Deco Delight or Mostly Modern?: The Chaumont Apartments, 502 University Avenue

Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2014

Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2013

Deco Delight or mostly Modern?: The Chaumont Apartments, 502 University Avenue

One of the many ironies of the development of the Connective Corridor on University Avenue is that for more than a decade before the project the University had pursued a continuing program of acquisition and demolition of older properties, leading to the much of the desolation of the street that was used, in part, to justify its redevelopment.  Yes, the money has (mostly) come from government sources intended to "save the rain" but it was the policy of demolition over renovation that caused that particular street - of the many north-south axis on the Hill, to receive attention.  Gone are the Wyatt House and the former Chancellor's House, both of which I watched as they were torn down.

One building that was spared - and a good thing too - since it is one of the few properties on the street that pays taxes - is the brick apartment house at 502 University Avenue, just south of Madison Street.  Known as the Chaumont Apartments when it opened in late 1928, the building is a proto-modern structure that sits on the cusp of the stylistic change between Art Deco and the International Style.

 Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2014

The Chaumont Apartments, developed by Ben Menter and designed by architect James F. Schindler,  was one of many apartment houses erected throughout the city in the late 1920s, and especially in 1928 ad 1929, that were built quickly to cash in on a booming housing market, and combined practical and efficient design and use of material with just the minimum of decoration to provide the residents with a little class.  The building was erected of "brick, tile and steel," (Syracuse Herald April 4, 1928) and is reported to have cost about $65,000 to build. 

The most distinctive features are the decorative designs made of brick patterns.  Similar designs - an attractive and very inexpensive type of decoration - can also be found on contemporary low-scale commercial buildings such a those found nearby on Westcott and East Genesee Street.  The decorative patterning maintains the building's flat walls and and simple rectangular geometry.  Only a slightly raised attic level parapet wall atop the facade breaks the box.  The Chaumont is right across the street from the classical style Temple Concord, built in 1910-11.  The flat simple geometry of apartment is in scale with the Temple, and its plainness offers a nice foil to the older more monumental building.  

Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928). Dtl of decorative brick.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2014

Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928). Dtl of decorative brick.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2014

If anyone has information on either Menter or Schindler, please let me know.  I suspect Menter was Jewish - just by his name - but also because the location of the building was close to the heart of the Jewish neighborhood of the 1920s.  In addition to Concord, Temple Adath was erected just a few years earlier jut one block southwest.

Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928), view from south.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2014

Syracuse, NY. 502 University Avenue. The Chaumont Apartments (1928), view from nortth.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2014