Visit the world’s only fully domed octagon-shaped house in Irvington

News 12 Staff

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Nov 17, 2022, 1:11 PM

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Updated 770 days ago

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One of the most unique homes in all the Hudson Valley is inviting you to take a Road Trip: Close to Home in Irvington and step back in time.

The Armour-Stiner Octagon House has been described as the Taj Mahal of the Hudson Valley.

Owner, Joseph Lombardi, with his son, Michael Lombardi, restored the house and grounds to their 1872 appearance.

Lombardi gave News 12 a brief history of the home:

“In 1872, a gentleman by the name of the Stiner, a Hungarian-Born tea merchant, very much the Starbucks of his era, he's the one responsible for embellishing it...adding the dome, the veranda - painting it pink, 56 columns, and 560 carved wooden leaves that you see adorning the exterior. This was his whimsical summer retreat.”

“The challenge for my father, and then ultimately me as well, is to bring this beautiful whimsical miracle home together, piece by piece. Only through this photograph, were we able to reproduce those missing elements. My father describes it as a 500,000-piece jigsaw puzzle.”

“About 4 years ago, our family opened the house up to tours by appointment. It's very much a private home and it's been our private home for 43 years.”

“One of my favorite rooms is the Egyptian Revival room. Furniture, when my father acquired it, didn't have the original upholstery, so through research, we found that the Met Museum has a single chair, with its original Egyptian Revival Upholstery. And my wife took those patterns and reworked them to fit this suite. It's the only 19th-century Egyptian Revival room in America that we're aware of that has its original furnishing. It is incredibly ornate and decorative and is almost like being inside a Christmas ornament. “

“It is the only fully domed octagonal house in the world. In the 1870s the banks of the Hudson River were all clear-cut farmland, so you would've been able to see sweeping views of the Hudson River.”