Here are two short video interviews on the history and restoration of our home. See more written details below.
The complete history as we know it.
The property now known as 18 East Fourth Street was part of Lot 14 first sold by the Holland Land Company to James Prendergast on September 1, 1814. The land was owned by a series of seven people (who did not appear to have constructed buildings on it) before being sold to Isaac Forbes on September 19, 1840.
The first indication of a building at the southwestern corner of Fourth and Pine was a depiction on a map of the Village of Jamestown dated 1854. According to the deed for the property, the owner of that first building undoubtedly was Isaac Forbes. At some point between 1867 (the last known map to show a single structure) and 1881 (the first map to show the five current townhouses) the free standing house was either destroyed or 18 East Fourth Street is much older than first believed by local historians.
It is possible that the “townhouse” at 18 East Fourth Street was built as early as 1841, the first construction season after Forbes purchased the property. The building with its distinctive mansard roof is in the style of a Second Empire French townhouse. Although the mansard style of roof had been around since the middle 1600’s in Europe, it was not until the 1850’s through the 1880’s that it was made popular in the United States and referred to as Second Empire French based on Napoleon Bonaparte’s rebuilding of Paris (1852 to 1879).
If the corner building (18 East Fourth Street) is indeed the structure shown on the 1854 map, it would have been a free standing, single family home located on Lot 14 a very large lot measuring approximately 80 feet on Pine Street by 120 feet on Fourth Street and extending from Pine Street to Potters Alley.
A number of factors contribute to the belief that the current building was built as a free standing home prior to 1854. There is an original basement doorway that currently opens into the basement of the neighboring townhouse at 16 East Fourth Street. It would have originally lead to a yard that extended to Potters Alley consistent with the shape of Lot 14 shown on the 1854 and 1867 maps.
Another indicator of the age of the 18 East Fourth Street townhouse is found in the nails used to build the structure. According to publications on the history of nails, the nails were “cut” nails that were used between the early 1800’s and 1875. After 1875 most nails were of the round pin style. This would mean that the building could have been the one shown on the 1854 map. According to the deeds, no known structures existed on the land facing Fourth Street west of 18 East Fourth Street before 1874; therefore, the townhouse at 18 East Fourth Street was free standing for more than 20 years.
Isaac Forbes sold the townhouse to Horace Gifford on June 15, 1868. Mr. Gifford was an early founder of Jamestown. He was co-owner of the Jamestown Cane Seat Company with R. E. Fenton (son of Governor Fenton). He was involved in real estate during the boom period of Jamestown’s development and had buildings and streets named after him. Unfortunately, Mr. Gifford invested heavily in the ill-fated Buffalo-Jamestown Railroad scheme and lost a lot of money. He probably was forced to sell 18 East Fourth Street to bail himself out.
Gifford sold the property to Dr. James Thurston, a dentist turned opportunistic entrepreneur, who briefly lived in the 18 East Fourth Street townhouse until he built a new house on Fourth Street west of Potters Alley circa 1874. He is credited with building the four other townhouses between 18 East Fourth and Potters Alley creating the block as we see it today.
John Grant, a wholesale grocer, bought the townhouse in 1874 and it remained in his family until 1878 when an oil producer named O. C. Emery purchased it. Eventually the townhouse was sold to a prominent haberdasher named Jabez Whitley in 1883.
Jabez Whitley was born in the shire of York, England where he undoubtedly had seen or heard of Highclere Castle in Highclere Park. It became the location for the filming of the popular PBS series Downton Abbey. This would have given Jabez an appreciation for the architectural details he would find in the 18 East Fourth Street structure. After becoming avid fans of the PBS series and seeing the similarities between Downton Abbey’s interior features and 18 East Fourth Street, the Templins began referring to the townhouse as “Downtown Abbey”.
When Jabez died in 1909 the townhouse ceased being an “owner occupied” single family home. Adam Weber (a founding partner in a local firm called Weber Knapp) rented the townhouse and may have been the last to occupy 18 East Fourth as a single family home. After 1912 or so, the building was turned into offices and apartments. From 1912 to 1994, the building underwent substantial modifications to “turn a profit” for various uncaring investors.
As previously indicated, the corner building (18 East Fourth Street) is a classic Second Empire French townhouse. It is a brick structure with a slate mansard roof featuring the original wrought iron roof decoration. The townhouse has four full floors plus an additional partial basement and contains slightly over 4,000 square feet of living space. The townhouse has been painstakingly and beautifully restored beginning in 1994 by Donna and Gary Templin. They have spent the last 20 years removing so called improvements to return the house to its former glory with necessary upgrades in interior and exterior projects including windows, insulation, wiring, plumbing, and restoration of moldings, ceiling medallions and coffin niches.
The ground floor which was originally the townhouse’s scullery is currently being renovated into a basement work room, 300 bottle wine cellar and office/study for the use of the townhouse occupants. It could be modified to provide an additional bedroom suite with a bathroom and sitting area for elderly parents. The first floor had been gutted and made into one large commercial space with 8 foot high plaster ceilings. The Templins removed the “dropped” ceiling and revealed the original decorative plaster moldings. Gary repaired or replaced missing moldings in the living and dining rooms. Other missing features such as the first floor fireplace fronts and chandeliers were replaced with antique architectural pieces that reflected what had been removed. The antique dining room chandelier is made of very heavy solid brass and was imported by the Templins after one of their trips to France. The first floor has a formal living room and formal dining room each having elegant fireplaces, twelve foot high ceilings with ornate plaster crown moldings and large plaster medallions with chandeliers. This main floor also has a modern kitchen and a utility closet which contains an electric hot water tank. A half bath and formal entrance hall complete the 916 square foot first floor. The formal eight foot wide entrance hall now has a set of back to back French doors (to provide a cold air barrier at the front door) and a sweeping three story, oval staircase with mahogany banister and inset “coffin” niches.
The second floor which originally was designed to have two bedrooms now has a family room and a breakfast room each with fireplaces and 10 foot high ceilings. There is a half bath and a well designed and equipped, modern kitchen adjacent to the breakfast room. There is also a set of French doors that lead to the roof top patio and garden off the breakfast room. The patio is on the roof of the 317 Pine Street building. It features two levels and two storage sheds for patio equipment and furniture. One of the sheds, which adjoins the townhouse, was designed and built by Gary Templin with a mansard roof to compliment the structures. The larger of the roof top tiers accommodates a ten foot by ten foot gazebo to provide shade and protection from rain. The top floor has a master bedroom with an en suite bathroom, a second bedroom, a second separate full bathroom and a laundry room with a large cedar lined closet.
The result has been the charm and beauty of an 1854 second empire townhouse with all the amenities and conveniences of a “modern” home. It permits an area for very formal entertaining as well as a separate and comfortable informal “family” living area. It is a totally unique, architectural and historic building and provides the best of both worlds. It was the Templins’ hope that this would stimulate similar rehabilitation of the entire Thurston Terrace back into single family townhouse use as it was originally designed. This would protect the only remaining townhouse block in downtown Jamestown.