USA > New York > Onondaga County > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 58
USA > New York > Onondaga County > Syracuse > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 58
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Drawing rhetorical pietures of Clinton Square with a flower garden in it, surrounded by a smooth pavement, the administration attempted to estab- lish a market in the Hughes stoneyard upon Gifford street, just west of Onondaga creek. Although farmers and peddlers refused to go to the new stoneyard market, the Common Council on June 10, 1899, passed the resolu- tion to turn Clinton Square into a park, and park it was made, a pretty and bright spot in the midst of a hustling business section, until it gave way for the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. The emphatic action in turning the square into a park and the stand taken by the patrons of the market and produce peddlers resulted in the establishment of the publie mar- ket under closer eity control, upon the Haymarket site at the junction of North Salina and Pearl streets.
The last market on Clinton Square was held on May 15, 1899, for the next day the work of tearing up the cobblestones was begun. The square had become a market place without either village or city administration appointment, and it took a long fight to change the custom. Country pro- duce dealers just gathered there as a matter of convenience and because of canal trade possibilities in the early days. For many years the farmers weighed their produee in nearby stores, and then John Ingle, who kept a saloon next to the old Court House, established a set of scales in front of his place of business and for a long time they were the scales of the market. In 1877 Mayor James J. Bellen appointed JJohn Connor city weighmaster, with the additional office of meat inspector, and for fifteen years Mr. Connor served in this dual capacity. During the first administration of Mayor Jacob Amos, in 1892, the office of meat inspector was separated from that of weigh- master and Mr. Connor resigned. Jerry MeGirk was the successor, serving until his death in 1897. Until the market was abolished in Clinton Square
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the post was filled by Mr. MeGirk's danghter, assisted by Thomas Timmins. It was eurious that after the first appointment these officers served through varying administrations without authorization and without molestation, much in the happy-go-lucky way in which the market came into being. At the new market George H. Gilbert first had charge, W. W. Wheeler being the weigher of hay, and Mr. Gilbert was succeeded by A. F. Stinard.
For more than thirty years the subject of an appropriate soldiers' monu- ment. representative of the entire county, and to be located in Syracuse, had been discussed. Many villages had erected monuments to their heroes, but not until the placing of the statue of the soldier upon the G. A. R. plot in Oakwood cemetery was there any substantial erection to note the pub- lie appreciation of the war veterans within the limits of Syraense. There had been several monument committees and the public offer of one monu- ment which was never built. when one committee, showing more energy than the others, led the Common Council to designate Hanover Square for a soldiers' monument. This was upon February 20. 1899. In anticipation and to improve the appearance of the square, long occupied as a stand for drays, a small plot was laid out and fenced in. being dedicated as Veterans' Park on July 4, 1999. with a memorial iron urn as the principal mark of the park's purpose other than as a garden ornament.
It was at a regiment reunion in August, 1905, that former Attorney General Theodore E. Hancock spoke again upon the old old subject of a soldiers' monument and called attention to the legislative enactment permit- ting the issuing of bonds for monument purposes. Newspaper agitation fol- lowed, resulting in a call for a public meeting to express the sentiment at the Bastable Theater on Sunday afternoon. December 12. 1905, and hearings before the Board of Supervisors. Then came the appointment of an advisory committee on Jannary 9, 1906, consisting of Mrs. Max H. Schwartz and Mrs. Dwight H. Bruce from the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association, incorporated in 1904; Hon. Dennis MeCarthy. Donald Dey and Hon. T. E. IInneock from the Chamber of Commerce; William Sears and Nicholas Grum- bach from the veterans of Onondaga, acting jointly with Supervisors Moses D. Robin. Floyd R. Todd. John F. Hayden, Frank J. Carr, John B. Brilbeck. Sidney H. Cook and James P. Blanchard. This committee on February 15. 1906, not only reported in favor of a monument. but that a suitable tribute could not be ereeted for less than fifty thousand dollars. At this same meet- ing the resolution was passed to bond in that amount for a soldiers' mon- ment. On July 20, 1906, Clinton Square was designated as the site of the soldiers' monument.
