The Most Beautiful Houses: North McBride Street

Syracuse. NY. 306 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Syracuse. NY. 306 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Syracuse. NY. 304 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Syracuse. NY. 306 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

The Most Beautiful Houses: North McBride Street
by Samuel D. Gruber

Syracuse. NY. 306 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Few would disagree that the late 19th-century Queen Anne style is the most intricate and ornamental of all the popular residential architectural styles that came and went during the 19th-century. We call that period the Victorian era - though why I am not sure - since we are in America, not the UK.  Perhaps it is better to think of the decades after the Civil War as the Gilded Age, a name that refers to the ostentatious display of wealth of the elite - the one percent of the day. The term was first applied by historians in the 1920s (another period of rampant materialism), inspired by Mark Twain's satiric tale The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, first published in 1873. But the term also aptly refers to the delicate decoration (more cake icing than gold leaf)  that adorned so many houses built from the 1870s until the Depression of  the 1890s, after which there was a widespread embrace of Renaissance and Classical motifs in architecture and throughout the visual arts.

Syracuse was once filled with houses in the Queen Anne style with a full display of ornate wrap-around porches, turrets and towers, and all sorts of decorated doorways, windows, dormers and every shape of roof.  Variations of these elements are sometimes called "stick style" or "Eastlake-inspired," due to the abundance use of machine-turned wooden deocrative spindled, raisl, brackets and other elements. It was all part of the same fashion; one that also filled these house interiors with alcoves and niches, chock-a-block with the plentiful ornamental nick-knacks that delighted the consumer world of the 1870s and 1880s, and left that era's heirs awash in bric-a-brac.  

Plentiful examples of the style once lined West Onondaga Street, Danforth Street, the Walnut Park area, the Westcott Neighborhood, and elsewhere. To my mind, some the prettiest and best preserved (restored) Queen Anne houses are a surviving pair of houses on the east side of the 300 block of North McBride Street, on the western edge of the Hawley-Green National Register Historic District (designated 1979). There were built in the early 1880s and renovated in 1981-82. Their restoration, soon after the designation of the District, helped spark renewed interest in the history and architecture of the area. 

 Syracuse, NY. 300 block of N. McBride Street (middle left). Detail from

Atlas of the city of Syracuse, Onondaga County, New York  (New York : J.W. Vose & co., 1892).

Both houses are especially noteworthy for their applied decoration - the wooden porches and window frames that give the otherwise boxy buildings expansive and visually stimulating appearances. They were restored with the woodwork painted in bright colors. The two houses were sold in 2015 and I see that some work is taking place on 306 now, and I hope this will not mar the house's appearance.

Number 304, built for real estate agent Edward Townsend, is a wood-frame clapboard-covered house with much stick style ornament and a noteworthy sunburst design in the roof gable. Next door, the brick #306 was built for Alfred E. Lewis, an executive at the Syracuse Saving Bank. The building houses the feminist bookstore My Sister's Words from 1987 until 2003. 

Both houses are fronted with porches with gazebos. A former carriage house which may have belong to one of these houses or another now demolished structure, is situated in the back, at 306 ½ North McBride Street, and has been renovated with two residential units. The noted architect Archimedes Russell has been suggested as the designer of both houses, but there is no confirming evidence. A third house at the north end of the row has been demolished, as well as two other large houses across the street. 

 

Syracuse. NY. 304 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Syracuse. NY. 306 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

Other fine and well-preserved examples of the Queen Anne style can be found at 405 Hawley Avenue and 701 Lodi Street, but in addition to those on North McBride, the most impressive houses in the style are along the 200 block of Green Street. On the other side of James Street 500 and 714 North McBride are note worthy houses of the 1890s. More on these in another post.
 

Variety of form and especially building profile as well as the use of vivid color were hallmarks of the Queen Anne style. Sadly, most reminders of the gaiety of time are in sepia or black and white and it it often hard to imagine the that despite the sometimes haze of coal smoke, the 19th-century was a color-mad time. What Lewis Mumford dubbed the "Brown Decades" were not, in fact, always so brown.  

Syracuse. NY. 306 1/2 North McBride Street. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2015

My Upcoming Lecture: "Temple Concord, Jewish Architecture and City Beautiful"

My Upcoming Lecture: "Temple Concord, Jewish Architecture and City Beautiful"

You are invited to the upcoming (free) illustrated talk “Temple Concord, Jewish Architecture and City Beautiful,” at Temple Concord next Monday, April 11, at 6 pm.

The talk is part of the on-going celebration of the centennial the National Register listed sanctuary which will culminate with a public re-dedication in September. The talk, co-sponsored by Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY), is part of Temple Concord’s ongoing series featuring Syracuse University faculty presenting their work to an audience further down the Hill.

I will discuss the architecture of Temple Concord in the context of American synagogue design, the evolution of Reform Judaism and as an example of early 20th century civic architecture.



