Last updated: December 21, 2023
Place
William English House
Photograph by Mary Ann Brown, courtesy of the Ohio State Historic Preservation Office
Quick Facts
Location:
11291 OH 47, Versailles, Ohio
Significance:
Architecture/Engineering
Designation:
Listed in the National Register - Reference number 82003562
OPEN TO PUBLIC:
No
MANAGED BY:
Private
The William English House, also known as the William English Sundial House, in Versailles, Ohio was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The house is architecturally significant because the house's four west doors act as an astronomical calendar to mark the seasons of the year.
The farmhouse was built and designed by Irish immigrant William English in 1881. English had lived on that land with his family since 1823, where he ran a farm and a hollow brick factory. The house was designed in an Italianate style, and was large enough to house English's family and those who worked for him on the farm and at the brickworks.
English was also astronomically-inclined, and designed the home to reflect that interest. The house is located on the top of a small hill, which allows more direct sunlight. The house is also oriented so that its four sides are exactly aligned with the four cardinal directions. On the western side of the house, there are four decorative porches that each shelter a recessed door. At noon on the spring equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox, and winter solstice, the sun shines directly on one of the recessed doors, tracking the trajectory of the sun in the sky the across the seasons.
The farmhouse was built and designed by Irish immigrant William English in 1881. English had lived on that land with his family since 1823, where he ran a farm and a hollow brick factory. The house was designed in an Italianate style, and was large enough to house English's family and those who worked for him on the farm and at the brickworks.
English was also astronomically-inclined, and designed the home to reflect that interest. The house is located on the top of a small hill, which allows more direct sunlight. The house is also oriented so that its four sides are exactly aligned with the four cardinal directions. On the western side of the house, there are four decorative porches that each shelter a recessed door. At noon on the spring equinox, summer solstice, autumnal equinox, and winter solstice, the sun shines directly on one of the recessed doors, tracking the trajectory of the sun in the sky the across the seasons.