Dell Street Gets its Due (and Deli)

Syracuse, NY. Dell Street, seen from Westcott Street. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2026

vSyracuse, NY. Dell Street, south side with original Cone Store and Parker house. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2026

Syracuse, NY. Dell Street shown on 1892 Vose map. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2026

Dell Street Gets its Due (and Deli: Part I

by Samuel D. Gruber 

Dell Street is one of the smallest streets in Syracuse's Westcott neighborhood, but it is also one of the oldest. The short street connects Westcott and South Beech Streets. It is also the terminus of Columbus Ave., formerly known as South Park.  

Many of the houses on the south side of the street are already indicated on the 1892 property map. They closely resemble those on the 700 block of South Beech Street and the 500 block of Columbus, indicating the development of this area at about the same time. Taken together, this represents one of the oldest intact segments of the Westcott Neighborhood, National Register Historic District. 

Most of the houses on Dell and South Beech Streets retain much of their original appearance, but few are owner occupied, and all are at risk of "vinylization," as has happened to much of nearby and contemporary Westcott Street and Columbus Avenue houses north of Dell.  Fortunately, University Hill Real Estate, which owns many of the houses on Dell, is investing to maintain their historic exterior appearance of this historic corridor..

University Hill Real Estate is owned by Norm Roth, and one of Norm's favorite properties is 120-122 Dell Street on the south side of the street. This is the oldest commercial property in the Westcott area and perhaps on the entire Eastside. The Cone Store, now 120 Dell Street, was built around 1892 (it is indicated on the 1892 Vose map) and is remarkably well-preserved. Last month it opened to the public again again, now as a Deli on Dell street. 

The building appears to have been purpose-built for commercial use, either as a grocery or general store, though perhaps with living quarters above. City directories indicate it was operated for many years by F. Cone - but it is confusing, since Cone is not listed in every directory. It was also used as the first (?) polling place in the neighborhood, and over the decades has housed many businesses, including a barber shop. It is the most unusual structure on the street; its form harks back to its commercial origins in the 1890s. 

Syracuse, NY. 120 Dell Street. Former Cone Store, ca. 1892, now Deli on Dell.  Photo: Samuel Gruber 2026.

120 Dell Street is a two-and-one-half story frame structure, with flush board siding beneath a hipped roof. It  is one of the first buildings erected on the street and was intended from the start to serve a commercial purpose.  The store is a wood frame version of the more substantial brick commercial buildings, that were more common downtown and in more established neighborhoods (such as can still be seen on North Salina Street). Originally Cone’s Store, the building also served as the local polling place. In a sense, it was the beginning of the Westcott Commercial District.  In 1930 (as 122 Dell St.), it was still a grocery store, and in 1940 (as 126 Dell St.), it was a florist and barbershop.  Former Common Councilor Nancy McCarty once told me that her father worked as a barber in the building.  In 1950 (as 122 Dell St) it was the Blue Orchid Hair Salon and next door at 124 Dell St. was Master Dry Cleaning and Dying Company.

We have only a few other neighborhood stores from this period in the city. Perhaps most comparable is Healy's Store  / Babian's Market at 401-403 Hawley Street, probably built around 1850, which is the oldest commercial building in the Hawley-Green National Register Historic District. Also on Hawley is the much larger mixed-use structure from 1884 at 101-105 Green (intersection with Hawley) that now houses Hairanoia. On the Southside is the brick Sumner Hunt Building, erected as a general store in 1878, and now the home to OnaJava Soul Cafe. 

Syracuse, NY. 401-03 Hawley Avenue, former Healy's Store, ca. 1850. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2016.

Syracuse, NY.  101-107 Green Street (intersection with Hawley). mixed-use building, 1884. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2016.

Syracuse, NY. 1555 South Salina Street. Sumner Hunt Building, 1878, built as a general store. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2026.

Syracuse, NY. 120 Dell Street. Former Cone Store, ca. 1892. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018.

