Coopersville Observer, June 9, 1922--There is one house in Lamont which could be rolled down the street without wheels. It is octagonal in shape and a relic of the days when there was more timber hereabouts than anything else. The walls are made of 2x4's nailed one upon another and boarded with Chinese siding. Alongside this dwelling, built by Edgar Babcock, but now occupied by Hiram Bouwkamp, is the home of deacon Joseph Walling, father (son) of Millard W. Walling. ( Millard Walling died December 28, 1929, age 79.) Northeast Ottawa County People by Boersma The octagon house was located on Leonard St., across from the Congregational church, in Lamont, Michigan. In 1899, Rev. Ludlum, pastor of the Congregational church, moved into the octagon house. The 1900 U. S. Federal Census record of Lamont, Michigan, states that Headley Ludlum was born in Michigan about 1868 and married in 1895, no children. Edgar Babcock built the octagon house, recently razed, somewhere in around 1855. Both sons, Burr, who later became a doctor and the younger, Judd, who became a lumber man, were born in this house. The Angells... and Lamont, by Nina Slater, p. 29. The octagon house was razed in 1964 and the property sold. The Angells ...and Lamont by Slater, p. 16. Several thousand of these eight sided homes, as well as other buildings with anywhere from six to sixteen sides, were built following the publication of Orson Squire Fowler's 1849 book, A Home for All, which brought the octagon concept to national attention for the first time. Although octagonal houses were constructed throughout the second half of the 19th century, their time of greatest popularity came before the Civil War. Old House Journal, June 1986. Transcribed and photo scanned by Joan Van Spronsen    Nina Kate Slater in her book "The Angels and Lamont" on page 16 states:                 "The octagon house built by Edgar Babcock in 1857 and razed in 1954 had at east  its 98th birthday."       Nina was  a single school teacher. She and her cousin decided to write a history of Lamont in 1958.  She talks about all of the earliest settlers and  life in the village.             I believe we have a photo of the building, but I will have to look for it.   I have been "clearing out" all of my "working "  sheets of information. ..in anticipation.