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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Goethe-Schiller Monument. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
Syracuse High Points 5: Schiller Park
by Samuel D. Gruber
It’s been a long time since Luna and I posted on a Syracuse High Point, but today we
went and walked in Schiller Park on the Northside, so here’s some history and
some pictures – combing some earlier ones from 2017 with those of today. Today,
the park is over 37 acres in size with about three miles of road and is
surrounded by Oak Street, Rugby Road, Farmer Street, Whitwell Drive and
Highland Street. I wanted to go to do
some new photography of the three Ward Wellington Ward designed houses built for
the Ziegler Family at the Oak sSreet entrance, and Luna was game to join me. I’ll
write about this in another post. As the
photos show, there are lots of steps in the park, and lots of opportunities for
climbing.
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Steps. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Luna climbing steps. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2017 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Steps. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2017 |
Schiller Park culminates in the “Roudtop” which is a drumlin, and one of the highest
points on the Northside. Further north, on a smaller rise, is the grand
Goethe-Schiller Monument with the two famous German writers looking west to the
city’s turn-of-the-20th-century German neighborhoods.
Schiller Park has its origins on May 27, 1901, when the Syracuse Common Council approved
spending $25,000 to purchase 23.5 acres of “Round Top Park” for a designated public
park. This was the heyday of both
Syracuse population growth, and the movement to provide parks and other public
amenities to the public, many of whom were recent immigrants. Streetcars could get some people out to the country,
but it was important to bring some of the country into the city.
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Paths to the Roundtop. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Luna approaches the Roundtop. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Luna at the Roundtop. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Luna on a lower path. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. View form the Roundtop. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
It served
as lookout in the French and Indian War in the 18th century, and had been St. Cecilia’s Roman Catholic
cemetery in part of the 19th century. The remnants of the cemetery were removed after
the sale in 1901. This presumably
included the human remains as well as all the grave markers. The Roundtop the
highest point in the park and when the foliage is not too thick one gets a
great view of Downtown. Even in the summer,
the towers of some churches and the AXA towers are in view.
The
area was formally renamed Schiller Park on July 3, 1905, in recognition of the
famed German writer and in recognition of the city’s strong Northside German population.
Additional land was added in 1907 and the entire tract was laid out as a park
in 1910, and a landscape design by David Campbell, who was Superintendent of Parks
for the city, was implemented beginning in 1911. The large statue of Goethe and Schiller was also
installed in 1911 at the north end of the park – reached by a steep staircase from
the west.
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Goethe-Schiller Monument. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Goethe-Schiller Monument. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
The original Goethe–Schiller Monument is in Weimar, Germany and incorporates Ernst Rietschel's 1857 bronze double
statue of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller
(1759–1805), both revered figures in German literature.
This monument spawned many others to the writers around the world - and four exact copies of Rietschel's statue were
commissioned by German-Americans in the United States in San Francisco (1901), Cleveland (1907), Milwaukee (1908), and Syracuse
(1911).
From Wikipedia: "Goethe and Schiller both lived in
Weimar, and were the seminal figures of a literary movement known as Weimar
Classicism. The bronze figures of the Goethe–Schiller statue are
substantially larger than life-size; notably, both are given the same height, though in life Goethe was nearly 20 cm shorter than Schiller. In Weimar, the figures were mounted on a large stone pedestal in front of the Court
Theater that Goethe had directed, and that had seen premieres and countless
performances of Schiller's plays. Goethe is on the left, his
left hand resting lightly on Schiller's shoulder. Goethe grasps a laurel wreath
in his right hand, and Schiller's right hand is stretched out toward the
wreath. Goethe wears the formal court dress of the era; Schiller is in ordinary
dress."
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Goethe-Schiller Monument seen from the Roundtop. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Goethe-Schiller Monument seen from the Roundtop. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2019 |
Schiller Park also has a lovely swimming pool with a great view of the city. My son Jonah used to be a lifeguard there. Here's a photo of the pool full at the height of summer, and the view today, with the season over.
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Swimming pool. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2009 |
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| Syracuse, NY. Schiller Park. Swimming pool. Photo: Samuel Gruber 20i9 |
Read about other Syracuse High Points here:
4. Scottholm Terrace
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