{"id":1156,"date":"2024-04-26T20:11:52","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T20:11:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/?p=1156"},"modified":"2026-03-26T15:53:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:53:37","slug":"towar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/towar\/","title":{"rendered":"James DeLoss Towar House, 507 Abbot Rd. (1904)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
J. D. Towar House, November 2003. Photo by Kevin S. Forsyth.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

James DeLoss Towar (1863\u20131947, M.A.C. \u201985, 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. \u201cAt one time it was the largest home in Ingham County. The dining-room wainscoting displayed 24 species of native Michigan wood.\u201d It was razed in 1932.1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towar served as Assistant Professor of Agriculture for the Rhode Island State Agricultural College (1891\u20131898); Agriculturalist for the M.A.C.\u00a0Experiment Station<\/a>\u00a0(1898\u20131902); principal of Roseworthy Agricultural College in Australia (1902\u20131904); and Professor of Agriculture and Director of the Experiment Station at the University of Wyoming (1907\u20131910, Acting President for two months in 1908). He was instrumental in much of East Lansing\u2019s early development: he helped establish the East Lansing school district, took part in the\u00a0incorporation of the City<\/a>, and in 1933 wrote\u00a0History of the City of East Lansing<\/a><\/em>, in which he claims to have been the one to suggest the city\u2019s name.2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This house is believed by this author to have been one of the first off-campus society houses<\/a> when the Phi Delta Society rented \u201ca home on the North Abbot Road\u201d in 1907 from J.D.\u2019s younger sister, Jennie Towar Whitmore (M.A.C. \u201986, one of the Twenty-One<\/a>). It is the only survivor of the four East Lansing houses built by Towar. One other, formerly at 307 Abbot Road and designed by Edwyn Bowd<\/a>, was one of the first houses completed in Oakwood<\/a> after its platting, became the home and rooming house of Ella Kedzie<\/a>, and years later was one of the women’s cooperative houses<\/a>. The Towar family farmland near Lake Lansing Road is now a subdivision called Towar Gardens.3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n

  1. Kestenbaum<\/a>, p.\u00a010.\u00a0Minutes<\/a>, 26\u00a0Mar\u00a01902, p.\u00a021.\u00a0Beers<\/a>, p.\u00a051.\u00a0LSJ<\/a>, 10\u00a0Jun\u00a01932, p.\u00a02. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  2. Minutes<\/a>, 29\u00a0Jan\u00a01902, p.\u00a02.\u00a0MSU Archives<\/a>. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li>
  3. Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a0207.\u00a0Towar<\/a>, p.\u00a0v. \u21a9\ufe0e<\/a><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    James DeLoss Towar (1863\u20131947, M.A.C. \u201985, 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. \u201cAt one time it was the largest […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"[{\"content\":\"Kestenbaum<\/a>, p.\u00a010.\u00a0Minutes<\/a>, 26\u00a0Mar\u00a01902, p.\u00a021.\u00a0Beers<\/a>, p.\u00a051.\u00a0LSJ<\/a>, 10\u00a0Jun\u00a01932, p.\u00a02.\",\"id\":\"0ece7aef-bb58-499e-bf6e-cc1ea98cc2c4\"},{\"content\":\"Minutes<\/a>, 29\u00a0Jan\u00a01902, p.\u00a02.\u00a0MSU Archives<\/a>.\",\"id\":\"be2371b6-4707-45be-b202-7d1a4e260de5\"},{\"content\":\"Beal<\/a>, p.\u00a0207.\u00a0Towar<\/a>, p.\u00a0v.\",\"id\":\"9b3869dc-a854-4970-a07e-3a12698320a8\"}]"},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landmark-structures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1156"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5550,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1156\/revisions\/5550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kevinforsyth.net\/ELMAC\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}