Some Work at the Stickley House - - And Here are my Ideas (and some others) for the Future

Some Work at the Stickley House - And Here are My Ideas (and some others) for the Future
by Samuel D. Gruber

[if in a hurry - skip to the end and read options 3 & 4.]

Syracuse, NY. Gustav Stickley House.  Work on temporary roof protection. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber May 2012.

In early March I wrote and posted photos about the deplorable condition of the Gustav Stickley house on the East Side's Columbus Avenue, thus breaking a long-suffering silence about the fate of this important CNY site. To my mind the house is the single most influential residential building in Syracuse, having helped define and then witness the Craftsman Movement and its magazine.

Syracuse, NY. Stickley House. Photo: S. D. Gruber Feb. 2012

Whether my public complaining and posting of photos had an influence - or whether it is just the Zeitgeist - I do not know.  But I can report that there has been a lot of talk about the house in the last two months, unpublicized site visits and now some much needed - though still short term - attention to the roof.  Anyone who has passed by on Columbus in recent days has seen a lift and men at work, apparently laying new protective sheeting on the roof to better make the structure watertight.  The house was fortunate to have escaped a harsh winter, but still every rain can bring water into those old wood walls fostering interior rot and bringing damp and decay to plaster walls and ceiling and wood and paint finishes.  The damage is not always visible when it happens - it often only appears when things are dried out and plaster crumbles to dust. 

There is still no public word on the future of the house but there has been quiet discussion in Central New York's culture community.  The wheels of planning in our community work slowly, and sometimes stop altogether.  I've heard some alarming proposals - and some really wonderful ideas.  I hope the latter win out, but as always in our region money needs and expediency will compete.  Will CNY take the long view and create a lasting urban and cultural resource we can be proud of, or will we settle for a quick fix and an easy sale to temporarily solve the problem?  I post this entry to keep the pressure on, with the hope of building, or at least encouraging momentum.

I group the options into four main categories - and I hope we can safely forget the first.

1.  Ignore the building, let decay continue and the building go to hell, until it look like every neglected and abandoned house in the city.  Curiously - the Stickley house is now the WORST looking house on this block of Columbus.  Other people are caring for their properties much better than I have seen in nearly years of watching the street.

Syracuse, NY. Stickley House. Photo: S. D. Gruber Feb. 2012

2. Ignore the building (and screw the neighborhood), but strip it's historic artistic interior features for donation or sale.  We know these fixtures would fetch a high process in today's overheated Arts & Crafts market.  There are also all sorts of museums and cultural institutions locally and nationally that are salivating to get these pieces.  While most will declare "we would never never strip an historic buildings," privately they'll go on to say with an implied wink "but if someone else did and we were offered the pieces, or we saw them for sale at auction, of course we would be interested."   So, to my mind, losing the Stickley interior to some other region of the country is a distinct possibility.  After all, a medieval manuscript in the OCPL was sold a bargain price to a collector in the 1990s, the county sold off large segments of the Salt Museum collection,  Liberty Diner went to a museum in Rhode Island, Tiffany windows from South Presbyterian Church were sold to a collector in California and now the fittings, furnishing and windows from Holy Trinity may leave town for New Orleans.  So let's not kid  ourselves - losing Stickley is a distinct possibility!  Of course, if the building is neglected long enough (see option 1), then stripping the building becomes the munificent thing to do.  Once again, demolition by neglect.

Syracuse, NY. Stickley House. Photo: S. D. Gruber Feb. 2012

3. A third option would be to turn back the clock and put the building to work again.  Some not-for-profit or even a private individual should buy the building or (given the cost of restoration) receive it as a gift, and then restore it with the Stickley downstairs intact and open to view on a schedule or by appointment, and perhaps used for meetings and lectures, with the upstairs floors used again as apartments.  Income from apartments could help maintain the building, and perhaps house an on-site caretaker.  A better version of this would be a similar plan, but run by a not-for-profit, and the apartment could serve visiting Arts & Crafts scholars or artists, and also house a caretaker.  Perhaps a working Arts & Crafts library could be installed.  This gets close to what the Arts & Crafts Society wanted to do in the 1990s.  Something along these lines was quietly floated by representatives of the Audi family and Stickley a number of years ago, but all the interested small organizations realized they didn't have the money, means, staff or stamina to carry out such a project.  The heavy hitters - SU, ESF were not interested (then).  SU was just turning its attention downtown to the Warehouse and then to the Near West Side.  ESF was embarking on its expansion plans to the west as well.  OHA and the Everson - the logical history and art institutions with real ties to the Stickley legacy were struggling then (as they always are) to meet their annual budget needs and to maintain their own buildings. OHA was in the midst of a move and expansion to its new building on Montgomery Street (with its facade and windows now beautifully restored!).  The Everson still officially had its multi-million dollar expansion plan on the table.   This, thankfully, seems now to have passed its moment.  Today, however, things are better.  It is conceivable that any of these four institutions (SU, ESF, OHA or the Everson) could implement a version this option.

