The Only One Around
Boston hardware manufacturer
Enoch Robinson took great pride
in his individualism. He dropped
out of the Masons and Odd
Fellows when they became too
popular for his liking. And when
his first house, a large Greek
Revival with an octagonal cupola,
was copied by a neighbor, he was
incensed. He determined to build
a house that no one could
duplicate.
On a then-rural hillside
overlooking the Boston skyline,
Robinson chose an uncommon
shape-round-and an
uncommon building system-
horizontal planks laid in a
running bond, like brickwork-
that assured him of a place in
building history. In 135 or so
years, the house has yet to be
copied.
The walls of the house consist
of thousands of 1 3/4-inch-thick
wood "bricks," each three