The Historic Designed Landscapes of Syracuse, New York
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(June 1991) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC PLACES NW | 6 MULTIPLE PROPERTY DOCUMENTATION FORM This form is for use in documenting multiple property historic contexts. See instructions in How to Complete Documentation Form (National Register Bulletin 16B). Co ilatea aaeh item Ly eiiLcrliiy Li requested information. For additional space, use continuation sheets (Form 10-900-a). Use a typewriter, word processor, or computer to complete all items. [XI New Submission [ ] Amended Submission A. Name of Multiple Property Listing The Historic Designed Landscapes of Syracuse, New York B. Associated Historic Contexts (Name each associated historic context, identifying theme, geographical area, and chronological period of each.) Early National Period, 1785-1840 Romantic Period, 1840-1890 The City Beautiful Movement and Progressive Era, 1893-1930 The Country Place Era, 1890-1930 The Depression Years, 1930-1940 C. Form Prepared by Landscape & Prospect Project Staff: Landscape Architects and Cultural Resource Planners Dudley C. Breed, Jr., principal 23 9 East Water Street Marc J. Morfei, project manager Syracuse, New York 13202 Christine B. Lozner, consultant (315)422-8912 Peter V. Auyer, consultant July 1994 D. Certification As the designated authority under the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended, I hereby certify that this documentation form meets the National Register documentation standards and sets forth requirements for the listing of related properties consistent with the National Register criteria. This submission meets the procedural and professional requirements set forth in 36 CFR Part 60 and the Secretary of the Interior's Standards and Guidelines for Archeology and Historic Preservation. ([ ] See continuation sheet for additional comments.) Si< :ure of certif cial Date State or Federal agency and bureau I, hereby, certify that this multiple property documentation form has been approved by the National Register as a basis for evaluating related properties for listing in the National Register. Signature of the Keeper Date of Action United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places The Historic L esigned• - ¥j Continuation Sheet of S fracuse, , Section E Page 1 strfJKm5ME!SS.BP§5ai«!Ps DIVISION SECTION E: STATEMENT OF HISTORIC CONTEXTS Located throughout the city's 16,432 acres, Syracuse's historic designed landscapes include seven major property types. These landscapes may be historically important through association with the social, political and cultural development of the city from its settlement period in the late eighteenth century through the period of significance ending c!940. Varying from early public squares to mid-nineteenth century rural cemeteries to recreation parks of the 1930s, the landscapes are potentially significant as well in the area of landscape architecture as local evidence of regional, state and national trends in landscape design from the country's early national period through the Depression era. For ease of discussion the city's designed landscape history will be divided into time periods based on identifiable national activities in the field of landscape architecture. To ensure relevancy for Syracuse, the context statement will be confined largely to landscape history in the Northeast and Middle Atlantic regions and to the property types identified for this project. Early National Period 1785-1840 Syracuse During the Early National Period Syracuse's first historic designed landscapes, consisting of public squares, cemeteries and residential gardens, developed naturally as components of the original townscape during the city's settlement period at the turn of the nineteenth century. For several reasons permanent habitation in Syracuse and the surrounding area was delayed until the close of the Revolutionary War. Prior to the settlement era, roads leading to upstate New York were primitive, often little more than Indian trails unsuitable for wagon traffic, and travel along them was slow and torturous. The old water route to central New York, the Mohawk River to Wood Creek and Oneida Lake, bypassed the Syracuse area to the north and, with long portages, water travel too was difficult. In addition, the land where the city's business district now lies was an inhospitable wooded swamp feared as a source of disease. (For a more full account of Syracuse's pre-settlement period, see City of Syracuse, Reconnaissance Level Survey of Historic Resources, 1992). With travel difficult and portions of the city's natural landscape unwelcoming, there was little inducement to settle the area until the close of the Revolution when the lure of free land and salt manufacture was sufficient to overcome earlier obstacles to area growth. 