Living History Days at the Octagon House

Description

Enjoy live Old-World crafts and activities. Watch historical handcraft demonstrations. Experience traditional lifeways and foodways through reenactments and representations by history demonstrators. Interact with costumed interpreters about historic people, practices, events, and traditions.

 

Visit the History Alcove Museum

Tucked in the gardens of the Octagon House is our History Alcove, where visitors are surrounded by local history artifacts from the 1850s to the 1950s. Enjoy viewing this vast collection of artifacts at your leisure. Tableaux provide a visual portrayal of our heritage. Displays highlight the railroad, a mercantile, domestic and medical areas, business machines, farm implements, Wisconsin winters, and more.

The Octagon House was built for Judge John Shaw Moffat and his wife, Nancy Bennet Moffat, New Yorkers who arrived in Hudson in 1854 with their young daughter, Mary. Four generations of the musically inclined Moffat-Hughes family lived in the home over a span of 102 years.

The Octagon House is a fine example of the novel eight-sided dwelling popular in America in the mid-1800s. Such a house was considered conducive to healthy living as light and air could enter from eight directions.

The grounds also include the Carriage House, which houses the Shoppe at the Carriage House. The Shoppe at the Carriage House is open during museum hours and does not require a tour reservation to visit.

All structures are set amid expansive, beautifully maintained gardens.

The St. Croix County Historical Society (SCCHS) was co-founded by Genevieve Cline Day (1884-1967) and Willis Miller (1918-2008) in 1947. The historical society was first housed in the basement of the Hudson Carnegie Library and in 1964 the Society acquired the Octagon House for use as a museum and a permanent home for SCCHS.