The British Colonial home, designed by noted Palm Beach architect John L. Volk, is slated for demolition as part of plans for a six-home subdivision. Photo by Jerry Lower
By Steve Plunkett
In its heyday on the eve of World War II, the British Colonial mansion at 1220 N. Ocean Blvd. was a high-society scene of elegant soirees. Now the estate, which donated an outbuilding for Gulf Stream’s first Town Hall, may become a six-home subdivision.
Representatives of the late Regina Spence are selling the property to Seaside Builders, which is seeking town approval to subdivide the six-plus acres. The Architectural Review and Planning Board deferred the proposal to Sept. 22 to give Seaside time to talk with neighbors in Hidden Harbour.
“This is not something that we’ve faced before,’’ ARPB Chairman Bob Ganger said. “I’m sure it was done routinely when Gulf Stream was being put together, but this is our maiden voyage.’’
Seward Webb Jr., the son of Lila Vanderbilt Webb, bought the land in 1937 from E.F. Hutton, his mother’s former Palm Beach neighbor, said Ganger, a past president of the Delray Beach Historical Society.
Lila Webb had built and moved into Miradero, where Ganger now lives, but Seward Webb did not care for its Mediterranean Revival architecture.
“He never liked the design of his mother’s house even though he had done much of it himself,’’ Ganger said.
So Seward Webb, who founded Webb and Knapp real estate in New York City, had Palm Beach society architect John L. Volk draw up a British Colonial design. Other names on Volk’s client list included Ford, Dodge, Pulitzer and DuPont. He also designed the Royal Poinciana Plaza and Playhouse in Palm Beach.
Gulf Stream Mayor William Koch Jr. remembered in his teen years dating one of Webb’s daughters, dressing up for a formal dinner and afterward puffing on a cigar with the men while the women had tea in another part of the mansion.
“I’d be sitting around, listening to all these powers of the past,’’ said Koch, who will not vote on the subdivision proposal because his real estate firm listed the estate’s sale.
Koch recalled the elder Webb, who married a daughter of New York City Mayor William J. Gaynor, built a photo lab on the grounds of his home that became the first Town Hall.
“It was the size of a double outhouse,’’ Koch said, noting a picture of the historic structure hangs in the current Town Hall.
Koch said the more than 9,000-square-foot house, which was bought by Edmond and Regina Spence after Webb died, is a shadow of its former self.
“The house today is nothing like the old house,’’ he said.
The proposed subdivision, to be called Hidden Harbour Estates — Plat II, would have two homes with driveways on State Road A1A, two with driveways on the entrance road along the south edge of the property and two with driveways on a private road on the west side. The Spence house would be demolished and the mound it sits on leveled and smoothed into a dip between the house and A1A.
Hidden Harbour neighbors have not fully embraced the plan. Martin O’Boyle researched the 1937 deed and told the architectural board it contains a restriction limiting the parcel to three homes.
“We’d love to see the house remain, but I guess that’s not going to happen,’’ neighbor Jim Neeves added.
The developer’s architect, former Delray Beach City Commissioner Gary Eliopoulos, said he would help document the house’s architecture before it was demolished.
Original owner Seward Webb “in Delray was heroic. He gave the land for what became the Seacrest School,’’ Ganger said.
Regina Spence died in December at age 92; her will has not been made public. Ganger said she made generous donations to the Delray Beach Historical Society and the Boca Raton Museum of Art.
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