 The Cone Store commercial front is surmounted by a projecting cornice and very low and shallow shed roof which are supported by wooden brackets. It was designed with a first-floor store front of two bays of unequal width,  each with large windows, which today rise from low brick wall.  Windows and doors are surmounted by horizontal transom windows; six over the east (left) bay and three on the west (right) bay. The tall upper story is marked by chamfered corners with tall windows facing Dell Street. The corners are decorated with tall slender turned spindles that support corner valences and tall and wide gabled dormer surmounts the roof, exactly centered on the north facade. The dormer is decorated with a half-moon window from which two wood elements curve upward to meet the returning eaves of the gable. At some point in recent decades the surface of the dormer was filled with an abstract mosaic, but this is badly deteriorated, and the underlying lathe is exposed' 

Syracuse, NY. Dell Street shown on 1892 Vose map. Photo: Samuel Gruber.

Syracuse, NY. Dell Street shown on 1908 Hopkins map. All the lots have been filled. Photo: Samuel Gruber.

The north side of Dell Street was developed afterward, but the style of many of the houses suggests the gap in time was slight, though a few houses were probably added as late as 1900. Thre Hopkins map of 1908 shows that all lots on the street had been developed.  

The American Legion Dunbar Post 1642, at 129 Dell Street, occupies a building at the corner of Dell Street and Columbus that was once the local Oddfellow’s Hall. Thus, before the commercial development of Westcott Street in the 1920s, the short stretch of Dell Street was central to the growing neighborhood. 

Syracuse, NY. 119 Dell Street. American Legion Dunbar Post, Former Oddfellows Hall, ca. 1900. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2018

Syracuse, NY. 119 Dell Street. American Legion Dunbar Post, Former Oddfellows Hall, ca. 1900. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2026

The addition of paving and sidewalks to the streets in the Westcott neighborhood came gradually, but was mostly complete north of Euclid Avenue by around 1900. In 1890 it was reported that residents (probably of the area from Fayette Street south to Dell Street) had petitioned the city for paving either in asphalt, asphaltina, or vitrified brick. Over some local protests, the city awarded the contract to the low bidder for asphaltina (The Evening Herald, 4 April 1890).  The grading of Dell and other streets and the addition of sewers took place throughout the 1890s and we find several notices of this work, approved by the city.

·       “Grading South Park and Helen Street from Henry Ave.  to Dell Street” Syracuse Standard, June 7, 1892

·       15” tile sewer in Dell Street from Westcott to Beech St. Evening Herald, Aug 15, 1893

·       “The city engineer was directed to establish the grade for the sidewalk on the south side of Dell street from Westcott to Beech” (Evening Herald, Nov 9, 1897

Even as the Westcott Street Commercial district developed and went through various transformations, the asymmetrical intersection of Westcott Street at Dell Street and Harvard Place, remained the northern hub. There was the Cone store and the Odd Fellows Hall, and in 1897 Erwin Methodist Church built (actually moved) its home to Westcott Street at Harvard Place (then Phelps), just across from Dell Street (see map detail).

The Church got its start in 1888 in a house belonging to Alfred Gough at the corner of Hawthorne and Bassett Streets. The congregation gained possession of its property in 1892, at which time a modest church building may have been erected.  In 1897 the congregation sold this lot to the city as the location for the new Bassett School, and moved (and possibly expanded) the building to the corner of Westcott St. and Phelps (now Harvard) Place. The church moved again in 1913 to its current home on Euclid Avenue between Westcott Street and Roosevelt Avenue.

The link between Dell street and the church was strong, as a house on the street was provided by 1902 for the pastor Rev. George Fosbinder.

·       “Evening service at 5 o'clock. The Sunday School Board of Erwin Methodist Church held an adjourned meeting last night at the home of the pastor. Rev. George Fosbinder, No. 205 Dell street. M. A. Hudson will address the First Ward Chevaliers at noon to-morrow. Rev. W. B. Dada. will occupy the pulpit of the Elm wood Presbyterian Church to- morrow morning...” (Post-Standard, October 25, 1902).

