. While nothing is known of Leathers, The Winchester News does provide minimal information on Burgess.

To read much more, please click on the direct link to the National Register of  Historic Places here:  Hexagon House.  It presently serves as “home” to and we provide links for: the Preservation of Historic Winchester as well as the Shenandoah Arts Council.

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