In 1895 James Mulford Townsend, Jr. was the proud owner of an upscale new residence next door to his father's.  The two houses, Nos. 318 and 320 West 75th Street, were designed by mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert and constructed simultaneously.  That Townsend, Jr. did not move into his house, No. 320, is best explained by the fact that he was just 9 years old at the time.

James M. Townsend, Sr. most likely intended No. 320 to be an investment, reaping rental income.  Why he put the title in his son's name (he had a total of six children) is puzzling.  Nevertheless, young Townsend expectedly lived with the family in No. 318, attending the Taft School, while "his" house became home to well-heeled renters.

Interestingly, perhaps because Townsend viewed the two properties as unrelated, Gilbert made no attempt at architectural unity.  There was no harmony in materials nor even heights.

No. 320 was slightly shorter than its next door neighbor.  Faced in yellow Roman brick, it sat on a low limestone base.  Its Renaissance Revival design was embodied in the entrance hood, supported by swagged brackets.  Its carved tympanum was decorated by a wreath surrounded by swirling ribbons.



A two-story rounded bay provided a balcony to the third floor, the privacy of which was assured by a solid brick wall.  A deep cast metal cornice capped the whole.

James Jr.'s ownership was relatively short-lived.  In 1901 the title was transferred to his mother, the former Harriet Bailey Campbell.  The transaction cost $1.00.

The house was home to the Lewis Henry Spence family.  Spence was well-known as a merchant and reformer.  He was a partner in Simpson, Spence & Young, a steamship brokerage firm, and had been for years on the Board of Managers of the New York Produce Exchange.  Additionally he was the secretary of the North American Transport Co., and a director in the International Express Co.

Born in Ireland on September 18, 1847, he was brought to the United States while still an infant.  He was a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Maritime Exchange.  Spence's political activism was evidenced in January 1901 when the Tilden Club was organized.  Among the officers elected on January 10, Spence was named treasurer and a director.  The New-York Tribune reported that the club was "a new centre of activity for anti-Tammany, anti-Bryan and Sound Money Democrats of the city."

Lewis Spence's well-rounded resume extended to street railways in 1909 when he was among the incorporators of the City and Suburban Railway Company in Brunswick, Georgia.

He and his wife, the former Anna Tuttle, had three sons, Lewis, Kenneth and Harold.   Harold and Kenneth lived with their parents in the 75th Street house and summered in the family summer estate, Owens Cottage, in Larchmont New York. 

When World War I erupted Kenneth jointed the Army.  He served in France with the 489th Aero Construction Co., rising to the rank of First Lieutenant.  In 1918 the Columbia Alumni News announced that he had been released from service and could once again be reached at No. 320 West 75th Street.

As well as enjoying Owens Cottage, the Spences' were seen at fashionable watering holes over the years.  On October 17, 1908, for instance, The New York Times reported that the couple had arrived at Hot Springs, Virginia.  And in August 1920 the New-York Tribune announced that they were at the Aspinwall Hotel in Lenox, Massachusetts.

The Spences were in mourning at the time of the Lenox visit.  Harold, still unmarried, had died suddenly in the 75th Street house of pneumonia on January 23, 1920.  The funeral of the 42-year old was held in the house three days later.

The following summer the Spences were back among society.  On August 22, 1921 they hosted a dinner party at Delmonico's roof garden.

Around 1925 Lewis and Anna left No. 320, moving to an apartment at No. 610 Park Avenue.  Anna died of a heart attack at the age of 78 on October 10, 1927.  One month later, on November 24, Lewis died.

The Spences' departure signaled the end of the road for No. 320 as a private residence.  It was converted to apartments, however the owner did not go so far as to install electricity.  That decision resulted in tragedy.

On May 28, 1926 The New York Times reported "Tenants in an apartment house at 320 West Seventy-fifth Street, tracing an odor of gas, found Leo Louber, 31 years old, dead in his apartment on the top floor.  The gas was escaping from a wall bracket."

Built simultaneously and designed by the same architect, Nos. 320 and 318 bear no resemblance to one another.

Throughout the subsequent decades tenants came and went from the 16 apartments, drawing little notice.  By 2010 a first-floor apartment was leased as the Office of the Permanent Observer for the Central American Integration System to the United Nations.

photos via halstead.com

While the exterior of No. 320 West 75th Street survives mostly intact, the interiors have not fared very well.  The spacious rooms where Anna Tuttle Spence once entertained have been stripped of their architectural detailing and divided into small apartments.

photographs by the author

The house to the right was constructed simultaneously for James W. Townsend, Jr.