Rev. Fosbinder, and his successor Rev. Melville Wells, were joined on the street between 1901 and 1905 by a range of working- and (what we would call today) middle-class people in a variety of jobs.

Dell Street residents as listed in 1894 City Directory.

Dell Street residents as listed in 1896 City Directory.

Dell Street residents as listed in 1900 City Directory.

Based on the City Directories, the residents on Dell Street included these professions:

bookkeeper, brakeman, cashier, clerk, [streetcar?] conductor, dressmaker, foreman, grocer (Mr. Cone), machinist, manager, mason, painter, postal clerk, real estate agent, widow

The professions of those who lived on the 700 block of South Beech block were similar. In 1900 these included:

brakeman, carpenter (4), conductor, contractor, deputy, dressmaker (2), engineer (2), grocer, laborer manager, physician, plumber, principal, real estate, salesman, teacher, teamster (2), watchman, widow.

While the street was being improved in 1890s, Joanna M. Campbell was selling lots on Dell Street for the erection of houses, and this continued throughout the 1890s. We have a few notices of these transactions:

·       “Joanna M. Campbell to George L. Booth, 120 feet front on Dell Street” (Sept 30, 1890)

·       “For Sale, $5,000 – No. 201 [291?] Dell Street, 14^th Ward, new modern dwelling” Evening Herald Jan 21, 1891

·       For sale, a bargain, two lots, one in Westcott and one in Beech near Dell street.  Price $00, worth $600 ((?).  Sewer and city water in street. (Sunday Herald, Sept 12 1897).

Enough of these were built or started in time to be indicated on the 1892 Vose map.

By 1901, fully built houses on Dell Street were being offered for sale. It is not clear whether these were new, but the language of the notices suggests they had already been occupied. These sale notices provide us with the earliest descriptions of the houses on the street,

·       “FOR SALE—As executor, to close an estate 1 will sell on or before the 20th of April a modern, up-to-date one-family house, 101 Dell street, Seventeenth Ward, one block from Westcott street. The house contains nine rooms, good grouted cellar, new furnace, combination gas and electric light fixtures, and the best lead plumbing. House modern in every respect. Street graded and sewered. Yours for $3.100. For further particulars call on William J. Apps, 609 Kirk Bldg.” (Post-Standard,  April 16, 1901)

This tells us that at the time houses were fitted with both gas and electric. At the time it was not certain which utility would become the favorite.  Eventually electricity won out and gas fixtures were converted, often with electrical wires through the old gas tubes and new (often bare) bulbs inserted where gas jets formerly burned. We also read - more than a century ago - the lead water pipes were the preferred norm. 

·       “For sale or to let from May next, the newly painted 2-story frame 1 house, with all improvements, located the corner of Dell street and Columbus avenue. Will be to let if not sold ......” (Post-Standard, April 20, 1902)

By 1894 the City directory lists eight houses, numbered 100, 101, 102, 103, 108, 110, 203 and 205. In 1896 there are ten distinct addresses with some carry-over of names on the streets (but the house numbers have changed). By 1900 none of the residents of 1894 or 1896, save one, are listed as living on the street. Aurelia Foster is listed as living at 205 Dell in 1894, and Theodore and Mrs. Amelia Foster are listed there in 1896. Quite likely Aurelia and Amelia are the same, but a transcription error gave this person two names. Theodore Foster is still listed at 205 Dell in 1900, as a sec(retary) when Rev. Fosbinder is living there, but there is no mention of Aurelia/Amelia. Presumably the Fosters were in some way connected with the church.

While the city directories are not entirely reliable, they do suggest that the still-nascent neighborhood had a transient population, and that rooms in houses, and whole houses, were likely for rent. This is confirmed in some newspaper notices by 1902 when houses are listed “for sale or let.”

Next up:    I'll describe some of the surviving houses in more detail in a future post about Dell Street.