Claudia Waddell Harris, a
mystery writer in the early 20th Century, used the abandoned
basement of Barbour County's Octagon House for the setting of one of her most
successful short stories "The Rusty Key." The story was sold to Mystery Magazine in New York City and is one of four short stories
in her collection, The Rusty Key - Prize Stories of the
Deep South. The house had a storied history before that, however.
Constructed between 1859 and 1861 by businessman Benjamin Franklin Petty, It is believed to be the only surviving antebellum home of purely octagonal design in the southeastern United States that made use of the "gravel wall" building method to create what is commonly referred to as a "concrete house."
During the Civil War, the house served as the headquarters of Union troops that occupied Clayton on April 28, 1865. Petty offered his home to Union Brevet Major General Benjamin H. Grierson in hope that it would not be looted or destroyed by the invading army.
The basement of the home, which would later provide such inspiration to author Claudia Harris, was excavated three feet below ground level to take advantage of natural cooling. It has five rooms and a combination stairwell-hall. The winter kitchen includes a large fireplace used for cooking and a small room for storage. The work room, which was also used as a dining room, includes a large pantry and is the only full-sized room in the house with its own outside door. Both the kitchen and the work room have brick floors. The stairwell hall has a stone floor, includes an area for fuel storage, and functions as the work entrance to the basement. A large dirt-floored cellar completes the basement plan.
The Octagon House passed to Petty's daughter and her husband in 1899, but the young couple did not need such a large house. At that time Claudia and her husband Judge Bob T. Roberts, offered a "trade plus cash" deal in which they swapped their home for the Octagon House and paid the couple the difference in the value of the two homes.
When the Roberts's daughter Mary married William C. Beaty in the mid-1920s, the second floor was made into a separate apartment for the couple. The Beatys inherited the house from the Roberts and drastically modified the structure, building a two-story addition at the back entrance that included kitchens and bathrooms. The one-story porch on the front was replaced by a much larger two-story porch. A new outside stairway was constructed, and windows on both the first and second floor were converted to entrance doors. The original entrance hall was used as an office, and the door was replaced by a window. The inside stairs between the first and second floors were removed, and the area became a closet.
William Beaty died in 1958, and in 1971 Mary married Elliot Armistead, a descendant of one of the founders of the city of Montgomery. After Mary's death in1973, Armistead lived in the Octagon House until his death. During the later years of his life, he rented the second-floor apartment to Oats Caraway, a native of Clayton and history enthusiast who conducted the research necessary to earn the home a place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. It also is an Alabama Historical Landmark.
In 1981, the town of Clayton, through the efforts of then-Mayor Ed Ventress, purchased the Octagon House from the estate of Mary Roberts Beaty Armistead and set up the Clayton Historic Preservation Authority to facilitate its restoration and preservation. The commission oversaw efforts to restore, repaint, and furnish the house to its original appearance, with gray walls and forest green trim. The structure was restored to its pre-1920s appearance and today has 12 large rooms, 10 small rooms, 10 closets, 37 windows, four outside doors, and 31 inside doors. The home now serves as an event facility operated by the town of Clayton.