by Joe Nickell
FIGURE 37-1. The Kremlin, Moscow’s ancient fortress, is allegedly a haunted place.
The Kremlin is also allegedly haunted by the ghost of Lenin (1870-1924), the Russian revolutionary. In 1961 his spirit supposedly contacted a medium to tell her he despised sharing his mausoleum with dictator Joseph Stalin (1879-1953), “who caused the Party so much harm.” The medium, a Communist heroine devoted to Lenin and imprisoned by Stalin, revealed Lenin’s alleged wishes in an address to the Party Congress, and the next night Stalin’s body was removed and reinterred elsewhere. Also, during the power struggle of 1993, Lenin’s ghost was reportedly seen pacing anxiously in his former office and other government sites (Hauck 2000, “Ghosts” 1997).
What are we to make of such tales? First of all, the apparitions seem typical of those reported elsewhere, and may have the same explanations: that is, they may be due to a welling up of the subconscious during daydreams or other altered states of consciousness, and may be triggered in part by the power of suggestion, especially among certain highly imaginative persons (Nickell 2000).
Moreover, the reported encounters show an obvious tendency for Russian ghosts to serve as omens. People perceive ghosts in terms of their own cultural attitudes, which vary in different places and times. According to R. C. Finucane’s Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of Ghosts (1984):
Each epoch has perceived its specters according to specific sets of expectations; as these change so too do the specters. From this point of view it is clear that the suffering souls of purgatory in the days of Aquinas, the shade of a murdered mistress in Charles IPs era, and the silent grey ladies of Victoria’s reign represent not beings of that other world, but of this.
As purposeful as Shakespeare’s ghosts (recall how the specters of Hamlet’s father and Banquo were driven by revenge), those of Russian historical figures tend to function as portents in anxious times. I toured the Kremlin and stood outside Lenin’s tomb in Red Square; I saw no ghosts, but I nevertheless could not escape feeling the impress of the often-troubled past of a great country. Such personages as Ivan the Terrible and Lenin, magnified by history and legend, loomed large—at least in my own haunted thoughts.
REFERENCES
Finucane, R. C. 1984. Appearances of the Dead: A Cultural History of Ghosts. Buffalo, N.Y.: Prometheus Books.
“Ghosts.” 1997. The St. Petersburg Times, November 3. Retrieved 1 October 2001 from www.sptimesrussia.com
Hauck, Dennis William. 2000. The International Directory of Haunted Places. New York: Penguin.
Nickell, Joe. 2000. Haunted inns. Skeptical Inquirer 24, no. 5 (September/October): 17-21.
38
Mystique of the Octagon Houses
Phrenology, psychical claims, quack medicine—these and other fringe ideas have interesting connections to the octagon-house fad of the nineteenth century. I have visited a few of these historic eight-sided buildings, including a “haunted” one at Genesee Country Village in Mumford, New York. Individually and collectively, the structures present many features of interest.
Nearly Circular
Octagonal structures have a long history. During the Middle Ages they were often attached to churches to enclose baptistries. In America, from 1680 to 1750, octagonal churches were built in Dutch settlements along the Hudson River. Virginians George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were also attracted to the distinctive shape: Washington had eight-sided garden houses constructed at Mount Vernon, and Jefferson erected anoctagonal retreat, Popular Forest (built 1806-1809), in Lynchburg (“Fowler’s” 1992; Schmidt and Parr n.d., 7, 109).
The octagon plan had the primary advantage of a round structure—that of enclosing more interior space, for its circumference, than other shapes—but was easier to construct. Its obtuse angles eliminated dark corners (an idea that reportedly appealed to Jefferson, who included an octagonal guest room at Monticello [Shribman 2000]). The octagon also made possible a compact floor plan, with rooms easily accessible by a central hallway. Topped with a glass cupola, the octagon’s core had natural lighting and was ideal for a winding stair.
The octagon’s most ardent proponent, Orson Squire Fowler (1809-1887), also believed that the shape was a more healthful form. At a time when most people closed their windows to keep out “night vapors,” Fowler promoted fresh air and argued that octagons provided better overall ventilation. Also, the larger rooms that his plans promoted allowed the air to circulate naturally, so that one was not faced with a choice of either repeatedly breathing the same air or sleeping in the draft of an open window (Fowler 1853; Kammen 1996).
