{"nrhp_refnum":"71001025","name":"Darrow, Clarence, Octagon House","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"OH 5 and 7","address_restricted":false,"city":"Kinsman","county":"Trumbull County","state":"OH","lat":41.44974962100008,"lon":-80.58449508399997,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1971-09-10","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Law"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story frame octagonal house with seven rooms and a surrounding single-story porch, on a small town lot at Ohio Routes 5 and 7 in Kinsman, Trumbull County, Ohio. It was built about 1850, with 1852 given as the most accurate date.","why_significant":"The house is notable as one of two landmarks in the nation intimately associated with lawyer Clarence Darrow, who lived here as a boy from about 1864 until 1873. The nomination admits it is one of the least distinguished of the more than 20 Octagon-style houses remaining in Ohio. It rejects the folklore that it was an underground railroad station.","narrative":"Built about 1850, this octagonal frame house in Kinsman, Ohio, has two stories, seven rooms and a single-story open porch wrapping seven of its sides. Its main historical link is to Clarence Darrow, the trial lawyer, whose family lived there from about 1864. Darrow spent nine formative years in the house before leaving Ohio in 1873, attended a nearby academy, and staged mock trials with local boys in a barn. Although he claimed in his autobiography to have been born here, local tradition places his birth in nearby Farmdale. The house has also been wrongly called an underground railroad station. Among more than 20 remaining Octagon-style houses in Ohio, it is considered architecturally modest, but it is one of only two surviving landmarks tied to Darrow. Original fireplaces, mantels, cupboards and woodwork remain, though the stairway and front door were moved to the east side. The exterior was decaying quickly when nominated, and the structure was described as in jeopardy.","period_of_significance":"1850","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Octagon","criteria":[],"status_note":"Exterior in deteriorating condition; occupied as a private residence and described as in jeopardy. It served as a tourist home in the 1960s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:53:09.296163-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_OH/71001025.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71001025/40846d2365-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/71001025/40846d2365-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Nyttend","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clarence_Darrow_Octagon_House.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Nyttend</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clarence_Darrow_Octagon_House.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71991729","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Darrow_Octagon_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5126461"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/ohio/trumbull-county/darrow-clarence-octagon-house-71001025/"}