{"nrhp_refnum":"78001170","name":"Waugh, Robert, House","other_names":["Sparland Octagonal House"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"202 School St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Sparland","county":"Marshall County","state":"IL","lat":41.02928104700004,"lon":-89.44019473099996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-10-04","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-and-a-half-story red brick octagonal house at 202 School Street in Sparland, Marshall County, Illinois, built in 1887 for dry goods merchant Robert Waugh on a hillside overlooking the Illinois River.","why_significant":"The nomination argues the house is significant as the only known brick octagonal residence in Illinois, where only ten octagonal houses are known to survive. It also remains unaltered since 1887, unlike the others, which have additions.","narrative":"Perched on a hillside in Sparland, Illinois, this octagonal brick house looks east over the Illinois River. Robert Waugh, a Scottish-born dry goods merchant who settled in Marshall County in 1853, completed it in 1887 after buying the lot for twenty-five dollars the year before. Each of its eight sides is sixteen feet long, and the walls of common-bond brick rest on a limestone foundation. Inside, four rooms on each floor surround a central octagonal stairhall with a spiral staircase. A six-column wooden porch marks the entrance. Waugh's reason for choosing an octagonal plan is unknown, though a similar house built in 1856 about ten miles away may have influenced him. The house was listed because it is the only known brick octagonal residence among ten surviving octagonal houses in Illinois, and because it remains largely as it appeared in 1887. Andrew Aitchison, Waugh's business partner, bought it in 1913.","period_of_significance":"1887","architect_builder":"Robert Waugh","architectural_style":null,"criteria":[],"status_note":"Described as fair condition and essentially unaltered apart from an added first-floor bathroom and interior decoration; used as a private residence.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.619976-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/2/8936/28893602/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/78001170.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001170/a16f05f1a1-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78001170/a16f05f1a1-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"ProfDEH","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sparland_octagon_house_1111.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">ProfDEH</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sparland_octagon_house_1111.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28893602","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Waugh_House","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7350903"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/marshall-county/waugh-robert-house-78001170/"}