Mansion architect C. P. H. Gilbert was busily designing a number of townhouses on the Upper West Side in 1895.  Unlike the rows of speculative houses rising throughout the district, most of Gilbert's were direct commissions.

Late that year the architect was hired by James M. Townsend and his son to design side-by-side homes at Nos. 318 and 320 West 75th Street respectively.   Gilbert treated the two homes independently with no attempt at melding the designs.

The James Mulford. Townsend home would stand slightly taller than No. 320.  Its sandy-colored brick upper floors sat on a limestone base.  Its somewhat rigid Renaissance Revival design was softened by delightful carvings of scallop shells and squiggly ribbons below the third floor cornice.  The shell-and-ribbon motif was repeated in the panels between the fifth floor windows; and a line of shells decorated the primary cornice.

Townsend was born in New Haven, Connecticut in 1852.  He graduated from Yale University in 1874 and then from Columbia Law School.  He married Harriet Bailey Campbell, the daughter of Professor John Lyle Campbell of Washington and Lee University, on November 15, 1882.   Theirs would be a large family.  The couple had six children--Harriet Campbell, James Mulford, Jr., John Campbell, Edward Howard, and twins Virginia and Donald.

The Townsends maintained a summer home at Pelham Manor, New York; described by The New York Times in July 1896 as "one of the most secluded localities on the Sound."  The article mentioned "No trade is carried on inside the manor limits."

When James Mulford Townsend moved into the 75th Street house, he was the senior member of the law firm Townsend, Avery & Button.  from Men of Progress, 1898 (copyright expired)

Townsend's social status was evidenced in his club memberships.  Men of Progress in 1898 said "He is identified with many of New York's most prominent clubs."  Among them were the University, the Colonial, the New York Athletic and the Barnard Clubs.

Harriet's entertainments in the house were not lavish.  Society columns commented on teas and receptions rather than sumptuous dinners and dances.  Such was the case on February 26, 1900 when she hosted an 11 a.m. lecture by Mrs. Ruutz Rees on "Buddhism."

The Townsends remained at No. 318 until early in 1909 when it was sold to Dr. Frederick Merwin Ives.   An unlikely combination of physician and civic engineer, he was born in Rome in 1866, where his well-known sculptor father, Chauncey Ives, maintained his studio.  Ives had graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1889 and was married to Edith Wetherill, a graduate of Bryn Mawr College.

The couple had not lived in the home long before one of their servants was the near-victim of a robbery.  James Hanley had fallen asleep under a tree in Fort George Park on the evening of June 22, 1910.  His reverie was abruptly broken by uninvited movements.  He awoke "to find a sailor in full uniform bending over him and fumbling at his pockets," reported The New York Times the following day.  "He noticed, too, that his gold chain, worth $10, was missing."

Hanley jumped up and wrestled with the sailor, drawing the attention of a passing policeman.  The uniformed man was arrested and Hanley's watch chain was found in his pocket.  At the station house the crook said he was Thomas Doyle, attached to the U.S. cruiser the Franklin, and he had come to New York from the Norfolk Navy Yard on furlough.  The police were not quick to accept his story, telling reporters they "believed he is one of several fake sailors who beg in uniform for a living."

When the United States entered World War I Ives joined the Medical Department of the Army, with the rank of captain.  It may have been his absence that led to the 75th Street house being leased.  In September 1919 Albert Gran rented it.  But if the couple intended to return, it does not appear they ever did.

On July 30, 1920 an advertisement in The Sun offered "Charming rooms, overlooking Hudson, two doors Riverside Drive."  And then on September 7, 1923 The New York Times reported that Edith had sold the house for $65,000--more than $930,000 today.

The buyer was real estate operator Henry Schwamm.  Reports said he purchased it "for a client."  Apparently the client was himself for he and his wife, Clara, moved in.  Like Ives, Schwamm was multi-faceted.  In addition to his real estate business, he was an authority on medical and dental jurisprudence and wrote extensively on the subject.

The couple had five children, Gustave, Sidney, Blance, Camille and Frances.  They received the privileges of well-to-do families and extensive education.

When son Gustave's engagement to Norma June Wexler was announced in December 1932, for instance, newspapers noted he "was graduated from the College of Arts and Pure Science and the School of Law at New York University."   Gustave was still living at home and practicing law at the time.

