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Somerville and New England History Collection
 
The Round House is one of Somerville's oldest and most distinctive
landmarks. It was built in 1856 on Atherton Street by local
inventor Enoch Robinson. A perfect circle, the house is 40 feet
in diameter. With a total of sixteen windows on the first two
floors and a skylight on the third, the house was designed to
take maximum advantage of what was considered to be the exceptional
light of Spring Hill. Robinson lived in the house until his
death in 1888, when two of his children inherited the property.
The house remained vacant (and unmaintained) for much of the
twentieth century and the early years of the twenty-first. A
building contractor purchased the Round House in 2007. He has
promised to restore it completely. This view of the Round House
is from a vintage postcard.
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