The talk will address several of my ongoing research/activist interests – synagogue architecture, the history of urban planning, and the past and future of Syracuse. Just as today; Concord when designed and built (1909-1911) was literally a pivotal building on the Connective Corridor. Its design had roots in consulting-architect Arnold Brunner’s (with Alfred Taylor) past work and writing about the origins of the synagogue, but it also was tied to the new Neo-Classical plan adopted by Syracuse University in 1906 and the completion of the new County Courthouse downtown the same year.




lecIn 1910, Brunner, who was the favorite architect of the New York Jewish establishment, became president of the American Institute of Architects New York chapter. He was nationally recognized as the leading designer and historian of synagogues in America, but also as one of the country’s foremost urban planners, thinkers and the most public and articulate spokesperson for what he called “City Practical.,” but which we now think of as the City Beautiful Movement. The same year that Concord was dedicated, Brunner’s Cleveland Federal Building was also completed culminating Brunner’s decade service with Daniel Burnham and John Carrere as the triumvirate behind the famed Cleveland Plan.

Join Me (and Chuck Bucci) on October 24th for a Special Tour of Syracuse University Restored Buildings

Syracuse University. Tolley Humanities Center. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2010

Syracuse University. Crouse College. Stained glass windows detail.. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber.

Syracuse University. Slocum Hall. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber 2010

Join Me (and Chuck Bucci) on October 24th for a Special Tour of Syracuse University Restored Buildings

I'll be joined by professionals from the Syracuse University Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction to visit and discuss major restoration building on campus of the past five years. We'll talk about architecture, history, planning and restoration process, as well as the complex issues of need, use and cost that are essential to the success of the reinvention and reuse of any aolder building.

Here is the announcement:

Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY) will offer a tour of three restored, rehabilitated, and reinvented buildings on the Syracuse University Campus. Join architectural historian Sam Gruber and campus planner Chuck Bucci on a visit to Crouse College, Tolley Humanities Center, and Slocum Hall as they discuss the history of these buildings and their architecture, and especially the long hard process of restoring and renovating these three structures in the past five years.

The tour will begin at 1:00 pm at the Crouse College south entrance (across from the Maxwell School) and will last 2 hours.

Crouse College was built in 1889 and is one of the original university buildings. Designed by noted Syracuse architect Archimedes Russell, its dramatic turreted form has long been a landmark on the Hill, dominating the area and visible from afar. The building now houses the main hub for SU's College of Visual and Performing Arts, the School of Music, several art studios, music practice rooms, a beautiful 1,000-seat auditorium, and Crouse's Holtkamp Organ. In 2005 PACNY awarded Syracuse University a Preservation Merit Award for its work on the restoration of the exterior masonry and the stained glass windows of Crouse College.

Tolley Humanities Center was also designed by Russell in 1889 as the Von Ranke Library, in a more severe medieval style, but still with turrets. In 1907, when Carnegie Library was built its purpose changed. Later it was named Tolley Hall and served as the university administration building. Since its 2007 renovation it has been the Humanities Center and houses a variety of interdisciplinary programs.

Slocum Hall was designed by Syracuse University School of Architecture professors Frederick W. Revels and Earl Hallenback and funded by philanthropist Mrs. Russell Sage as a memorial to her father. Construction began in April 1916, but due to World War I and labor shortages it was not finished until 1918. It served as the home of the agriculture school and other programs, including the School of Architecture. Last year, after a two-year renovation, the building became the home of the School of Architecture, which now occupies the entire building. The renovation was carried out by Garrison Architects, and is highlighted by the opening up of the building’s great atrium, which had been built over in past years to gain floor space.

Gruber and Bucci will discuss the broad process and implications of bringing old university buildings up to twenty-first century standards while still maintaining their historic form, and they will look at many of the details of how this was done in these three buildings. The tour will end with discussion of the University’s newest renovation project, now in its planning phase.

Donation for the tour will be $10.00 for PACNY Members and $12.00 for non-members.

Sam Gruber is past-president of PACNY, and is now Director of the Plastics Center at the Syracuse University Library. Chuck Bucci is Assistant Director for New Construction at the Syracuse University Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction. Adding their expertise to the tour will be Jack Osinski, Project Manager, and Chris Danek, Academic Space Planner, both from the Syracuse University Office of Campus Planning, Design, and Construction.

The member-based Preservation Association of Central New York has been the area’s citizen voice for historic preservation for over 35 years. Founded as a reaction to the widespread neglect and demolition of historic buildings and neighborhoods in the 1960’s, PACNY has led the successful effort to transform our community’s perception and care of its historic resources so that now the City of Syracuse and Onondaga County have over a dozen historic districts which contribute to the region’s cultural and economic vitality.

For further information about PACNY, contact Michael Flusche (President of PACNY) at 315-569-6761 or flusche99@yahoo.com. See the PACNY website at http://pacny.net/.