A wealthy blue-blood railroad executive, Ingersoll was a pioneer buyer in Society Hill in the 1960s. The Spruce Street dump he made home was built in the 1750s and had an important pedigree.
Recalling the condition of the house he purchased from the Redevelopment Authority, Ingersoll told an interviewer: “It had gone to complete ruin. The filth was beyond belief. The fleas were such and the stench was such that you couldn’t stay in the house over 10 or 15 minutes. There were two dead cats in the bathtub,” he recalled. “The front door was partly opened all the time.”
Needless to say, Ingersoll put many thousands into the old wreck. The three-story Georgian brick townhouse at 217 Spruce contained a lot of Philadelphia history.
It’s known as the Davis-Lenox House and good guides will point it out to tourists.
First, it’s a prime example of good historic restoration.
But it is also important because of who lived there.
Master builder James Davis built it for his own residence. He was an important officer of the Carpenters Company, the guild that met in Carpenters Hall.
In 1779, the house was purchased by Revolutionary War hero, David Lenox. He became a merchant and banker but for a time he was U.S. Marshal for Pennsylvania and a key actor in the Whiskey Rebellion.
Later, Lenox was ambassador to Great Britain.
Ingersoll had important ancestors in early America. The original Jared Ingersoll probably knew both Davis and Lenox. That Jared Ingersoll was an architect and signer of the U.S. Constitution, Pennsylvania Attorney General and was vice presidential candidate on the losing ticket in 1812.