The 1901 Arthur W. and Chloe B. Cole House is the only existing Octagon-Mode type in Missouri

Photo byThe Clio/Arthur W. and Chloe B. Cole House.

The Arthur W. and Chloe B. Cole House is located at 5803 Rocky Branch Road close to Houston, Missouri (Texas County). It's also been referred to as Cole's Castle or the Octagon House.

On December 10, 1998, this house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With construction beginning in 1898, the house is well over 100 years old. The foundation of this octagon-shaped dwelling is limestone and concrete, and the walls are stucco.

The designer of this house was Arthur Cole. The house is seven miles southwest of Houston, Missouri, and about two and a half miles south of Clara, Missouri. The house is privately owned. The 60-acre property where the house sits was part of a commercial orchard during the 1890s.

The construction of the house was completed in 1901. It was made of poured concrete and the style is called Octagon Mode. This house is structurally sound and because of its rare type of construction, it was included on the National Register.

The eastern boundary of the home's yard is formed by Rocky Branch Road. An abandoned road that runs east and west has been plowed over and forms the southern border of the lot. There are a lot of trees in the yard including fruit trees and black walnut trees.

The limestone block that was used for the foundation was quarried from Yellow Bluff on the Big Piney River not too far from the property. In 1963, a previous owner used refined Portland cement and covered the foundation. He also built two small stoops on the east and south sides.

At one point, the house was used as a store. There were wooden pegs built into the walls serving as shelves. The walls consisted of a poured cement mix with lime rock aggregate. Imagine the lime being pulled to the site by a horse-drawn wagon from the river.

The walls were poured one at a time. Wood frame forms were raised from one level to the next as the concrete dried. This type of wall construction was good for the home during the summer in the house's area to help keep it cool as well as helping to keep heat in during the winter.

In 1963, the walls were covered with white stucco. This helped to seal any cracks. Also that year, a one-story wood frame addition was added at the south wall and a cedar deck was built off the second story in the late 1980s. At the time the house was nominated for the National Register, the owners were planning on removing the deck.

Supposedly the method of using poured concrete for the walls wasn't something widely used in the country. These Octagon Mode homes are rare and only a few hundred survive. Most of these types of homes were found in the urban Midwest, Massachusetts, and New York.

There isn't any elaborate detailing with this house. This type of design was made popular by a phrenologist named Orson Squire Fowler. During the early 1900s, this historic building served as the community's country store. Interestingly, the home's county, Texas County, is the largest in Missouri.

Arthur W. and Chloe B. Cole were from Stark County, Ohio. They arrived in Texas County in 1897. Not too long after they arrived, Chloe Cole acquired 60 acres. Before they had the site, it used to be the Stark Brothers Fruit Orchard (1893-1897) which explains some of the fruit trees.

Arthur Cole served as a postmaster for one term from 1899 to 1900. After their house was completed in 1901, they operated their general store on the second floor of the house. As was commonly practiced in those days, members of the community would also gather at the general stores to socialize and collect news. The Coles ran the store until they left the property in the early 1920s.

It was Arthur who designed the plans for their house. He also hired a foreman and rock mason named Jeff Downing to oversee the construction of the house. It took about three years to complete it.

In Missouri, there are other examples of poured concrete houses in the Ozarks, but most are square or rectangular and not octagonal. The Cole House is the only existing poured concrete one in the state that is the Octagon-Mode type. This type was more popular with barns instead of homes.

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