Help Save Syracuse's Barnes-Hiscock Mansion

If you are a follower or occasional reader of this blog, then you know that I love old homes and there is a high probability that you do too. There is an old home in my hometown, Syracuse, NY, that I have a special affinity for. James Street, in that city, was once lined with remarkable homes like the Barnes-Hiscock Mansion. Over the years, they have been demolished or neglected to the point where only a small handful still survive.

Exterior view of the Barnes-Hiscock Mansion on James Street in Syracuse, NY. Photo by Eric Payne. 

In my other blog, I’ve written a little about the home because of its amazing interiors, some of which were designed by nationally renowned architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee. It doesn’t take a PhD in Art History to realize that the architectural history of the home is very rich.

Photo of the Barnes Dining Room fireplace.

Photo of the Barnes Dining Room built-in sideboard.

Equally rich is the home’s social history. It is uniquely intertwined with the history of the city of Syracuse. Because of its owners and their political and historical associations, the home has connections to Abolition and the Underground Railroad.  The home was host to many meetings of local and national politicians and activists. While in Syracuse, President Taft once stayed in the home. To see a bit of the home and its history, click the video below:

The Barnes-Hiscock Mansion is currently overseen by the George & Rebecca Barnes Foundation and the Foundation needs your help. Presently, there is a fundraising effort going on to replace and reconstruct the roof and its historic details. At this point, there is no donor that has stepped forward to single-handedly pay for this much needed restoration. Instead, the Foundation must rely on small donations from many individuals in order to fund the work and receive additional grants.

View of deteriorating portico balustrade and roof. Photo courtesy of the George & Rebecca Barnes Foundation. 

Arial view of the Barnes-Hiscock Mansion showing a makeshift patchwork of blue tarps to help protect the room. Photo from Google maps.  

Help save and restore the Barnes-Hiscock Mansion. The easiest way to give is by clicking on THIS LINK to the online fundraising campaign. No donation is too big or too small so please give what you can. It would be terrible to see this remarkable piece of our history lost forever. 

CLICK HERE TO HELP RESTORE THE ROOF

Also, please take the time to give and to follow their Facebook page to learn more about the Foundation, its activities and this amazing structure.     

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A few random shots

With all of the 90 degree weather, the garden is looking a little worse for wear these days.  I wanted to post something and pics of wilting flowers don't seem to appropriate.  I have been meaning to drop in some more photos of Split Rock since featuring it on a "10 things I like..." post just over a month ago.  This has nothing to do with houses or home improvement but it is a cool and inspiring place and I thought it would be fun to feature it here.  Hope you enjoy.  

10 things I like about the place where I grew up (in no particular order)

While visiting in Syracuse, I thought it would be neat to blog a bit about some of the things I enjoy about the place.  I've had the great fortune of living in some nice areas: Westchester County in New York State, Chicago, and Buffalo.  All of these locations have a lot of great things but like most people I tend to hold the places where I have lived to a standard based on the place where I grew up.  Here are a few things that I find myself always comparing places to.   

It's so close to so many other great places

I know, this sounds like a big cop out because it has little to do with CNY itself and more to do with the places near it.  There is still something to say about a place where day trips can easily be taken to Niagara Falls, the Thousand Islands, Adirondacks, Catskills and even New York City.   

Columbus Bakery

A bakery seems like such a simple idea.  I don't understand why so many places are lacking good bakeries.  One of the best is on the North Side of Syracuse and it's called Columbus.  Usually the bread is hot, pulled fresh from fiery ovens by bakers caked in flour. 

Architectural Ruins

I like my ruins industrial, I like them big, and I like them to have a lot of patina.  Surrounding the city of Syracuse are a number of vacant industrial areas.  Many have been "cleaned up over the years but a handful still stand as impressive reminders of the area's strong industrial heritage.  One of the best is Split Rock Quarry, located just beyond the western edge of the city.  It is best known by teenagers as a local hang-out but the place has a long history that covers mining for building stone, munitions production during World War I, and limestone supply for the Solvay Process Company.

Arts & Crafts

My Appreciation for the Arts & Crafts started at an early age.  No, the Syracuse schools don't expose their children to more pipe cleaners and glue sticks than other communities, I am talking about the Arts & Crafts movement, a period in art and architecture that favored beautiful but simple hand made furniture, artwork, publications, and other products.  With Stickley furniture, Robineau Pottery, and the architectural work of geniuses like Ward Wellington Ward, Syracuse is an undisputed center of the Arts & Crafts movement in America.   

