USA > New York > Onondaga County > Past and present of Syracuse and Onondaga County, New York : from prehistoric times to the beginning of 1908 > Part 59
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 59
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Building material could not be proenred fast enough and workers were not too numerous to suit contractors in 1905, any more than in the two years succeeding. The new Court House was being built and University buildings and many other immense structures occupied thousands of workmen. In 1905 the Halcomb Steel Company built its great plant in Solvay at a cost of close upon five hundred thousand dollars, and that year the University took out permits for the one hundred and fifty thousand dollar Carnegie Library
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
and the two hundred thousand dollar Lyman Hall building. The most artis- tie church structure in the southern part of the city, the South Presbyterian Church at Salina and Colvin streets, to cost sixty thousand dollars, was started in 1905. and also St. Cecilia Church in Solvay, on the West Woods road, to cost fifty thousand dollars, was started. The First Universalist church was still another handsome edifice to be commenced upon a site at Warren and Adams streets, the cost being forty thousand dollars. It was in 1905 that the historie and architecturally beautiful First Presbyterian Church at Salina and Fayette streets, so long a pride and laudmark to Syra- euse, was taken down, and the store structure to cost fifty thousand dollars. the land being leased, was begun by Marcus Rosenbloom. After some little ineffectnal opposition, which took the form of an attempted street opening aeross Onondaga creek, the D., L. & W. Railroad Company erected its coal trestle on South Clinton street, the expenditure for the structure being twenty- three thousand dollars. Then the Independent Telephone Company built over the ornate Crouse stables at Washington and State streets, for a telephone office, the stated expenditure being one hundred and sixty-four thousand dol- lars. The principal industrial building of the year was W. S. Peck's store- house in Franklin street, the cost being forty-five thousand dollars. The Sol- vay building total for the year was six hundred and fifty-four thousand dol- lars, which included a fifty-thousand dollar dynamo house for the Solvay Pro- cess Company. The total building permits of the city for 1905 was two mil- lion two hundred and seventy-five thousand six hundred and ten dollars. This was also a great year for home building, there being two hundred and ninety-four new homes built and not a single apartment house. The Nine- teenth Ward led with one hundred and twenty-two new houses at a cost of four hundred thousand four hundred and sixty-five dollars, as against one hundred and two houses the previous year.
The year 1906 was the greatest building year which had been known to that period in the history of the city. Permits were granted for four hun- dred and seventy-nine structures at a cost of two million seven hundred and thirty-seven thousand five hundred and thirty-six dollars, which, with a total of additions of three hundred and eighteen thousand eight hundred dollars, brought the year's investment in buildings to three million seventy-seven thou- sand three hundred and thirty-six dollars. The southward trend of home building which started with the development of the Kirk tract reached a eli- max of one hundred and thirty-four new buildings in the Nineteenth Ward costing four hundred and forty-nine thousand seven hundred dollars. The Thirteenth Ward was second in the matter of house building, also showing the southward trend of homes, with fifty-three new buildings at a cost of one hundred and fifty-eight thousand seven hundred dollars, as against forty-six the previous year costing one hundred and eleven thousand three hundred and twenty-five dollars.
It was in 1906 that the new Armory was started at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars; the Central New York Telephone and Telegraph Company put a one hundred and fifteen thousand dollar addition to its new exchange in
485
ยท
PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
Montgomery street; the Homeopathie Hospital in East Castle street to eost sixty-one thousand dollars was commenced, and the University added a one hundred and eighty-thousand college and the Stadium costing nearly four hundred thousand dollars to the group upon University hill. The industrial progress was noted by the Butler Manufacturing Company factory in Spencer street, eighty-five thousand dollars; Elgin A. Simonds Company factory. North Clinton street, forty-three thousand dollars; O. M. Edwards factory. Plum strect, fifty-thousand dollars; Onondaga Pottery Company building. West Fayette street, seventy-two thousand dollars, and the Brown-Lipe Gear Company factory. West Fayette street, sixty thousand dollars. A Solvay the Frazer & Jones Company foundry was erected costing one hundred thousand dollars, and the Solvay Process Company put one hundred and fifty thousand dollars into additions.