The remainder of the story of the endeavor to secure the most suitable and artistie memorial is one that both astonished the people who had become accustomed to art and architecture by political "pull" without competition, and reflected credit upon the committee. To its aid the committee called three experts whose judgment in matters of public art 'was held in the highest opinion, J. Q. A. Ward of New York. C. Howard Walker of Boston and Daniel C. French of Glen Dale, Mass. Each expert was allowed one hundred
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dollars besides actual expenses and they were to choose the several sculptors of undoubted merit who were to be allowed to submit models in competition. Several designs were submitted and on October 5, 1906, the design of Cyrus E. Dallin of Boston, was accepted. the experts and two members of the com- mittee passing upon the winning model. It was readily seen that this design would come to more than the fifty thousand dollars for which the county had bonded, and was susceptible of broader treatment upon a more liberal expenditure. The Board of Supervisors on December 7, 1906, agreed upon an additional appropriation of twenty-nine thousand dollars, to be met in the county budget for the three succeeding years, thus making seventy-nine thou- sand five hundred the county's share in the monument, to which was added the fund of about one thousand five hundred raised by the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument Association.
Other monument acquisitions of Syracuse in recent years include the Eckel stone memorial in North Salina street and the General Gustavus Sniper equestrian statne a short distance north, which was unveiled with appropriate exereises on May 30, 1905. The will of William Kirkpatrick provided for three monuments to mark historie spots. two in Union Park, which have been placed, the work being the artistic efforts of Jerome Connor, and the more important one of the Indian hunter being unveiled November 17, 1904. The third, a design to commemorate the early ocenpation, placed in Washing- ton Park in 190S, is a drinking fountain, the work of Gail Sherman Corbett. In 1905 Margaret Tredwell Smith offered the city a memorial to Lewis HI. Redfield, pioneer citizen. newspaper man and merchant, to be placed in Forman Park. The design for this memorial arrived September 3. 1905. and on Septem- her 7 the gift was accepted by the Common Conneil and Forman Park desig- nated as the site. Signor Fidardo Landi was the sculptor, and the bronze fig- ures of Lewis H. Redfield. Judge Joshua Forman and the symbolic figure of Hiawatha. the law giver, were cast in Florence, Italy, in 1908.
To the memory of the soldiers and sailors of the American Revolution who had lived in Onondaga county, a tablet of bronze was placed upon the east onter wall of the south entrance to the Government Building at East Fayette and South Warren streets, by Onondaga Chapter, National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Syracuse Chapter. National Society, Sons of the American Revolution. The two chapters purchased this effective and spirited relief from Isadore Konti, the sculptor, of New York city. The bronze was presented to the county of Onondaga for the chapters by Louise Van Loon Lynch and Lucy Mosely. Donohue, James M. Belden and Ernest C. Moses, on June 11, 1902, and public exercises in unveiling were held upon June 17 following. The chapters conveyed all title in the bronze to the peo- ple of Onondaga. the gift being without stipulation or condition, leaving it to the official representatives of the county, in their discretion, to place the tablet in or on the new Court House.
Fought upon the ground that the burden of expense was more than the county should assume at this time, court necessity prevailed and the new Court House was erected upon a plan so liberal in expenditure that only
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satisfaction with the general result and the assurance that the county had received its money's worth saved criticism. In truth the people were prond of their new Court Ilouse from the first, and the last vestige of opposition disappeared when a glimpse was given of the interior, its conveniences and adequaey for all demands for many years to come. Its opening for work took place on January 1. 1907. For many years the need of a new court house was discussed and the situation temporized by alterations and the building of the Court of Appeals Library annex. In the late '90s the movement took definite form by newspaper discussion and resolutions of the Onondaga Bar Association, and on June 30, 1899, the Board of Supervisors passed the resolution which decided that a new Court House was necessary. Junkets and more discussions, especially as to a site, followed. On December 4, 1901, the decision was reached to place the Court House upon the entire block facing Clinton Square, the western third of which was already occupied by the old Court House, annex and County Clerk's building. The resolution was to either acquire by compromise or condemnation to public uses the remainder of the block. A compromise not being affected. condemnation proceedings were begun and met opposition from the realty owners. The situation encoun- tered became so strenuous that the Board of Supervisors again passed a reso- lution upon May 2, 1902. to acquire the Empire House site. Then the matter was taken up in public meetings by business men and lawyers, resulting in the calling of a special session of the Board of Supervisors on June 12, 1902. to consider both the question of a Court House site and good roads under the Armstrong-Higbie aet. The contention was again one of expense-that the price at which property was held upon the Empire site was beyond the desire of the county to pay.