Lombardi's

It shocks me that there are still people in Syracuse that love Italian food yet don't know about Lombardi's.  This gem of a grocery store sits at the corner of Butternut and Lodi and is THE place for fresh pastas, cheeses and Italian meats.  It is most entertaining standing in line on Christmas Eve as everyone is ordering their meat trays for the midnight celebration.  Hint: pick up a pound of Genoa Salami and then head over to Columbus for some bread.  Heaven.

Clark's Ale House

Before there were beer bars on every street corner, in just about every town, there was Clark's.  This pioneer beer drinker's paradise serves up 21 draft beers and some of the best roast beef around.  No TVs and no piped-in music, you have to resort to conversation for your only entertainment. 

Middle Ages Brewing Company

Along the same lines, if you are looking for great local brew, travel over to the near West Side and in an old ice cream factory sits Middle Ages Brewing Company.  They are always serving up ample tasters and a great variety of beers.  You can't leave without a growler or two.     

The best sledding anywhere

Syracuse draws it's water from Skaneateles Lake and stores it in reservoirs surrounding the city.  The earliest of these were located in hilltops that surround downtown and one of the most unique public parks systems was built around them.  As the city grew, larger reservoirs were needed and constructed beyond the city edges.  These huge mowed hillsides have been a favorite areas for sledding for years.  I grew up within walking distance of Westcott Reservoir.  Due to the danger of sledding there, it has been "shut down" in recent years.  I often lament that my daughter, growing up in the Midwest, will never know what sledding really is. 

Wegmans

If you've been to Wegmans, I really don't need to say more.  This place has it all.  If it is good enough to keep Alec Baldwin's mom living in CNY, then it has to be worth mentioning.

The Syracuse Savings Bank Building

I am a big fan of good architecture.  Though I live in the OP, I still haven't become a huge Frank Lloyd Wright fan.  You can keep that modern stuff (anything built after 1890).  I really like my architecture old and covered with ornament.  My adage for architectural appreciation is: "the more gargoyles, the better."  In my opinion, few people did it better than Silsbee and his finest creation still graces the eastern edge of Clinton Square in downtown Syracuse.

Awesome architecture going up. In Syracuse???

We went "home" to Syracuse for the time between Christmas and New Years and visited with family. Typically, when I am home, I like to take at least one morning and drive around a bit and take in the great old buildings around town (and to see if any of them have been torn down since I was last there). My typical "tour" consists of buildings like this one, The White Memorial Building by J. L. Silsbee: I never expect much in terms of new buildings and it usually isn’t long before I find a great old building that has been torn down and replaced with a parking lot or a butt-ugly development. It is rarely long before I am reminded why I left this place.

The city’s largest development, that has been in the works for several years now, is a mega mall that will pretty much swallow up the city in suburban Disneyesque schlock. There is a huge model of the schlock at the garishly re-decorated Carousel Mall. When Carousel was built, I often referred to it as the scary mall: it is a terrible piece of hulking, bland architecture awkwardly placed at the edge of Onondaga Lake near the mouth of the old barge canal.

The "additions" to Carousel don't seem to be much better. They continue their awkward relationship to the surrounding area with oddly-scaled "traditional-looking" protuberances. The funnier part of this development is that it intends on being the "greenest building" in the US. I don't think they just mean the color either. Now that is funny. Covering a waterfront area with enclosed mall and a sea of parking as a monument to consumerism in lieu of a traditional neighborhood development and urban parkland sounds SOOO green to me.
Anyway, I haven’t been home for a sustained period in over a year so I was shocked when, in my drive around town, I came across not one but several nice buildings. Actually, given the degree of difficulty that seems to exist to getting something nice built in Central New York, I am inclined to say these are great buildings.

The first of these has gotten much press internationally: the latest addition to the Newhouse School. It is an absolute gem designed by Polshek Partnership. It is in a prominent spot overlooking the city and seems fitting as school's alums are a list of who's who in news and sports broadcast personalities.

The next beauty is just over a block away and is the home of the new Children's Hospital. This building shouts for attention with a remarkable array of windows, materials, and huge "tree house" cantilever. It has a commanding presence alongside the majestic Crouse Irving Memorial Hospital but they seem to make a nice pair. I believe that the design is from Karlsberger, a firm that specializes in hospital design.
The third building I noticed on the hill is a building called "Link 2" and was designed by Toshiko Mori. I don't know much about it except that it is way cool looking and seems to settle nicely in the field of historic structures adjacent to the quad.