The Schwamm's well-educated daughters Camille and Blanch attended the Institut Fisher at Montreux, Switzerland.   Camille then studied at Syracuse University, and New York University.  Blanche went on to Columbia University's Teachers College.

Dr. Henry Schwamm died at the age of 64 on July 22, 1943.   Three years later the house was converted to apartments, two on each floor except the top, which had three.



Despite the unfortunate apartment entrance doors and an inexplicable coating of paint over the limestone of the first floor, C. P. H. Gilbert's stately design endures between two other contemporary Gilbert houses.

photographs by the author

Clarence True was among the most prolific of architects working on the Upper West Side in the 1890's.  His inspiration was almost always drawn from  historic periods, resulting in structures that ranged from charming, romantic or elegantly grand.

When he designed three upscale townhouses at Nos 309 to 305 West 75th Street for developer Charles G. Judson in 1892, he gave them his own take on the Francois I style.  Completed the following year, each home had its own personality; yet the trio were unmistakable architectural siblings.  Carved decoration, expanses of multiple-paned windows, prominent dormers (one clad in copper) and projecting gargoyles successfully blended 16th century France with 19th century America.


Judson sold No. 309 on November 7, 1895 to Edward S. Hatch for $41,000--just over $1.2 million today.  He quickly resold it to Pauline Starr, who almost simultaneously (on November 27) purchased No. 311.  Another relative, Walter D. Starr, had purchased No. 313 on January 3, 1894.

Pauline's parents moved into No. 309.  Daniel Ebbets Starr was 51-years old and his wife, the former Pauline Gilsey, was 42.  Her father, Peter Gilsey, was the well-known hotelier and owner of the Gilsey House on Broadway.

Pauline's motivation to purchase the two homes may have had to do with her impending marriage.  On December 2, 1896 she married William Watson Caswell in the Church of the Transfiguration.  The moneyed couple would construct a Newport-worthy summer home, Willmount, in Westchester County and by World War I would have a third home in Boston.

Next door at No. 313, Walter D. Starr changed his focus from lumber to real estate.  In 1895, shortly after purchasing the house, he dissolved the Walter D. Starr lumber company.  He formed the Long Island Sand Co., a contracting company, and was also involved in buying and selling Manhattan real estate.

The house contained 14 rooms and three baths.  It was sumptuously furnished; the parlor being decorated in the Empire style.  The Starrs' art collection was noteworthy.  There were more than 100 oil paintings, including works by esteemed artists like George Inness.  The artworks, including life-sized Cararra marble statuary and bronze sculptures comprised what dealer Benjamin S. Wise called "a collection that few private houses possess."

Starr raised the ire of Oyster Bay estate owners in 1900 when he purchased "Cooper's Bluff" near Sagamore Hill.  The bluff was composed of what was described as "the finest building sand."  But when Staff announced his intentions to build a dock to facilitate the removal of the sand, the wealthy property owners revolted.  The New York Times reported on September 10, 1900 that "The objection to the building of the dock is based on two grounds.  One is the destruction of a picturesque section of the shore, and the other is that the digging of sand there will mean the establishment of a colony of Italians in huts or barracks close to the finest places in Oyster Bay."

While Walter Starr wheeled and dealt in real estate, his wife was active in social circles.  In January 1896, for instance, she was a manager of the "tea and bazaar" for the benefit of the Association for Befriending Children and Young Girls.

Daniel Ebbets Starr died at No. 309 on December 27, 1898.  His funeral was held in the Church of the Transfiguration, where his daughter had been married just two years earlier.

The windows of No. 309 originally had many small panes.  Note the gargoyle projecting over the service alley.

Pauline leased the house to Charles A. Nones.  In the winter of 1902 he and his brother, Alexander, who lived on Fifth Avenue, were involved in a horrific accident.  They and W. F. Carlton, who lived in the Waldorf-Astoria, were the passengers in broker Edward R. Thomas's high-powered automobile on February 12.

His Damier Phoenix was an impressive and famous vehicle, first purchased two years earlier by William K. Vanderbilt, Jr. for $10,000 (more than $300,000 today).   Vanderbilt called the car the "White Ghost" and he reveled in the speeds its 23 horsepower engine could attain.  The New York Times remarked it had "gained much notoriety on the Long Island roads."

