Joseph Williams House (1855)

The Joseph Williams House is one of two octagon houses which sit side-by-side on Marlborough Street in Portland. Following a similar design, both the Williams House and the neighboring Gilbert Stancliff House were built of brownstone, with a stucco-covered exterior, between 1853 and 1855. The octagon is an eight-sided house form popularized by Orson Squire Fowler in the mid-nineteenth century through his book, The Octagon House, A Home for All. Williams was a grocer and a brother-in-law of Stancliff, who was the superintendent at the Portland brownstone quarries. It is possible that Gilbert Stancliff’s brother Charles, an architect and builder, constructed both of the octagons. The brothers were descendants of James Stancliff, Portland’s first settler. Today, the Williams House serves as an apartment building.