The area around Front and Bainbridge Streets in Philadelphia (once part of the suburban Southwark district) once contained a number large and splendid 18th century townhouses. A row of these houses remains on the west side of Front Street. At one time, the house on the northwest corner was the luxurious residence of a sea captain, William Spafford (sometimes also spelled “Spofford”). A brief sketch of Capt. William Spafford’s life is below.

In the first years of the 19th century, the house was the home of another sea captain, Thomas Arnold, and his wife Catherine. Their eldest son, Dr. Thomas Arnold, also lived in the house and presumably conducted his medical practice from there until the summer of 1818, when both Catherine and young Dr. Arnold passed away.  In later years, the house served as a tavern. A fuller biographical article on Capt. Thomas Arnold can be read at https://philahistory.org/2022/08/31/the-master-navigator-capt-thomas-arnold/.

UPDATE IN AUGUST 2022 — In mid-September 2021, the city posted a notice stating that the house is “unsafe,” and threatening that it would be liable to be demolished in 30 days unless critical structural repairs are made. The current owner had been renovating the house as a single-family residence for close to five years, but the work has been at a standstill for some time. The rear two-story addition to the building, including a portion added in the 20th century, was demolished in early 2018 and then rebuilt with a shaft for an elevator, but the work is incomplete. The new outer wall of the rear section remains in cinderblocks, without a top sheathing of bricks.

The main house was gutted of its interior walls, and some reframing took place, but the new walls appear unfinished. The most singular feature of the house, its central circular stairway, has been stripped of its original bannisters. New window frames were inserted throughout the house last year, and the building was sealed from the elements, though the roof appears incomplete. But the outer brick walls continue to deteriorate, with open gaps in the facade. Now, in the summer of 2022, the building has been for sale for at least a year, so it does not appear that the present owner will be willing to complete the project.

William Spafford was born in the last years of the 17th century and died in 1768. He married Rebecca Ellis at the First Presbyterian Church in 1719. Tragically, their son William Jr. died seven years later, and their son Thomas died in 1730.

Early in life, Spafford became a sea captain, ship owner, and merchant. Newspaper ads of the time show that in 1720 he was master of the sloop William, which he sailed to Antigua. During the next few years, he captained the sloop Sarah, which he owned, also in the West Indies trade. In 1726, he registered the 30-ton sloop Keith. William Spafford continued his sea voyages throughout the next decade, sailing the Three Bachellors to Barbados in the early 1730s, the Charming Sally to Ireland in 1736, and the brig Mary to Lisbon in 1738.

Capt. Spafford sold a variety of imported products at his store, which was located on the ground floor of his dwelling house at the corner of Front and Market. Slaves were included among his merchandise. For example, in August 1731 he advertised the sale of “a very likely Negroe woman … fit for housework or plantation work,” along with a cargo of good green tea. In 1734, he was selling a “young Negro man” and a “very likely Negro boy.” In July 1741, he had a “Negro Man” and “Negro Girl,” along with a lot of West India rum and Moscovado sugar. And in Sept. 1743 he advertised a “Negro Woman who can Wash, Iron, Scour, etc. and Cooks very well.”

Around that time, Spafford was making the transition from sea captain to the business of providing ropes and other equipment to ships. Capt. Spafford’s ropewalk was located on the Passyunk Road, near the corner of Oak Street (now Bainbridge). He took on a young man, Timothy Scannel, as an assistant in the rope-making business. Scannel had just arrived in Philadelphia on a ship from Ireland, and was assigned as an indentured servant to “William Spafford, mariner.” Unfortunately, in July 1748, Scannel ran away. Spafford offered a reward for his capture and described Scannel as “of a thick short stature, full face, wears his own short black hair, very talkative, and speaks very fast … by trade a rope maker.”

Spafford advertised that he sold “ship chandlery, with cables and cordage of all kinds” at a store on Samuel Powell’s wharf. In December 1755, he moved his store to another wharf further south, which was “late of Messieures [Emmanuel?] Josiah and Carpenter.” The economic risks of the chandlery trade became clear in November 1760, when Spafford and other chandlers, a sailmaker, and a ship builder placed a notice in the newspapers asking for the apprehension of one John White. They reported that White had ordered a brigantine, called the Ranger, built, fitted out, and filled with cargo. Then, together with his wife, he sailed away to an unknown port, without paying any of the people who had built and provisioned the ship.

Although Spafford sold people into bondage, he apparently saw no conflict between that endeavor and helping to support the church. Thus, in 1753, he was listed as a manager of the lottery to raise money to build a steeple onto the Second Presbyterian Church in Arch Street. William’s brother George, also a sea captain and merchant, was another lottery manager. (Another sea captain, John Spafford, was probably another brother.) The completed steeple was almost has high as that of Christ Church, but George Spafford never got to see it since he died in 1754.

In 1755, it was mentioned in a newspaper ad that William Spafford, now in his sixties, was living on Front Street in Society Hill. Ten years earlier, he had purchased a lot of ground “on the hill” at the corner of Front and Shippen (now Bainbridge) Streets. According to an insurance report, Spafford’s elegant townhouse was constructed there by 1762, if not earlier. Unfortunately, by 1764, Spafford had died.

Finally, a newspaper notice of June 2, 1768, indicated that the Passyunk Road rope-works property of William Spafford, deceased, was to be auctioned off by the sheriff. The property tax roles of 1769 list a Widow Spafford as living in Southwark, with one servant and one cow. Quite likely, Rebecca Spafford still resided in the townhouse at Front and Shippen Streets. In 1900, the ground floor was altered to accommodate a tavern.

The house — built with profits gained from the slave trade —once had a central hallway (unusual in Philadelphia), which led to a grand circular staircase. The ornate bannister was still intact at the second story level of the stairway, when I toured the building a number of years ago. Currently, however, the house lies empty and stripped of its finery.