Fayette Park's Other Firefighter: The Philip Eckel Monument

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument in original location at North Salina, State and Butternut Street intersection. From Views of Syracuse, N.Y. (Portland, Maine: Lyman H. Nelson Co. n.d.)

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008.

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008. For a portrait of photo portrait of Eckel click here.

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008.

Fayette Park's Other Firefighter: The Philip Eckel Monument
by Samuel D. Gruber

Continuing the theme of Syracuse Firefighters, begun with the recent posts about Engine House Number 10 and the Hamilton White Monument, it is time to give some consideration to the Philip Eckel Monument, also now situated in Fayette Firefighters Memorial Park, but once proudly displayed at an important intersection on the city's Northside, in the heart of what was once a strong German immigrant neighborhood, where it was dedicated in 1900.  

The history of the Eckel monument is a good lesson on the history of local fame, immigrant pride, city traffic, and public taste.  What was one of the most visible public monuments in Syracuse is now hidden away among the foliage of Fayette Park.  

Philip Eckel (1827-1886) was one of the Syracuse German communities most prominent members, and at the time of his death he was the city's second full time fire commissioner.  He had distinguished himself in the Civil War as First Lieutenant under fellow immigrant Captain Nicholas Grumbach in the Syracuse German Company B, of 149th New York Infantry Regiment. Following the war Eckel was Captain of the No. 2 volunteer fire company of Syracuse (like his army company, comprised mostly of German-Americans).  

Eckel then served as the city's fire chief until his untimely death on June 1, 1886, when he was "thrown from a horse-drawn vehicle while on his way to fight a blaze."  The Philip Eckel Monument was dedicated fourteen years later, on August 22, 1900. In the monument, dressed in his firefighter's great coast and clasping his fire trumpet, he maintains a military posture.
  

Eckel once again stood proud in his old neighborhood, overseeing the comings and goings on State, North Salina and Butternut Streets, one of the city's busiest intersections, presiding over Northside traffic - or at least watching the trolley cars pass by.  This was a common placement for public monuments at the turn of the 20th century, helping to give form and focus to urban space before automobile traffic became overwhelming. I have written about other examples such as the Civil War monument in Brandon,Vermont and the equestrian statue of George Washington in Paris.

As the German population left the Northside for new city neighborhoods, and then for more outlying areas, and the new Oswego highway (now part of I-81) was built, Eckel was moved, too. Today, the monument is well maintained, but largely forgotten, standing in a (sometimes full) pool of water, a stolid granite wader in a sculpture park. The basin is a remainder of an earlier water feature of the park.  

The statue was first moved to a nearby triangular plot at the intersection of North Salina and Pearly Streets, renamed Eckel Park,in the early 1960s to accommodate the Oswego Highway, which mostly follows the route of the old Oswego Canal.  There it was soon obscured by trees and vandalized, leading to its removal in the 1979 to Fayette Park, at which time the park was renamed Fayette Firefighters memorial Park. The triangular part still exists (almost opposite Columbus Bakery), though it is somewhat scruffy space, it offers a bit of greenery and shade in an otherwise asphalt and concrete cityscape.
 
For a biography of Eckel click here.

For more photos click here

In an early 20th-century postcard view one sees Eckel standing erect, almost an equal to the spires of two German churches behind on Butternut Street.  There were actually three Lutheran churches at the intersection of Butternut and Prospects Streets.  The spire on the right is the former Zion Lutheran Church.  Like Eckel,and most of the German presence of the neighborhood, these churches are gone, too.  The monument was first moved to the intersection of North Salina and Pearl Streets. Construction of Interstate 81 forced its final move downtown.  

Eckel's remembered exhortation "Come On Boys" is writ large beneath his feet.  A masonic sign  wit ha big "G" (for German?) is on the side of the monument.  Very notable are the four stone fire hydrants that adorn the four corners of the monument base. 

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008.

 

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument Fayette Firefighters' Memorial Park. photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2008.

The sober granite monument was designed by Carrick Brothers, the St. Johnsbury, Vermont based company that was known for its many Civil War monuments.  Carrick opened a Syracuse office in the 1890's.  The monument, which has striking similarities to contemporary civil War memorials,  was paid for by subscription the city's firefighters and policemen.

Syracuse, NY. Philip Eckel Monument in original location at North Salina, State and Butternut Street intersection. From postcard.

Sources:

Case, Richard G. 1977. “Old Philip faces new shake-up,” Syracuse Herald American (Aug. 21, 1977)

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mstone/eckel-p-obit.html