“Fowlers Folly”
One writer described Fowler as a “compound of fanaticism, superficiality, and quackery”; another commented, “Orson Fowler was all of those things, but he was also ahead of his time” (Kammen 1996). With his younger brother Lorenzo, Fowler is best known for promoting phrenology, the pseudoscience of reading character from the contours of the skull. The brothers wrote numerous books on the subject and allied topics, and also published the American Phrenological Journal and later the Water Cure Journal (The latter, briefly edited by Walt Whitman, promoted hydropathy, a treatment that supposedly cured all diseases by the internal or external use of large amounts of water.)
Fowler sensibly opposed the tight lacing of ladies’ corsets; advocated exercise and good diet along with fresh air to promote vitality; and fervently endorsed all forms of what he considered self-improvement. However, he also dabbled in “magnetism” (i.e., mesmerism) and published tracts extolling not only phrenology and medical quackery, but also clairvoyance and spiritualism. He fancied himself an expert on marriage and sex education, based on phrenological principles as well as his own experience from three marriages. He was also a temperance advocate, opposing all stimulants (including tea). Curiously, though, unlike many of those who shared his reformist views, he never joined the abolition movement (Kammen 1996; Fowler and Fowler 1855).
Octagons appealed to freethinkers and individualists like Fowler and can be seen as an expression of the “ultraist” and “perfectionist” sentiments that characterized western New York during the nineteenth century. Termed the “burned-over district,” the area was “[a] hotbed of revivalism, millennialism, and perfectionism.” Indeed, the same region that gave rise to the Shakers, Oneida Community (a free-love sect), Millerites (an end-of-the-world cult), and Mormons—as well as the Spiritualists and others—“also saw the octagon as a perfect and natural form of architecture” (Genesee n.d.).
In 1848, Fowler published the first version of his octagon-promoting book A Home for All and began construction of his own such home overlooking the Hudson River near Fishkill, New York. It was still unfinished five years later, but Fowler moved his family into the four-story, sixty-room house. Topped with an octagonal glass-domed cupola, the grout-walled house was an impressive sight, but neighbors soon dubbed it “Fowler’s Folly.” Fowler’s finances suffered from the Panic of 1857, and he was forced to move out and rent the dwelling to a realtor. The latter turned it into a boarding house, but the walls leaked and a contaminated well caused a typhoid outbreak. The house subsequently passed through a succession of owners until, in 1897, it was condemned and demolished by dynamite (Kammen 1996, “Fowler’s” 1992).
In the meantime, Fowler had inspired the construction of hundreds of octagon homes, and a group of utopian-minded leaders even FIGURE 38-2. Joe Nickell looking for ghosts in the Hyde house’s cupola at the head of the winding stairs. (Photograph taken for the author by Benjamin Radford.) proposed an “Octagon City” in the Kansas Territory (this city failed to materialize). The 1857 Panic, which resulted from overspeculation in real estate and railroads, caused a decline in the octagon fad, which further declined with the onset of the Civil War. Nevertheless, octagons continued to be built until about the end of the century, especially in New York (“Fowler’s” 1992).
FIGURE 38-1. The Hyde octagon house at Genesee Country Village, Mumford, N.Y.
FIGURE 38
-2. Joe Nickell looking for ghosts in the Hyde house’s cupola at the head of the winding stairs. (Photograph taken for the author by Benjamin Radford.)
The Hydes’ House
One of these octagon homes was built at Friendship, New York, circa 1870, for Erastus C. and Julia E. (Watson) Hyde (Figures 38-1 and 38-2). It now stands as part of Genesee Country Village at Mumford, New York. The village is a 200-acre site occupied by historic buildings that have been transported from various locales and set as a recreated hamlet, complete with outlying vintage farm buildings. It is a wonderful accomplishment.
Following the Civil War, in which then-Corporal Hyde had been a drummer in an infantry company, he returned to Friendship to resume labor on his father’s 100-acre farm. In 1869 he obtained an interest in a steam-powered shingle mill, and by 1870 he had also acquired a wife and an octagon house. The Hydes were both musicians and also shared interests in medicine and religion. In 1881 they went to Philadelphia, where Erastus enrolled in the Hahnemann Medical College, which taught homeopathy. (Homeopathy is based on the notion that “like cures like,” and holds that extremely dilute doses of the substances that produce certain symptoms can alleviate those symptoms. The more diluted the dosages the better, homeopaths believe, with the result “that not a single molecule of the original substance remains” in a homeopathic preparation [Randi 1995, 159-60].)