In 1907 one of the most important works of the year was the building of the Y. M. C. A. structure in Montgomery street, opposite the Carnegie Library, at an estimated eost of two hundred and sixty-four thousand dollars. half of which was the gift of Benjamin Tousey, whose munificence was a spur to others to complete the fine building. The work upon the great Stadium at the University was also continued during the entire year.
It was a new record in building which was made in 1907, exceeding the prior year, also a reeord one, by one million one hundred and forty-four thous- and nine hundred and forty-six dollars. This was a new-dwelling year. with four hundred and sixty-nine additional homes ereeted in the city, the Nineteenth Ward again leading, this time with one hundred and twenty-five buildings, and the Thirteenth Ward a close second with eighty-nine. It was in this year that the Rapid Transit Railroad Company built its new shops at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars, and storage barns costing twenty- one thousand dollars, in the First Ward, and the city started the Salina school to eost ninety thousand dollars. The North Side High School went up in the Second Ward at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars. Changes were made in the Bartels Brewery buildings in North West street, costing one hun- dred thousand dollars, and D., I. & W. Railroad Company put in its Tenth Ward trestle at a cost of two hundred thousand dollars. The Herald build- ing in South Warren street, also built in 1907, cost fifty-five thousand dol- lars, and work was commenced upon the new home of the B. P. O. Eiks, upon the site of the Lyceum Theater, to cost one hundred thousand dollars. Three well known apartment houses were erected in 1907. the C. S. Ball apartments at South West and Seymour streets, the M. Z. Ilaven flats in Midland avenue, and the John W. Cronin flats in East Onondaga street near Warren. each cost- ing twenty thousand dollars.
The public buildings office of Fire Marshal was established in 1892, and the record of building progress since then is as follows :
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
1892
$1,929,035
1893
1,986,185
1894
1,490,265
1895
1,771,205
1896
2,061,530
1897
1,890,602
1893
1,252,020
1899
1,242,578
1900
1,583,023
1901
1,624,443
1902
1,402,575
1903
1,755,503
1904
2,739,827
1905
2,275,610
1906
3,077,336
1907
4,222,282
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The fire which did more to change the appearance of the business see- tion of Syracuse than any other single happening, occurred upon the morn- ing of March 14, 1891. It was 6:30 o'clock when fire was discovered in the new Thomas Hogan block at West Fayette and Franklin streets. The flames swept across the street, and before that fire was stopped fourteen buildings had been destroyed, the longest burned distance being upon the north side of West Fayette street, the fire line reaching to the former home of Mayor Charles F. Williston, midway in the block to Clinton street. It was believed that an ember from this fire, carried by a fierce west wind, ignited the upper story of the Christian Cook block in East Railroad street, occupied by B. F. Roscoe as a wholesale fruit store.
The entire fire department and practi- eally all the city's fire fighting apparatus were at the West Fayette street fire when the Cook building started to burn. To the west of the Cook building was The Journal and to the east the Montgomery Flats, which had been the old A. C. Yates block. The falling wall of the Cook block erushed The Jour- nal building, which was already on fire, and then the entire Montgomery followed. One life was lost in the Montgomery Flats, that of an occupant who was endeavoring to save his property. Assistance from other cities saved the Myers Block across from the Montgomery, and the spread of the flames was stopped with a loss estimated at one million dollars. The fol- lowing morning the Lyndon Flats at James and Lock streets, now North State street, aud the St. James Church adjoining, were burned.
