Welcome to THE OCTAGON HOUSE
in Laurens, South Carolina
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The Octagon House is an old Laurens landmark. It is the only eight-sided concrete home in South Carolina. It was built 1858-1859 by Presbyterian evangelist and church planter Zelotes Lee Holmes. The contractors were slave artisans whose work stands as a tribute to great craftsmanship and artistry. Its walls are 18 inches thick. It had a dumb waiter and an early ventilation system to allow cool air up from the basement into the home at night when the sky light was opened to allow hot air to escape.
The home, which sits at the corner of East Main and Woodrow Streets, was given to the Laurens County Historical Commission to be used as a local museum, but the money could not be raised. Faced with the possibility of losing the structure to deterioration, authorities agreed to its restoration and remodeling for use as apartments.
One local legend is that there is a tunnel between it and the Old Courthouse a mile away. But the tunnel would have to go under the Little River to get there.
A story which is true is that Zelotes and Catherine Holmes' second son, Nickles John, was twelve years old when the home was built. Nickles was an unusually rambunctious child, and he would not rest until he was allowed to help in the construction. The contractors allowed him to haul concrete which was poured between boards to form the walls. Nickles slipped and fell off the second story and went into a coma. His family began to pray for him, and he awakened several hours later, informing his father that he had been saved by God for a special purpose. Nickles John Holmes grew up to become a Presbyterian minister, then a major Southern Holiness and Pentecostal advocate, and later founded the Altamont Bible and Missionary Institute which today is called Holmes Bible College in Greenville, SC.
Information from Julian Bolick's Laurens County Sketchbook (1972).
His sketch of the Octagon House is in the top right corner.
Families who lived in the Octagon House: "Holmes -Watson -Sumerel
"This house was built by the Reverend Zelotes Holmes between 1850 and 1859. The architecture is attributed to the builder's brother who was an engineer from New York. The eight-sided design, striking and symmetrical in appearance, offers views in all directions. During this period, the octagonal style was used efficiently in barns, schools and churches.
"After the Reverend Mr. Holmes died in 1885, Mrs. Holmes, their daughter Ada and her husband, Doctor L. S. Fuller, occupied the house. The property next passed into the hands of the Guy Watson family and from that estate was bought by Mrs. Theodore Sumerel. It is presently in the Sumerel estate."
ZELOTES
LEE HOLMESFrom Dedicatory Services First Presbyterian Church Clinton Historical Sketch given by Dr. Dudley Jones on the life of Rev. Zelotes Holmes. published in the Laurens County Scrapbook, 1980.
The First Presbyterian Church of Clinton, South Carolina was founded by the Rev. Zelotes Lee Holmes in the year 1855 before Clinton had grown into a village, for this section of the plateau between Duncan's Creek and Little River was up to this time rather thinly settled.
This congregation was one of a number inaugurated by this truly great and worthy servant of the Lord. If a name is prophetic and if his character were the fulfillment of a prayer at birth, his name was well chosen, for he was indeed a zealous Christian leader and a variously talented man whose activities ranged in many directions. In all of these concerns and accomplishments his zeal, as well as faithfulness, were very marked. Besides his labors as a minister of the gospel, he was a first-rate teacher, an architect and a carpenter, a builder of houses and a farmer.
Zelotes Lee Holmes was born in Chatauqua County, New York, January 3, 1815, and passed from earth to heaven in Laurens County, S. C. His father died when the boy was three years old and he was bereft of his mother when he was at the age of twelve. The family care and responsibility devolved upon the oldest brother in the family. As there seemed to appear some difference between the older brother and himself about the latter's intention to secure an education in order to enter the gospel ministry, young Holmes determined to attain his end upon his own financial responsibility. He was able to finish his schooling for that purpose mainly by self-help and a small scholarship which he apparently repaid voluntarily.
After preparation in the school in his community he went to Meadville, Penn. for his college education. As he developed some degree of ill-health, he was deter- mined to seek the more genial climate of the South, but stopped with some friends in Illinois for a while, where he built a small boat in which he intended to float down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Like John Lawson, who went down to the London docks one day in the year 1700 and without preparation set sail, young Holmes found by chance a boat ready to leave the wharf to go southward. He sold his small hand-made craft and paid his fare without forethought or special plan. He found himself in a short while at the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at Columbia, South Carolina, at the age of twenty-four years.
After the end of the usual three-year term he was graduated in a class with Dr. D. N. Frierson and Dr. Porter who were afterwards notable men in the Presbyterian church. He was ordained by the South Carolina Presbytery at Nazareth Church, of which he became pastor in 1844. At the same time, from 1842 to 1844, he began to preach for the people of Spartanburg community which, like so many courthouse centers of this state at that period, began to develop into a growing village. As a result he organized here in 1843 a Presbyterian group which is now known as the First Presbyterian Church of Spartanburg. This work was followed by a pastorate of the Laurens' church, which had been founded in 1832 by the Rev. Mr. Lewers. His stay at Laurens was followed by a period as stated supply Rocky Springs church. He also preached for the Duncan's Creek congregation. Indeed, during these and the many years that followed he extended his wide ranging and constant preaching not only on the Sabbath but during the week and served most of the churches in Laurens County at one time or another during his life time, and at a meager salary, for he supported himself by farming and the labor of his own hands. He gathered a large group into a formal organization at Shady Grove and later founded Dorroh and perhaps other Presbyterian churches. Everywhere he was a successful evangelist and gathered many converts into the church without flashing or sensational maneuvers.
As he was well trained in mathematics and science, he was called to teach in that first-rate college, the Laurensville Female Academy, and at a much later time served in the college chartered at Clinton by Dr. W. P. Jacobs in 1880.
Besides his activities as a minister and teacher, Mr. Holmes erected, among other buildings, two notable dwellings, the octagonal house on the right hand side of the street as one enters Laurens from Clinton, and another home near Lisbon Presbyterian Church. This octagonal building is striking not only for its form and shape but for its use of con- crete and for other reasons. It has been visited on many occasions since it was erected out of concrete, the first used for a dwelling house.
Mr. Holmes married Miss Catharine Nancy Nickels in 1844. She was the daughter of Dr. John Nickels, a notable physician and planter of Laurens County, and Jane Simpson Nickels, daughter of Col. John Simpson of Belfast. These two reared a family of eight children and gave each an excellent education. It is difficult to see how, during the reconstruction period here in South Carolina and the days that followed, he was able to send one son to the University of Edinburgh and another to Cornell. All of the sons and daughters of this family, and many others in the succeeding generation, display gifts and services that are creditable and humanly helpful. Rev. Nickels J. Holmes, one son, was a great man and minister. Miss Mary Belle Holmes, the youngest daughter, gave her life to caring for those unfortunate daughters of whom Jesus said in his gracious compassion, "Go, and sin not."
Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, another son, after graduating at Cornell, became professor at the University of North Carolina and was in charge of the United States Bureau of Mines when he died, and in his connection with that department of the federal government had created the great system of safety for miners. These are some of the distinctions of a family reared and given opportunity in difficult times by this devoted servant of God and his wife.
Page created September 30, 2003
Updated September 30, 2003