The final building I checked out is yet another Toshiko Mori design for the Center for Excellence. It is in the middle of construction but you can already tell it is going to be an awesome addition to the city. It is unfortunate that they couldn't salvage the old Smith Typewriter factory that used to be on the site and re-use that for something. I always think that if you need to tear something down, you better put something great in its place. In this instance, they did just that.
I am not quite sure what inspired Syracusans to begin building such nice buildings. My guess is that they nothing did and that these structures are not "home-grown". None of these seem to be designed by local architects and given their relation to the University, I highly doubt a local person was involved in shaping the architecture. Maybe, hopefully, I am wrong in this assumption and that someone in this town is starting to wake up.

As I said, all of the new buildings are in one way or another connected to the University so my hope that this same kind of inspiration might soon be shared with the residential and public developments as well is pretty low. Plenty of evidence seems to support my concerns. There is a not so great building going up in Armory Square, adding to the mediocre array of new developments in this area of otherwise awesome turn of the century warehouse and wholesale structures. Also, plenty of incredible structures stand vacant in the downtown area, desperately in need of attention. Sadly, I don't see Mayor Driscoll or Bob Congel spearheading great developments in downtown that mirror the ones mentioned above anytime soon. Either way, it is nice to see that some things are changing for the better in CNY. Hopefully it will start to become contagious.

Getting My Arts and Crafts Fix

When ever I mention my appreciation for arts & crafts to someone, I often get an odd look. I immediately imagine a bubble forming over their head with an image of an animal made out of pipe cleaners, a birdhouse made with Popsicle sticks, or a fabric-painted cartoon sweatshirt. Mmm.. …no.

An odd thing is that I get this confused reaction more from the people I know in Central New York than in any other place where I mention it. Little do most CNYers realize, with Stickley Furniture, Robineau Pottery, and the architectural practice of Ward Wellington Ward, their home was once a cultural center with a great number of individuals focused on the Arts & Crafts movement. In addition to these local purveyors of the movement, many local patrons worked with people from other parts of the country and masterworks from people like John LaFarge, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Frank Lloyd Wright and countless others dot the Upstate NY landscape.

Obviously, the "Arts & Crafts" that I am talking about includes things like mortise and tenon joinery, natural wood, art glass, fine pottery. Since my fellow housebloggers detest this kind of stuff (ha ha), I apologize in advance for boring you with some pics.

Unfortunately, while in Buffalo, we did not get to visit many of my favorite Arts & Crafts landmarks there. I did do my ritualistic drive by all of the Silsbee homes there but that is about it. Incidentally, I am always prepared to drive by and find one torn down. Buffalo might have been a bust but I did have some time to do a bit of sightseeing while visiting Syracuse.
On our way into Syracuse, we stopped in to see the Willard Memorial Chapel. I have known about this place for some time but have not taken the time to see it. This is a perfect place to go touring with a 3 year old! (sarcasm). While I ogled at the art glass, fine lighting fixtures, exquisite tile and stencil work, my daughter danced around the chapel nave singing a song from one of her favorite TV shows. I thought it was hilarious. I am not sure that the other tourists felt the same.Supposedly this is the only intact Tiffany designed chapel. We have also visited the chapel designed for the Worlds Columbian Exposition, parts of which are on display in Winter Park, FL. This one is as nice and in some ways more impressive. It is a remarkable place (understatement) and a must see for anyone driving in the vicinity of Auburn, NY.
We stayed in Syracuse our final weekend of the vacation and on Saturday I took some time to visit the new Stickley museum. Holy crap this place was cool and it really surprised me. While growing up, the old Stickley factory was used as an outlet store for the company. I don’t exactly remember what shape it was in then but it has recently been converted into the Fayetteville Public Library. The second floor of the factory is now home to the Stickley Museum - Incredible!I was told that only about 10% of their collection was on view at the moment. It was great – an exhibit of furniture from 1901 through the present that included highlights like Gustav’s own personal bedroom set and pieces owned by Barbra Streisand. It showed me a lot that I didn’t know about the company and the various designs. Like the chapel, this too is well worth the trip to anyone that is in the area. I didn’t get the overdose of architectural sites I had hoped for but all in all, it was a nice vacation.