Dennison & Lydia Wood House

History and architecture

Located just north of Tribeca and a few blocks from the Hudson River, the Dennison and Lydia Wood House stands at the northern edge of Lispenard’s Meadows, a former marsh that extended for several blocks along Manhattan’s west side. This marsh impeded the area’s development until the late 1810s, when the surrounding area boomed. In 1818, ship captain Dennison Wood purchased a parcel on Spring Street from Trinity Church, and in 1819, he, his wife Lydia, and their children moved into their new house at what is now 310 Spring Street.

In the early and mid-19th century, New York City developed into the country’s leading port and financial capital. Much of the city’s wealth derived from its dominance in the trade of cotton, which was grown and harvested by slaves and funneled to New York City from Southern ports via coastal packet ships. Wood profited from this trade, piloting ships between New York and Savannah into the 1830s. Following his death in the mid-1840s, the house was acquired by a trust composed of his two sons and two sons-in-law, who operated the house as a rental property while maintaining an apartment there for Lydia.

The house’s storefront space and third floor were likely added at that time; the third floor harmonizes with the floors below, featuring matching windowsills and paneled stone lintels. In 1869, the storefront was occupied by the drygoods business of Thomas Courtney, who later purchased the building. Courtney’s business, which later evolved into a manufacturer of shirts and overalls, remained in the building until 1950.

The Wood House displays many characteristic features of the Federal style, including Flemish-bond brick coursing at its first and second floors, a fluted door frame with paneled corners, and paneled stone lintels. Today, the Dennison and Lydia Wood House remains a tangible reminder of the earliest years of its neighborhood’s urbanization, when new houses sprouted on and around the former swampland known as Lispenard’s Meadows.