Man Installing Lights In 'Octagon House' Finds Staggering Sight In The Wall

If you were to take a stroll down San Francisco's unassuming Gough Street, not a lot would stick out — at first. Then you come to the massive eight-sided mansion. Appropriately known as the Octagon House, this unusual abode has intrigued Californians for generations. In fact, nobody could remember exactly when or why it was built. However, the truth came bubbling to the surface during some routine maintenance, and soon historians were tearing through the new evidence.

The Octagon House

Anyone who sees the Octagon House from the outside will agree it sticks out like a sore thumb. However, the peculiarity of the exterior pales in comparison to the nonsensical angles and corridors inside. Who would ever design such a paradox?

Two of a kind

The deeper you get into the house, the more it resembles an M.C. Escher drawing. Certain rooms are only accessible through other rooms, and the upper floor can only be reached via a precarious staircase. That's why there's only one other octagonal home in all of San Francisco.

Orson Squire Fowler

So who invented the bizarre design in the first place? The original 1840s blueprint came from Orson Squire Fowler, best known for popularizing phrenology — the debunked "science" of deciphering a person's psychology through the bumps on their skull.

A house without records

But there was no evidence tying Fowler to the San Francisco structure. Located in the Cow's Hollow neighborhood, once a hotspot for the cattle industry, the Octagon had barely any records. Even more mysteriously, 20th-century scholars couldn't find any documentation about its origins.