On November 20, that same year, 1891, the Bastable bloek, then a four story structure with Shakespeare Hall and the old Areade, was burned. Part of the walls are today used in the reconstructed Bastable building. On January 5, 1893, the fire oeeurred in the old Yates Block in North Salina street. Upon the night of December 8, 1893, the Hoyt Block, occupied by the John Single Paper Company, in West Water street, nearly midway between Clinton and Franklin streets, was burned. To the east the fire also
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
took the building of MeCarthy & Redfield, occupied by Robert MeCarthy & Son, and the old Alexander Smith dye house, the first stone building in Syracuse, having been built about 1830. To the west the fire partially destroy- ed the Kennedy building, occupied by Walrath & Company. Five days later the fire occurred at the Women's and Children's Hospital. On the night of May 10, 1894, the Baker lumber yard on the Oswego canal at Willow street, was burned with the Rescue Mission boat, Good News, and two occupants of the boat were drowned in their efforts to escape. September 3, 1896. the Wieting Opera House burned. The Dillaye Building in South Salina street was destroyed on January 25, 1897. the Yates Block fire in North Clinton street having occurred just prior on January 12. In 1902 the Washington Block fire occurred, when Albert D. Soule was killed while endeavoring to save property from the Masonic headquarters. The New York Central freight house was burned on May 2, 1902, with a loss of fifty thousand dollars. The vear 1904 proved a rather serious one for fires with the burning of the Kane & Roach machine shops on January 6, the Lyceum Theater in Clinton street on April 26, the Economy foundry at Belden avenue and Sand street on September 14, the Tavern at Onondaga Valley on September 22, and the Dietz Lantern Company works in Wilkinson street on October 13. The Mowry Hotel at South Salina and West Onondaga streets was burned on the night of February 10, 1907, many of the occupants escaping in their night clothing. On Sunday morning the House of Providence Orphan Asylum, located just over the city line upon the Split Rocks road, was completely de- stroyed by fire. The public interest was such that by March 1, 1908, more than thirty-five thousand dollars had been raised by publie subscription for a new fire-proof building, a site purchased upon West Onondaga street within the city limits, and on February 28, the plans of Archimedes Russell Tor a four story brick and stone fire-proof structure accepted. The building was planned for a length of two hundred and twenty-five feet with a depth of sixty-seven feet.
Upon the night of March 13, 1899, at a small fire in a South Salina street bloek, Hamilton S. White inhaled gases and smoke, and died a short time later in the Brown & Dawson drug store. The death of the volunteer fire fighter and publie spirited eitizen moved the city deeply, for Mr. White had given his best years to the service of his native city and performed many aets of heroism in the saving of life and property. Memorial services were held in the churches on April 16, 1899, and thousands of men, women and children contributed to the twelve thousand dollar fund for the White Monument in Fayette Park, the endeavor being to have this memorial the gift of many rather than the few. In the first effort to honor the dead. the name of Fay- ette Park was changed to White Park, but this action was quickly rescinded. On June 27, 1905, the monument, the work of Gail Sherman, was unveiled, public exercises joined in by thousands being held.
From a boy Hamilton White had been fascinated with fire fighting. and through the stages of a hand chemical extinguisher upon a basket phaeton to the latest design in a chemical engine with a model house and the world's
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
record for quick hitching and getting into the street, was the evolution of this man's work, and all given without cost to his fellows. On November 27, 1882, Mr. White sent the communication to the Board of Fire Commis- sioners that he would discontinue Chemieal Engine No. 2 after Jannary, 1883, giving the whole outfit and the use of the house ereeted four years before, to the eity. Later the house was also turned over to the city. Mr. White was named honorary member of the department and made Second Assistant Chief.
The House of Providence just over the city line burned on December 8. 1907, and, upon the night of March 16, 1908, the Heffron-Tanner factory and warehouse in East Water street made a spectacular fire with a loss of one hun- dred and forty-five thousand dollars.
CHAPTER LVIII.
WHAT CHANGED THE CITY.
The story of rapid transit-not entirely of the Rapid Transit Company. for trolley extension and service by any other name would have been as efficient -- is the story of the building up of the suburbs and transforming them into populons city wards. All this is practically the work of the past twenty years. That the city trend followed the trolley has been proven again and again. The southern part of the eity was built up for miles while nearer vacant plaees went begging for lot buyers because the South Salina street line was the first to give frequent service, and the University hill. eastern part of the city and southwestern sections all woke to life as they felt the pulsing of these iron arteries. It was in 1888 that the first electric line was established in this city, being the Third Ward Railway to Solvay, and from that time onward the horse car gradually disappeared from the city streets, the last horse car in the city making its last trip on the Green street line on Monday, October 1, 1900, being drawn by two horses.
