James DeLoss Towar House, 507 Abbot Rd. (1904)

J. D. Towar House, November 2003. Photo Credit: Kevin S. Forsyth.

James DeLoss Towar (1863–1947, M.A.C. ’85, M.S. 1902) was born September 26, 1863, on the Towar family farm, a 400-acre spread north of East Lansing which his family settled in 1853. The Towar farmhouse was nestled in a bend of Lake Lansing Road, opposite the present Whitehills Elementary School. “At one time it was the largest home in Ingham County. The dining-room wainscoting displayed 24 species of native Michigan wood.” It was razed in 1932.[Kestenbaum, p. 10. Minutes, 26 Mar 1902, p. 21. Beers, p. 51. LSJ, 10 Jun 1932, p. 2]

Towar served as Assistant Professor of Agriculture for the Rhode Island State Agricultural College (1891–1898); Agriculturalist for the M.A.C. Experiment Station (1898–1902); principal of Roseworthy Agricultural College in Australia (1902–1903); and Professor of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station at the University of Wyoming (1907–1910, Acting President for two months in 1908). He was instrumental in much of East Lansing’s early development: he helped establish the East Lansing school district, took part in the incorporation of the City, and in 1933 wrote History of the City of East Lansing, in which he claims to have been the one to suggest the city’s name.[Minutes, 29 Jan 1902, p. 2. MSU Archives]

This house is believed by this author to have been one of the first off-campus society houses when the Phi Delta Society rented “a home on the North Abbot Road” in 1907 from J.D.’s younger sister, Jennie Towar Whitmore (M.A.C. ’86).* It is the only survivor of the four East Lansing houses built by Towar; one other, formerly at 307 Abbot Road, was one of the first houses completed in Oakwood after its platting. The family farmland is now a subdivision called Towar Gardens.[Beal, p. 207. Towar, p. v]