The Octagon House and Mount Airy: Exploring the Intersection of Slavery, Social Values, and Architecture in 19th-Century Washington, DC and Virginia

This project uses archaeology, architecture, and the documentary record to explore the ways in which one family, the Tayloes, used Georgian design principals as a way of exerting control over the 19th-century landscape. This project uses two Tayloe homes as the units of study and investigates architectural choices at the Octagon House in Washington, DC, juxtaposed with its Richmond County, Virginia counterpart, Mount Airy, to examine architectural features and contexts of slavery on the landscape. Archaeological site reports, building plans, city maps, and various historic documents are used to identify contexts of slavery and explore the relationship between slavery, social values, and architecture at the Octagon House and Mount Airy, as well as look critically at the function of Georgian architectural features in 19th-century society