Wynne’s Folly & The Inkwell

Written By Michael Wade

Engelhard is basically a farming and fishing community in Hyde County, North Carolina. According to the 2022 census it has a population of 254 people. And two properties listed on the National Register of Historic Places - Wynne’s Folly and The Inkwell, also known as The Octagon House.

Wynne’s Folly, is a historic plantation manor built circa 1848. It is also known as the Clarke House and, according to the National Register of Historic Places (Wynne's Folly (Engelhard) was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on December 6, 1977), “Wynne's Folly is believed to have been built in the late l840s for Richard Wynne, traditionally, in order to court a young woman who married another man instead…Wynne built it to impress a young lady, he was wooing, only to be disappointed when she married someone else.” Hence the nickname, that has stuck, of Wynne’s Folly. 

Built around 1848, the house is a two-story, vernacular Greek Revival style frame dwelling. It boasts a “five bay by five bay” design. A “bay” (a term which comes from the word “baie” which in Old French means an opening or hole. In architecture “bay” designates the space between architectural elements; which in this design is the door and four windows (two abreast) on each side of the building.

“Wynne married Mary Ballance, an older Hyde: County woman. The date of marriage is uncertain. She died in 1850, at the age of 48, leaving no children. Wynne sold his land in a number of transactions, and by 1860 had disappeared from the county.”

“Since1882 the place has been in the ownership of the Clarke family, and was owned from 1882to 1899 by Dr. Edward Clarke, a locally prominent physician…”

Quotes cited in this article on Wynne’s Folly can be found: https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/HY0006.pdf

The Inkwell or Octagon House.

The Inkwell, or as it is better known, The Octagon House was built circa 1857 by Doctor William T. Sparrow. The design was inspired in part by a book written in 1848 titled “The Octagon House: A Home for All,” by a phrenologist named Orson. S Fowler, who was rather a Renaissance man believed the design was energy efficient and promoted, what would have been revolutionary concepts in the mid-nineteenth century, having running water, central heating, and an “indoor water closet” or toilet. Fowler wrote that an octagon house, “a new mode of inclosing public edifices and private residences, far better, in every way, and several hundred percent cheaper, than any other…”

Orson. S Fowler, his book, and an octagon floor plan

The concept of an octagon design was an idea that many builders of homes, schools, businesses, churches, and churches embraced. By 1857 it is recorded that over 1,000 octagon buildings had been built in America.

“Strong local tradition maintains that the Inkwell house near Lake Landing, also called the Inkbottle house, was built by Dr William T Sparrow sometime in the early l850s. Sparrow is said to have built the eight-sided house' after a hurricane destroyed his conventional one – in the belief' that" the octagonal form would give the house added protection from the storms that frequently battered Hyde County.

The Inkwell, or Octagon House, was added to the Nation Register of Historic Places in September of 1978.

Michael Wade
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