Sinnett Octagon House Muscatine, Iowa

Well I stopped talking about seeing the house and we went a couple of weeks ago. I was so excited to see the outside of the house hadn’t changed much. They got rid of the back steps and added a new building to the back. When I went inside I was so disappointed. They turned it into an office, we very thing was new. The only thing I recognize was the cellar and the spiral staircase. The hidden staircase was gone. The closest with the trap door to the secret room and tunnel was gone. The nice man that showed us around was excited to see the pictures I took of the house. I told him how the house was set up and had an article about the house and it had the floor plan on it. He made copies of the pictures and articles. It was good to see it again, but it was sad that they removed its history.

My dad’s aunt and uncle, the Wainscotts lived in this house when I was young. I loved our visits! Walking into the dining room for the first time I saw a door nob sticking out of the wall. When you opened it there was a staircase going up to the second floor, very cool! Uncle Lee told my brothers and I that there was a hidden entrance to a tunnel that went out to the barn then to the river. He wouldn’t tell us where it was. We had to find it on our own, which we never did. After several more visits he showed us where it was. He took us to a closet on the other side of the living room and opened it from the floor. He shone a light down in it and said it was too dangerous to go inside. We enjoyed the spiral staircase and going to the tower and looking out. We were very sad when we found out that they sold it. I would love to see it one more time.