At the special meeting of Supervisors on June 12, 1902. the privilege of the floor was given to the citizens who wished to speak, and the Board heard Hon. William P. Goodelle, Hon. Theodore E. Hancock and Hon. Ceylon II. Lewis for the Bar Association, A. C. Powell, C. H. Scoville, Dr. W. II. Greis. Salem Hyde, Senator Horace White, James E. Newell and John J. Cum- nings. The result of that meeting was a resolution rescinding the resolu- tion of May 2. On June 13, 1902, the resolution to acquire by compromise or condemnation what was known as the Montgomery site, being bounded by Montgomery, Cedar, South State and Jefferson streets. was passed.
On August 26, 1902, Archimedes Russell of Syracuse, was chosen archi- tect, and on December 6. 1902, his plans were approved and adopted by the Board of Supervisors. It was then decided that a committee of seven, to be known as the Court House Building Committee. should have superintendence and control for the county. The committee named was Anson N. Palmer, Ernest I. Edgeomb. Herbert L. Smith, Patrick II. Keohane, Edward P. LaFren- iere, Frederick M. Power and Charles Hiscock. Upon the death of Mr. His- cock, Thomas F. Walsh was added to the committee, and these names are now upon the bronze tablet in the vestibule of the Court House, with the dates, "Erected 1904-'06." Upon June 30, 1904, the corner stone of the new
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Court House was laid, the principal address of the exereises being made by HIon. Charles Andrews.
It was in 1892 that the Dey Brothers, recognizing the need of expanding the business center of the city, made the move southward which has been so important to the community, and, purchasing the old Milton S. Price resi- dence property at South Salina and JJefferson streets on December 19. 1892. ereeted in 1893 the Dey store building at a cost of one hundred and twenty- five thousand dollars. This same year, 1893, the Robert Gere Bank build- ing upon Hanover Square was erected, sixty thousand dollars being invested in the artistie business structure. The principal industrial property addi- tion of the year was made by the Sweet Manufactoring Company in West and Tully streets. at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars.
The Dey Brothers set the pace for D. MeCarthy & Company, and in 1894 the handsome MeCarthy department store building was erected at South Salina and Fayette streets, at a cost of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The old Granger block also took an upward course, three stories being added at a cost of fifty thousand dollars, and it is now known as the Sedgwick, Andrews and Kennedy building. The most pretentious flats built outside the downtown center, were ereeted in 1894 at Gifford and Niagara streets at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. The St. Vincent Asylum school was also built that same year at a cost of forty thousand dollars.
The Medical College in Orange street was built by the University in 1895 at a cost of fifty-five thousand dollars, and it was this year that the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company erected the exchange at 311 Montgomery street, which was afterwards taken by the Onondaga Historical Association, the first cost being forty-five thousand dollars. The Syracuse Cold Storage Company put up its warehouse in North West street at a cost of twenty-five thousand dollars in 1895, and W. E. Hookway erected the large warehouse which bears his name in East Water street, the estimate being thirty thousand dollars. The year 1895 was also the building year of the Charles M. Warner block, afterwards the Warner Hotel, at West Fayette and Franklin streets, thirty thousand dollars; the Thomas Hogan Block in West Fayette street and the Whitlock Memorial in South Salina street, at thirty thousand and forty thousand dollars respectively, and , the Armour & Com- pany South West street warehouse, costing twenty thousand dollars.