0MB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places The Historic Designed Landscapes Continuation Sheet of Syracuse, New York Section E Page 2 Statement of Historic Contexts In 1789-90, the New Military Tract was laid out in a rectilinear grid of townships and mile-square lots on +1,500,000 acres of former Iroquois land acquired by New York State through a 1788 treaty. The Tract encompassed today's Onondaga, Cortland, Cayuga and Seneca counties along with portions of four others. The concept of the Military Tract originated during the Revolutionary War as a means of raising troops who were offered land bounties in return for service. A product of the period's rational, Enlightenment mindset, the rectilinear grid was a pragmatic means of rapidly dividing large blocks of land to meet the demands of a public intent on moving westward. As a framework for settlement, the survey grid imposed a spatial order on the region's surface still visible in field patterns, political boundaries and road networks. The city of Syracuse occupies the northern part of a reservation retained by the Onondagas in the 1788 treaty; the treaty also set aside a separate strip around Onondaga Lake for joint use by the Indians and the state in the manufacture of salt. Known as the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation, this area included land now within the city limits. Finally, via a 1795 treaty, title to all Indian land in the Syracuse area, with the exception of today's Onondaga Reservation south of the city, passed to New York State. Subsequent deeds within the city area rest on these early treaties between the Onondagas and the state. While New York soon sold much of the newly acquired land, several hundred acres, largely within today's city, remained under public control in connection with the developing salt industry. The city's first settlers actually arrived before the completion of the Military Tract survey and the large-scale distribution of free land it afforded. In 1786, the first European American settler, New Englander Ephriam Webster, set up a trading post at the mouth of Onondaga Creek near the center of today's city. In 1788, he encouraged Asa Danforth and Comfort Tyler to settle in Onondaga Valley or Hollow, as it was called, where the availability of good arable farmland soon drew an influx of emigrants from New England and elsewhere, eager to acquire newly available land. Arriving via the Seneca Turnpike, the area's first major east-west road, they established an active community at the southern edge of the present city. During this early period, emigrant farmers also settled in upland areas of Manlius, Pompey, Tully and other towns surrounding today's Syracuse. By 1789-90, the lure of salt brought squatters to "Salt Point," the land jointly held by the state and Indians at the southeast end of Onondaga Lake, and salt manufacture effectively began. These first settlements in the valley and along the lake were connected by an early road, originally an Indian trail and now generally the route of Salina Street. With the two fledgling communities established, Syracuse's first historic designed landscapes evolved at the close of the eighteenth century as a natural, albeit planned, result of area growth. Their original organic relationship to the surrounding community remains largely intact today. Washington Park, considered the earliest of the city's designed landscapes (see Property Type: Public Spaces), lies at the center of what was the village of Salina. During the 1790s the number of salt boilers at Salt Point grew as demand for salt in the expanding nation increased. In response, in 1798, the state ordered the laying out of a village on high 0MB No. 1024-0018 United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places The Historic Designed Landscapes Continuation Sheet of Syracuse, New York Section E Page 3 Statement of Historic Contexts ground east of the lake. Overlooking boiling operations closer to the lake, Salina, as the village was called, was laid out on a grid plan. Employed on the New Military Tract within a national context of large scale land division, the grid-style plan was also practical on a small scale. Evidence of its practicality occurred in settlement plans beginning with William Penn's 1683 concept for Philadelphia and continuing in many communities throughout the nation. In using the grid pattern, Penn and city developers who followed him looked to the European Renaissance tradition of rational, Cartesian planning that had, in the sixteenth century, replaced earlier medieval prototypes characterized by congestion and irregularity. Considered a progressive planning concept when first applied to the North American continent, the grid plan was selected by town developers as the most effective way to promote healthful living conditions, equality of opportunity for all and a sense of community identity.1 In many localities, including Syracuse, the grid was also a means of preplanning future urban expansion, easily accommodated by extending the original rectilinear layout. Like most designed landscapes, Washington Park had an important social role, functioning as a center of village life for Salina.