There was just forty years between the appearance of the first horse car upon the streets of Syracuse and the disappearance of the last, for while the Central City line from the Erie eanal bridge at Salina street to Wolf street was begun in 1859, the line was not opened until August, 1860. The street railroad as a real builder, however, did not begin until the later years, when the policy of laying traeks into unoceupied territory and growing up with the section was adopted by the Rapid Transit. In 1889 there were twelve separate and distinct lines of railway which were the nucleus of the single system today. These lines were the Central City; the Syracuse & Geddes, built in 1863; Syra- cuse & Onondaga, opened July 25, 1864; Genesee & Water street built in
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
1866; the Fifth Ward, opened in 1868; Syracuse & Oakwood, 1871; Seventh Ward, 1889; Woodlawn & Butternut street, 1886; Burnet street 1886; Third Ward, 1888, and the People's, 1887.
In 1890 the People's, Central City and Syracuse & Oakwood companies became the People's line. and all the other lines went under one management as the Consolidated. The first car over the Brighton extension of the South Salina street line was run on October 1, 1891.
The Peoples' and Consolidated lines were purchased by a syndicate on December 20, 1892, formal control of the Consolidated being taken on Jan- uary 1, 1893. But legal complications followed from holders of minority stoek of the Consolidated who refused to part with their holdings at the price paid for the remainder of the stock. There were injunctions, arguments, delays and then a mortgage foreclosure with a sale to the seeretary of the bondholders' committe for eight hundred and sixty-five thousand dollars on August 17, 1895, and the consolidation was consummated on August 24 follow- ing, the name being the Syracuse Street Railway Company, which had been incorporated on April 20, 1894. with a capital stock of four million dollars. In the railroad fight of that year the Syracuse Street Railway Company gained six hundred and sixty-five thousand one hundred and forty-one pas- sengers carried more than the year before, and the Consolidated lost three hun- dred and thirty thousand and seventy-four in comparison with the year be- fore. In 1895 the Grace street line to Delaware street was built, being opened to traffic on December 28, 1895. Power house buildings were begun in Tracy street in 1894 and the Syracuse Street Railway Company started fur- ther work of the sort in 1896, the year in which the street car barns in South Salina and Tallman streets were commenced.
But the Syracuse Street Railway Company also had complications, and on March 7, 1896, E. B. Judson and W. Judson Smith were appointed receiv- ers. Upon May 21, 1896. the Rapid Transit Railway Company was incor- porated for four million dollars, and upon August 26 following the Sheriff sold the Syracuse Street Railway Company property upon mortgage fore- closure to the reorganization committee. The consolidation of the roads was completed on September 1, 1896.
Then the work of building the road for larger Syracuse was begun. The common center was completed October 4, 1896, and put into use nine days later. On April 1, 1897, the transfer system went into operation, while the fender was adopted on April 15 following. It was this same year that Wil- lard R. Kimball got control of the road, the announcement being made on April 7.
But the Rapid Transit was not the only road in Syracuse at the time. The franchises were granted for the Eastwood Height's Company on August 27, 1894. and the East Side Railway Company was incorporated three days later. Upon February 16, 1895, the Syracuse & East Side road was opened, and. after a fitful and uncertain life, passed into the hands of George D. Chapman and Mathew J. Myers, as receivers for creditors, on May 7, 1898. When the sale came it was to a reorganization committee for thirty thousand dollars. The
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
committee in turn sold out to Clifford D. Beebe, the event marking that finan- eier's entrance into Central New York railroad life and the beginning of that power which was later known in suburban trolley extension as the Beebe syndieate. On March 8. 1598, was organized the Eastwood and East Syracuse Railway Company with capital stock of two hundred thousand dollars. The Beebe people later parted with their holdings to the Rapid Transit, which elosed the deal to buy the East Side on July 22, 1899.
It was in 1898 that the most successful of the Syracuse trolleys financed with local eapital came into the suburban passenger game. This was the Syracuse & Suburban line, incorporated June 29, 1895, for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, to be operated on the Genesee turnpike to Fayetteville, Manlius and Edwards' Falls. The first car from the city line to Fayetteville was run on May 13, 1898. In 1903 the Suburban put in the branch line to Jamesville, where the new penitentiary had been located. The first ear over the Jamesville extension was run on August 1, 1903. The record then was eighteen and eight-tenths miles of track, seventeen cars and fifty-three employes. In 1907 the road carried two million eight-two thousand eight hundred and seventy-four passengers, an increase of ninety-eight thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight above 1906.