The total increase in building in the city in 1896 over 1895 was three hundred and thirty-five thousand three hundred and sixty-five dollars. The Onondaga County Savings Bank building was responsible for the increase, its estimate of four hundred thousand dollars being found in the permits of the year. It was on January 29. 1896, that the bargain was made for the historie old Syracuse House and upon November 5 following that the corner stone was laid. The artistie building of the Bank of Syracuse adjoining the Onon- daga Savings Bank was another important business erection of 1896, the per- mit giving the cost as fifty thousand dollars. In this same year John P. Hier built the business block and factory occupied by the Weeks, Goodale and Bull clothing manufactory at West Willow and North Clinton streets, at a
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cost of seventy-five thousand dollars. D. Mason & Company also ventured into a building for factory purposes, putting up the structure at East Water and South State streets at a rost of twenty thousand dollars. Also in 1896 was erected the Women's and Children's Hospital in West Gonesee street. costing twenty-one thousand dollars; St. Anthony's Convent in Court street, fifty thousand dollars, and the synagogue of the congregation Poley Tsedeek, eleven thousand five hundred dollars. The office building of the Bartels Brewing Company in North West street was an erection of 1896. In the attempt to revive interest in a county fair, as the State fair was not attracting the attention of the city people as much as was expected, the Onondaga Fair Association put ten thousand dollars worth of buildings upon the Kirk Park property, and the county fair was opened September 9, but not with the suc- cess of the old county fairs at Tallman Park. The Syracuse Street Railway Company before its receivership in 1896, started the Tracy street power house at an estimate of twenty thousand dollars, and the South Salina street car barns were built on a thirty thousand dollar permit.
The year 1897, the last of general financial stress before a period which broke all records of continued prosperity in the nation and especially in the Onondaga section, was but slightly marked in the building operations in Syracuse, because it was in this year that the University Block was erected at a cost of four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and, fires having destroyed the Wieting Opera House and the Dillaye Block in South Salina street, the new Wieting was built upon a permit which placed the cost at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and the Dillaye Memorial building at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. It was January 26, 1897, that the University trustees decided to erect the University Block upon the site of the old Rem- ington Block, which had been a gift to the University. This same year three grammar schools were erected costing about twenty thousand dollars apiece. The Hospital of the Good Shepherd put up a new building at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, and an addition to the Home in Townsend street was made for fifteen thousand dollars. The Eleventh Ward, which had not yet been changed to the Nineteenth, was showing the greatest activity in home building operations even then. as it has every year since. In this one ward three hundred and two thousand six hundred and fifty dollars was put into homes, the Thirteenth Ward coming next with an expenditure of two hundred and thirty one thousand six hundred and thirty dollars. During the year four hundred and seventy-five new buildings were erected in the city, but the decrease in operations over the previous years was forty-one thousand one hundred and thirty-eight dollars.
In 1893 the total of building investment fell off materially because of the heavy operations of the year before being necessary for comparison. There was a loss of eight hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and seventy-one dollars in the amount of money put into buildings, and the number of new structures was decreased sixty-four. The principal business building of the year was the Mason Block in South Salina street, the cost of which was placed at forty thousand dollars. The Hall of Science upon the University campus
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was the most expensive building of the year, costing forty-five thousand dol- lars. In 1898 Frederick Frazer built the Frazer Flats in James street, twenty thousand dollars; the city built the engine house in Oak street, ten thousand dollars, and John Dunfee erected the city's first garbage redne- tion plant in Hiawatha avenne, which was afterwards destroyed by fire. At East Syracuse the New York Central began the work of freight yard enlargement and built a thirty-five thousand dollar round house.
There was even less building in 1899 than in 1898, the records showing but three hundred and seventy-four new structures as against four hundred and eleven the previous year. But it was in this year that the new building of the Hospital of the Good Shepherd, costing one hundred thousand dollars. was started. The Pierce, Butler & Pieree Manufacturing Company built its handsome and distinctive office and warehouse at James and Pearl streets at a cost of thirty thousand dollars in 1899. In the Walton street wholesale district, the Schwarzchild & Sulzberger warehouse was built at No. 233 at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, while in the new manufacturing quarter the General Chemical Company built a factory in Hiawatha avenue costing thir- teen thousand. and the Oak Knitting Company built the mill at Division and Fulton streets at a cost of sixteen thousand dollars.