Syracuse, NY. Stickley Hse.  Temporary roof protection. Photo: S. D. Gruber May 2012

4.  And then there is the best case scenario...this would take option three, but ratchet it up a notch so that the Stickley House would not just survive as working house, but would be turned into a full-service research and exhibition center for Central New York's famous (and continuing) Arts & Crafts Movement.  Under the auspices of OHA and/or the Everson, the house would be restored supported by nationally-gathered tax-deductible donations and tax-credits where appropriate.  The house would have galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions, office space and still (perhaps) house a top floor caretaker's apartment.  The house would function as a satellite museum with regular hours.  There would be difficulties beyond the money (minimally many millions of dollars for restoration, installation, security, curatorship, etc.).  A zoning change would be needed.  Parking would be required - perhaps including the demolition of at least of the later structures on Columbus.  But still... I can cite the success of many similar projects in this country and abroad. The idea is a idealistic, but also realistic, and should be seriously considered - and championed.

Personally, as an art historian, local historian, collection curator, historic preservationist, cultural heritage consultant and neighborhood resident I could live with either option 3 or 4.

  

But this is Syracuse.  This time, let's be inspired, let's not settle for second-rate.  Let's do something really great, really noticeable, and something that will be on the map not just for us, but for the entire world.  The Stickley house is a small building - but it can have a big big impact!

Readers....what do you think?  Let me know, let your elected officials know, and let our cultural leaders know.

Lecture Sunday May 20th: Werner Seligmann, A Modern Architect in Upstate New York

The Preservation Association of Central New York (PACNY)

Invites you to an illustrated lecture by

Prof. Bruce M. Coleman

Werner Seligmann: A Modern Architect in Upstate New York

Sunday, May 20. 2012

2:00 pm

Barnes Mansion

930 James Street, Syracuse

PACNY members $10, all others $15.

Werner Seligmann

Werner Seligmann (1930-1998) is arguably Central New York’s best known modern architect.  As a practicing architect, influential teacher and a Dean of Syracuse University’s School of Architecture, he put his stamp on New York State design, and shaped the architectural aesthetic of several generations of architectural students and professionals. 

Born in Osnabrück, Germany, Seligmann spent the latter part of World War II in a concentration camp; unfortunately his mother and sister did not survive the camps. After the war he was sent to the US to live with relatives in Groton New York, beginning his long association with Central New York. 

Seligmann received his Bachelor's in Architecture degree from Cornell in 1955. He was licensed in 1956 and taught as an Instructor at the University of Texas at Austin from 1956-58, where he became part of a small group of faculty that would later be nicknamed The Texas Rangers; a group that included Colin Rowe, John Shaw, Robert Slutzky and John Hejduk. After the group was dismissed from Austin, Seligmann pursued graduate study in Braunschwieg, Germany, then taught at the Eidgenossiche Technische Hochscule (the ETH), in Zurich, Switzerland from 1959-61.  He returned to New York State to teach at Cornell from 1961 to 1974, then spent two years as Associate Professor of Architecture at Harvard, before becoming Dean and Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University, where he served from 1976-90. Seligmann  was subsequently named Distinguished Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University, a position he held until his death.

Throughout his teaching career Seligmann maintained a practice and entered many competitions. His firm, Werner Seligmann and Associates, Architects and Urban Designers, was launched in 1961, and was based primarily in Cortland, New York. Seligmann won two Progressive Architecture Design Awards, was illustrated on the cover of PA three times, and has placed or won several national and international design competitions. His work on developing housing prototypes for the New York State Urban Development Corporation in the 1970’s and 1980’s established his reputation in the area of housing. His buildings are meticulously detailed, technically researched and spatially inventive. His synagogues in Binghamton and Cortland are widely regarded as important contributions to modern religious architecture.