The White Ghost above was involved in the tragic accident of February 1902. photo via Vanderbilt Cup Races

Thomas showed off the car's power, speeding along Convent Avenue near 125th Street.  The road was paved with wooden blocks and The Times said it "has long been a favorite speeding ground for the large automobiles owned by private individuals."  The road had several vacant blocks which were used by neighborhood children as playgrounds.

February 12 was a holiday, so there was an especially large crowd of children out playing.  Three boys, James Dillon, John Riley and Henry Theiss were in the street as the powerful automobile approached.  The article said "they did not see the machine until it was fairly upon them, and the first they knew of its presence was when the horn sounded hoarsely in their ears."

The boys scattered but 7-year old Henry Theiss tripped and fell.  The White Ghost ran over his head and stomach, killing him.  The Times dramatically reported "When the clothing was removed a religious medal was found driven into the flesh by the weight of the machine."

Despite witnesses reporting that Thomas was driving at about 40 m.p.h., he was exonerated in court on February 17.  He testified that he was not going at a high rate of speed, that the roadway was wet, and that the boy "jumped right in front of the machine."  Alexander Nones corroborated his story, saying he saw the boy dash into the street.

Later that year, on July 24, Walter D. Starr sold No. 313 to real estate operators Ottinger & Brother.  The end of the Starr family presence on West 75th Street came in 1908 when Pauline sold No. 309 to Francis P. Bent in August 1908.  She had already sold No. 311 three years earlier to Hyman Berkowitz.

Ottinger & Brother sold No. 313 to Arthur R. Freedlander and his wife Lilly in 1906.  The coupled appeared in court over a bizarre legal tug-of-war with artist Arthur R. Freedlander in 1909.   Full-length portraits of well-heeled women had been fashionable since the 1880's.  The problem with Lilly's was that her husband refused to pay for it.

Valued by the artist at the equivalent of $14,000 today, he told the courts on November 23, 1909 that Freedlander had commissioned him to paint the portrait.  Arthur Freedlander, on the other hand, insisted that Wieburgh "asked to be allowed to paint his wife and that it was understood that he would not pay any money unless the portrait was entirely satisfactory."  He told the judge it "does not truly or accurately represent a likeness" of his wife.

A parade of well-known artists, art instructors and critics took the stand.  The New York Times reported that they agreed the portrait was "a fine work of art" and worth the amount asked for it.

Arthur R. Freedlander personally handled the sale of No. 313 in the spring of 1912.  His lengthy advertisement in The Sun noted that it sat within "the most restricted section on the West Side" and said "artistically, this is one of the most beautiful homes in New York City."  "It is the sort of home that appeals irresistibly to a person of culture and refinement."


Before long the "restricted section" began to fall from fashion.  No. 309 was operated as a rooming house by 1935 and its Depression Era tenants were not all respectable.  Charles Spies was among them in January 1935 when he was arrested with four cohorts for the burglary of the home of architect Gerald Holmes on East 19th Street.  The gang made off with silverware and jewelry valued at $3,000, almost 18 times that much today.

No. 311 had been converted to apartments in 1920.  An advertisement on May 23 that year offered "Magnificent 2, 3, 4 room apartments, bath and kitchenettes, electric light, gas; maid service free; $1,500 to $3,600."  The least expensive rent would equal about $1,525 a month today.  No. 313 was converted to a total of two apartments around 1922.

The most celebrated tenants in any of the three homes would be a still struggling Woody Allen and his wife, Harlene.  In his book Woody: The Biography, David Evanier recounts Elliott Mills description of the space.

I visited them at West Seventy-fifth Street.  It was a divided crazy apartment.  It had a monster chandelier that must have [once] been at the center of somebody's living room.  In their apartment it was right on the edge of the wall.

Evanier  quoted Elliott's description of a hilarious incident. "A huge water bug came up in the bathroom  Woody was terrified of those things  And he had this huge insecticide can.  He was furiously spraying it, jumping around  He was waltzing around with this spray gun trying to get this bug.  Harlene was making fun of him.  She went into the bathroom and smashed the bug with a broom.  "Later, in Annie Hall, he transformed the bug into a lobster, then a spider 'the size of a Buick.'"


Despite the alterations and the inexcusable entrance doors of No. 311, Clarence True's stately threesome still evoke the time when this block of West 75th Street was "restricted" and wealthy homeowners filled them with valuable artworks and furnishings.

photographs by the author