If it had not been for the burning of the Alhambra, the building opera- tions of 1900 would have fallen off eighty thousand dollars. for that was the cost of the new building. The High School, built in this year, was the prin- cipal public work. The Moore Flats in James street were built in 1900 by John Moore at a cost of one hundred thousand, and W. C. Herriman erected flats at West Onondaga and Seymour streets at a cost of fifty-four thousand dollars. The Thomas Ryan brewery at Butternut and McBride streets was a fifty thousand erection of 1900.
In 1901 work was commenced upon the Carnegie Library building, the gift of Andrew Carnegie announced on January 17, 1901, the cost being placed at two hundred thousand dollars. In this year the Snowdon Flats in James street, built upon the site of the old Keble School. were put up at a cost of seventy-six thousand dollars; the E. B. Curtis Flats in South War- ren street, sixty thousand dollars; the Bartels Brewery in Basin street, fifty thousand dollars; the new Shelter, which succeeded the burned building, twenty-one thousand dollars, and the Syracuse Wall Paper Company factory in North Clinton street, thirty thousand dollars.
There were two hundred and fifteen new buildings erected in 1902 as against two hundred and sixty-five in 1901. In the North Franklin street section there was erected the Syracuse Typewriter factory, costing seventy thousand dollars; Clinton Knitting mill, sixty thousand dollars, and C. C. Bradley Company factory, thirty-five thousand dollars. The H. H. Franklin Company put up a factory in South Geddes street, to take care of its expand- ing business, costing thirty-five thousand dollars, and both the New York Central and D., L. & W. railroads erected freight houses, costing respec- tively one hundred thousand dollars and thirty-five thousand dollars. Besides these big items in the year's building. the city put up the engine house in
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Euclid avenue at a cost of twenty thousand dollars, while the New York Central erected the East Syracuse coal shute for seventy-five thousand dol- lars, and the Solvay Process Company built the pierie acid plant. In 1902 the Oakwood Cemetery Association built its gate, offices and greenhouse at an expense of twenty thousand dollars.
There were building permits for one million seven hundred and seventy- five thousand eight hundred and forty dollars worth of work given in 1903 as against one million six hundred and twenty-four thousand and forty-five dol- lars the previous year, an indication of the growing prosperity in the build- ing trades .. It was in 1903 that the Smith Premier Typewriter Company put up the building in Gifford street at a cost of two hundred and forty thou- sand dollars, which was added to quite extensively in 1907. The Smith Brothers Typewriter Company also erected their seventy-five thousand dollar factory at Washington and Almond streets. The Hyle Steel Company fae- tory in Greenway avenne was also planned upon an expenditure of eighty thousand dollars, but met with reverses after about thirty-five thousand had been put into the building. The Christian Brothers' school at Willow and North State streets was erected in 1903 at a cost of thirty-five thousand dollars. The perinit was also given for the First M. E. Church to cost sixty thousand dollars. Upon the marsh lots Merrell & Soule put up their eighty thousand dollar factory, while the Syraense Casket Company built a business block in Sonth Clinton street worth forty thousand dollars. and the Dey Time Register Company built its thirty thousand dollar factory in South West street. Upon University Hill was erected Haven Hall at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. and the eighteen thousand dollar heating plant for the college buildings.
The building permits for 1904 reached the high figure of two million seven hundred and thirty-nine thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven dol- lars, but this included the new Court House, placed at nine hundred thousand dollars in the permits, but greatly exceeding that figure before its comple- tion. The power house on the opposite side of Cedar street was figured at ninety thousand eight hundred dollars. Outside of the public structures the year was noted for the number of houses erected. In 1904 the permit was given for the First Presbyterian Church in West Genesee strect at one hundred and forty thousand dollars. In the business line the new factory of the R. E. Dietz & Co. in Wilkinson street was erected, costing seventy-five thousand. and permits were also given for the Great Northern Brewery building at North Salina and Exchange streets for forty-five thousand dollars, and the John Single Paper Company building in South Clinton street for sixty thousand dol- lars.
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