Cortland, NY. Synagogue. View into sanctuary. Werner Seligmann, architect. Photo: Paul Rocheleau
Click here to read more about this synagogue.

Bruce M. Coleman

Bruce Coleman is Professor of Architecture at Syracuse University where he has taught since 1976. In private practice, Coleman worked with Joseph Cerutti & Associates in Cleveland and then worked ten years as an architect with Werner Seligmann & associates in Cortland, New York.  Coleman’s teaching focuses on computer-aided design (CAD) and he was instrumental in setting up the shared IBM CAD lab at Syracuse University.  In his private practice he has focused on residential and religious work.  Coleman is completing a monograph about the work of Werner Seligmann.  This lecture presents some of the projects described in the monograph as well as analysis and conclusions about Seligmann’s influence – during his life, and today.

Rediscovering the Daniel Rosenbloom House on Hawthorne Street

Rediscovering the Daniel Rosenbloom House on Hawthorne Street
by Samuel D. Gruber

Researching recent walking tours in the Westcott neighborhood has allowed me to look more closely at many streets and houses. I continue to be surprised at what turns up.  One such house is located at the northeast corner of Columbus Ave. and Hawthorne Street.  It seems modest now, but a Post-Standard newspaper story about its erection by Daniel Rosenbloom (with photo) from May 1901 shows that the house was exceptional.  It was a "well appointed Gothic structure." It is not clear whether Rosenbloom built this house for himself (he was a well-to-do civic-minded bachelor who lived on 704 East Jefferson according to the city directories of the time).  Most likely he was building to sell - as he apparently did with the Stickley House, erected a few lots down.

Syracuse, NY. Daniel Rosenbloom house at 201 Hawthorne St. illustrated in the Post-Standard, May 19, 1901.

Syracuse, NY. Daniel Rosenbloom house at 201 Hawthorne St.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (April 2012)

The article from May 19, 1901 reads:

ROSENBLOOM HOUSE IN EASTERN SECTION

Well Appointed Gothic Structure Just Completed in Columbus Avenue.

Daniel Rosenbloom has just completed at Columbus avenue and Hawthorne street a well appointed one family residence. The house was erected from plans prepared by Architects Wellington W. Taber and F. C. Draper. The style of the house is Gothic, with a foundation of split field stone. The first story is clapboarded and the second shingled. The first floor is done in oak and the second story enameled in soft tints, and the side walls and ceiling on both floors are painted in effective and harmonious colorings. The grounds surrounding the house have been prettily laid out. Mr. Rosenbloom will build this summer another handsome and costly house, to be occupied by Isaac Rosenbloom. It is believed it will be located near Forman Park.

The house is still very similar to its original appearance - except that the Gothic arched porch on the Hawthorne facade is now filled in, and a new small covered entrance has been erected on the Columbus Avenue side.  The exposed walls of the foundation are laid up in fancy stonework into which are set several small windows with Gothic-style pointed arches.  A smaller house is close by to the east.  This appears to have already been standing.  The east wall of the Rosenbloom house is brick - probably built as fire protection since the 203 Hawthorne was only a few feet away.

The article tells us that the architects were Wellington W. Taber and F. C. Draper.  Taber also designed the Queen Anne style house just down the street bought by Gustav Stickley from Rosenbloom in 1900, when still under construction. To date, his most recognized building in Syracuse is the classical Psi Upsilon Fraternity prominently located on the Syracuse University Campus.  A fuller examination of Taber's career awaits a determined researcher.  Presumably Rosenbloom and Taber were building both houses simultaneously as part of the development of this "Rosenbloom Tract."  As I will write in another post, developer James W. Pennock and architect Archimedes Russell were developing in these same years the Pennock Tract - now Allen Street - in a similar way.  There are at least three near-contemporary houses on the Columbus Ave., formerly the Rosenbloom Tract, but I'm still looking
 for details about their construction.

Rosenbloom and neighboring house. The blue house (203 Hawthorne) immediately to the east seems to have been already constructed, so Rosenbloom and Taber built their east wall of brick - presumably for fire protection.

Note the Gothic arches of the basement level.

House seen from the northwest, with Columbus Ave. facade.