While Hyde studied medicine, his wife taught music at a Philadelphia conservatory. After he received his degree, in 1884, she studied Methodism and became an ordained minister of that faith (Genesee n.d.). The couple returned to the octagon home at Friendship, and in one of the triangular rooms on the first floor Dr. Hyde established his medical office. (Although today a phrenological bust is exhibited in the parlor, it was presumably placed there because of the octagon’s connection to Orson Fowler, and not to suggest that Hyde also was a phrenologist.)
Spirit Communication
Ardent Spiritualists, the Hydes also had a home (and Dr. Hyde another medical office) at Lily Dale, the Spiritualist village. Hyde served on the board of directors from 1895 to 1901, and was on the medical staff of the nearby Lily Dale Sanitarium as a “Physician and Electro-therapist” (as reported in the Spiritualist Banner of Light, 25 July 1895). Mrs. Hyde wrote poetry, taught music, held classes in her home on spiritual self-development, and helped organize both a temperance society and a naturalist club for children (Lajudice 2001). (The Hydes were childless, but reportedly adopted several children and aided others with scholarships [Genesee n.d.].)
In the mid-1890s, there was a scandal at Lily Dale involving phony spirit manifestations by one Hugh Moore. (Moore is described in accounts of activities at Lily Dale as a “trumpet medium” in 1894 and “the materializing medium” in 1895 [Lajudice 2001].) The scandal is evidenced by a letter from Julia Hyde (1896) to a friend. She wrote, in part:
I do not anticipate that the cloud shadowing Lily Dale will be permanent. I hope it will result in a wholesome weeding out of fraud and “ringing in of the true.” I do not question the mediumship of many of these people, but their greed of gain prompts them to descend to actions that true spiritualists can not condone nor sanction; but that does not do away with the real in our cause. I do not, and never did believe that physical manifestations are the basis of spiritual belief. They are diametrically opposed to each other in expression ....
Later she said:
Yes, I do not question but that Hugh Moore was a medium; no doubt they all are more or less, but when they can not get enough genuine to satisfy the morbid appetites of marvel seekers, they tack on the false and then cry continually about “conditions,” to keep away honest investigation, and cover up their tracks .... Hugh Moore is said to be keeping a whiskey saloon in Dayton, O. He jumped his bail in Cincinnati, and left his confederates, who helped “play spirits,” unpaid ....
Nevertheless, Mrs. Hyde asserts that she is “a firmer spiritualist today than ever before, because of my hope that false conditions are passing out, and being overcome, and the genuine will triumph at last.”
Although “it was said” that Julia Hyde conducted seances in the octagon house parlor (Bolger 1993,98-99), my research at Lily Dale turned up no evidence that she was herself a medium, and the previously quoted letter written by her does not suggest so. Of course she could have hosted seances conducted by mediums in her octagon home, but the available evidence suggests that her spiritualist involvement was largely limited to Lily Dale. Nevertheless, the supposed seances, coupled with her dying within two days of Dr. Hyde’s death, led to “the belief even among sensible people” that “their departed spirits frequented the old, oddly-shaped house” (Bolger 1993). Its reputation as haunted really arose only after the house at Friendship was abandoned; abandoned houses seem always to invite notions of ghosts and hauntings. Today the administrators of Genesee Country Village commendably adopt the modern view that promoting claims of haunting at a historic site is unprofessional. Three tour guides I spoke with were skeptical of reports of ghosts in the octagon house, as none had had any haunting experiences. One insisted that she would not, since she was a good Catholic who did not believe in such things; another docent, who had never seen ghostly phenomena at any of the four or so reputedly haunted village buildings, jokingly added that if ghosts actually existed they should appear to her so as to end her skepticism (Nickell 2000; 2001).
Other Octagons
At Lily Dale is another octagon building, originally topped with a cupola. It was constructed in 1890, so it is tempting to think that the design was suggested by the Hydes, who were prominent residents there as early as 1888. Described in one article as “an octagonal seance house” (Kammen 1996), it was used for seances in the 1940s but was originally used for classes in social etiquette, dancing, and the like (Lajudice 2001). It now houses the Lily Dale Mediums’ League.