The Syracuse, Lakeside & Baldwinsville railroad, also a loeal invest- ment both in construction and the matter of finance, was mainly built in 1899. the opening to Balwinsville taking place on September 24, that year. Prior to that date the road had been operated to lakeside resorts, the first run being to Pleasant Beach, and stirred up a lively opposition from the D., L. & W. steam railroad, which laid a braneh track at Maple Bay and made war upon rates, both to the resorts. and, when the Lakeside tracks were completed to Baldwinsville. The Lakeside found a way out by the purchase of the Maple Bay branch of the W., L. & W. road on February 7, 1899. By 1903 the road had twenty-two and a half miles of track, seventeen ears and fifty employes, the power house being located on Nine Mile ereek. The novelty for several years was the running of double-deck ears, the first and only ones in Central New York, which were finally abandoned for reasons of safety.
The later story of the Lakeside proved another sad page of inexperience in trolley work bringing financial trouble, not only to the company but to the men who stood by it so gallantly for the benefit of the eity and the north- western suburbs. Upon December 12, 1903, the road went into the hands of Captain W. B. Roekwell as receiver, and in the summer of 1905 was pur- chased on mortgage foreclosure by Clifford D. Beebe for five hundred and thirty thousand dollars. The road was taken over by the Syracuse, Lake -. shore & Northern Railway Company, which in 1907 made material progress upon plans to extend to Oswego. Upon Mareh 5, 1907, the State Railroad Commission gave permission for the inerease of capital stock for which it was ineorporated in 1905, from two million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to three million five hunderd thousand dollars and six hundred thous- and dollars of the bonds of the road were taken by banks in Syracuse. The extension to Phoenix was begun and nearly finished in 1907. The Baldwins-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ONONDAGA COUNTY
ville line had twenty-three cars in operation in 1907, and the earnings for the fiscal year were one hundred and thirty-eight thousand dollars.
The year 1898 was one of labor troubles for the Rapid Transit. On August 5 a strike of conductors and motormen was ordered and the cars were peaceably run to the barn and all the roads tied up. After two days, in which many odd conveyances were pressed into service, the strike was settled, the State Board of Arbitration having been called here and some accessions made to the employes. However, on November 17 following, there was still some dissatisfaction among the men and another strike was ordered. Only twenty men responded to this call, and the movement was then started by the Rapid Transit for the organization of a mutual benefit association among the employes. This was upon November 19, and December 4 following the asso- ciation, which has since been so popular with the employes and had elub rooms above the offices of the Rapid Transit in the Gridley building, was organized.
The year 1899 was another exciting one for the Rapid Transit Company, only in a different way. New transfer rules went into effect on February 28. and on March 14 William P. Gannon was made president of the company. The day following the election of officers Mayor MeGuire demanded the aboli- tion of the transfer rules, which was followed by exciting discussions as to people's rights and railroad rights. On April 21, 1899. North Side citizens with a grievance, took the law into their own hands and tore up the tracks in Butternut street. The Rapid Transit Company enjoined the city and eiti- zens, while citizens in turn enjoined the operation of cars in Butternut street. The incident proved but one of the passing storms of railroad extension. It was in 1898 that the Grace street line was extended up Dudley street to West Onondaga street and thenee almost to the city line, and this route was opened on February 12, 1899.
By 1903 the Rapid Transit had reached an extent of seventy-two and thirty-nine one-hundredths miles of track, one hundred and fifty-eight cars and five hundred employes. The extension of the road, requiring new ears and equipment, made necessary the additional ear barn in Cortland avenue, commenced in 1904 and completed and put in use in February, 1905. In 1905 the Crouse avenue line was rebuilt and extended to the University grounds, making the old terminal once used by a horse car line, which had been abandoned for the Marshall street addition past the Hospital of the Good Shepherd, which was also in turn abandoned. In 1906 and 1907 the Bellevue avenue extension was built, connecting with the South avenue and Elmwood line at Bellevue avenne, turning on Summit to Stolp and thence to the city line. South Salina street between the city line and the Seneca turn- pike was also doubletracked in 1907, and the Park street line built and opened on December 2.
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