Another octagon I have visited in the “burned-over district” is the Rich-Twinn Octagon House at Akron, New York, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Built in 1849-1850, just after Orson Fowler published the first edition of A Home for All in 1848, it may well have been among the first fruits of Fowler’s octagon advocacy.
So distinctive are the octagons that their popularity has resulted in at least one misnomer: The historic (and supposedly haunted) four-story architectural landmark in Washington, D.C., known as “The Octagon” actually has only six sides. Built between 1797 and the early 1800s, it was given its unusual shape to fit an acute angle at the juncture of two thoroughfares (Alexander 1998, 98-104).
Although many of Orson Fowler’s ideas were discredited even before his death in 1887, his octagon concept was subsequently expanded upon by Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) in creating his celebrated geodesic dome. (Once, in 1967, with a handful of other college students, I sat literally at “Bucky’s” feet to hear and discuss his fascinating futuristic ideas.) Like Fowler, Fuller was searching for a design for a healthy and inexpensive home, and his geodesic house was intended for mass production at a retail cost of 50 cents per pound (Kammen 1996)!
Fowler’s greatest legacy remains in the form of numerous surviving octagons. (A state-by-state list is provided in Schmidt and Parr [n.d.].) More exist in New York State than anywhere else. Many of them, including examples at Lily Dale, Akron, and Genesee Country Village, have been lovingly restored, thus standing as “monuments to their builders’ desire to create a special and healthy home—and to the ideas of Orson Squire Fowler” (Kammen 1996).
REFERENCES
Alexander, John. 1998. Ghosts: Washington Revisited. Atglen, Pa.: Schiffer Publishing.
Bolger, Stuart. 1993. Genesee Country Village: Scenes of Town & Country in the Nineteenth Century. 2d ed. Mumford, N.Y.: Genesee Country Village.
Fowler, Orson S. 1853. A Home for All, or the Gravel Wall and Octagon Mode of Building. Reprinted 1973 as The Octagon House: A Home for All. New York: Dover.
Fowler, O. S., and L. N. Fowler. 1855. The Illustrated Self-Instructor in Phren
ology and Physiology .... New York: Fowlers and Wells.
“Fowler’s follies.” 1992. Colonial Homes, August, 68-71.
Genesee Country Village. N.d. Unpublished typescript on the Friendship Octagon House. Mumford, N.Y.: The Genesee Country Museum.
Hyde, Julia. 1896. Letter to a Mrs. Peck, written at Lily Dale, 25 April [typescript text in Genesee n.d.].
Kammen, Carol. 1996. Orson Squire Fowler and the octagon. Heritage 12, no. 2 (Winter): 4-15.
Lajudice, Joyce. 2001. Personal communication and Lily Dale Chronicle (computer database in progress, compiling information on Lily Dale from historical sources such as the Banner of Light) by the Lily Dale historian.
Nickell, Joe. 2000. Case-file notes, Hyde Octagon House, 2 July.
———— . 2001. Case-file notes, Genesee Country Village, 3 August.
Randi, James. 1995. The Supernatural A-Z: The Truth and the Lies. Great Britain: Brockhampton Press.
Schmidt, Carl F., and Philip Parr. N.d. [1978?]. More About Octagons. N.p.: Privately printed.
Shribman, David. 2000. Slavery casts shadow on U.S. history. Buffalo (N.Y.) News, 6 July.
39
Weeping Icons
A paranormal phenomenon enjoying favor in the new glasnost of Russia is that of “miraculous” icons—notably one that was reported to be weeping in a Moscow church in 1998.
The Russian Orthodox Church has a tradition of venerating icons (from the Greek eikon, “image”), which are painted on varnished wood panels and over time acquire a dark patina from candle smoke. Russian icons were produced in greatest number at Kiev, where Christianity took root in 988 (Richardson 1998, 222). Perhaps because they naturally depicted holy subjects and miraculous events—such as the imprinting of Jesus’ face on Veronicas veil, shown in a fourteenth-century icon that I viewed in the Tretyakov Gallery—they seemingly began to work miracles themselves.