Syracuse, NY. Rosenbloom's Dept Store (from postcard)

Daniel Rosenbloom was a member of one of Syracuse's most prominent Jewish families.  B. G. Rudolph provides information about the Rosenblooms in From a Minyan to a Community: the History of the Jews of Syracuse (Syracuse Univ. Press, 1970).  Daniel Rosenbloom was born in 1851 to what would become one of Syracuse's most prominent Jewish families.  He was one of eight children of Solomon (1822-1896) and Hannah (1827-1884) Rosenbloom who had settled in Syracuse in 1847, emigrating to America from Altenheim, Bavaria.  Solomon was trained as a shoemaker, but like many German-Jewish immigrants of his generation but began as a peddler to raise capital to start his own business.  He opened a shoe store in the Bastable Building, and his sons Marcus (1849-1919), Daniel, and Simon (1853-1923) joined the business, renamed S. Rosenbloom & Sons. Solomon essentially removed himself from the business to devote time to Jewish community concerns.  His sons were very successful, developing one of the largest department stores in Syracuse with branch stores in Utica, Oswego, Auburn and as far away as Providence, Rhode Island and Akron, Ohio.

Syracuse, NY. Rosenbloom Shul

While his sons rose to become leading Syracuse citizens, Solomon especially immersed himself in the local Jewish community.  He was founder and financial pillar of Congregation Adath Jeshurun, founded in 1864 by the more traditional faction of Temple Society of Concord when that synagogue (Syracuse's first) adopted Reform practice beginning in 1861.  In 1887 Solomon funded the erection of a new building for Adath Jeshurun on Orange Street (now McBride) between Madison and Harrison Street, which was commonly referred to as "Rosenbloom's Shul."  He and his sons supported the observant congregation for sixty years, until it merged back with Temple Concord in 1925, which the surviving Rosenbloom family members rejoined.  Solomon also founded a cemetery at West Colvin and Jamesville Rd., still known as the Rosenbloom Cemetery.  He and most members of his family are buried there.

Daniel was the most civic-minded of Solomon's seven sons.  He was known as a businessman, philanthropist and was involved in local politics.  He was served on the board of the public library, was a member of the Board of Education (the first Jew to hold this office) and served as president for four years.  Daniel was offered the Democratic nomination for mayor, which he declined due t his poor health.   Daniel died in the summer of 1905.  According to an Post-Standard article of August 28, 1905,  "Death was due to diabetes, for which Mr. Rosenbloom sought every known remedy and medical advice. He went to Carlsbad, Germany, three times, consulted with one of the most illustrious medical authorities in Berlin and with the now famous Dr. Osier of Baltimore, who recently left for Oxford, England, but secured no relief."

Syracuse, NY 126 Victoria Place.

Rosenbloom's and Taber's choice to build a "well appointed Gothic structure" was somewhat unusual in 1901.  After the mid-19th century (see Gothic Cottage) the Gothic style was rare in American residential architecture, and at the turn of century is was more commonly used for churches. There are only a few houses in the Westcott neighborhood with any Gothic details at all.  126 Victoria Place, probably built in the mid-1890s, is an American four-Square house with a classical porch.  There are, however, two small Gothic windows centrally set in the main facade.

Syracuse, NY 470 Allen Street. Photo: S. Gruber 2012

Syracuse, NY 470 Allen Street. Gaggin & Gaggin, architects (1905).  Photo: S. Gruber 2012

On nearby Allen Street, two houses developed by James W. Pennock and built ca. 1905, at least one of which (#420) was designed by local architects Gaggin & Gaggin, show a much tamer type of pointed arch on their porches.  Other than these nearly flat pointed arches, nothing else suggests the Gothic style.  I'll write about these and other houses on Allen Street in a later post.

N.b. All photos by Samuel D. Gruber except "Rosenbloom Shul" (originally B. G. Rudolph, From a Minyan to a Community (1970), originally Onondaga Historical Association).

The Levi S. Chapman House: A Victory for Vinyl?

 Levi S. Chapman house in 1997.  Note upper stories and decorative roof tiles. Photo: S. Gruber.

Weekend work proceeds at 321 Westcott Street.  Here are views from February (top) and April (bottom).   Note the decorative windows in the upper dormers were removed prior to this renovation, but the small window over the porch has been enlarged. Photos: S. Gruber.

The historic Levi S. Chapman House at 321 Westcott Street, a great big pile of an 1890s house near East Genesee Street,  seems to be losing a battle with modern materials - as its absentee landlord changes windows and covers its century old decorative shingle and clapboard with white vinyl siding.  

A lot of work has been going on at the house - always on weekends.  Old trees have been cut, the last bits of slate roof shingles have been cast down, and gradually the vinyl has crept around three sides of the house. 

 

The house - indeed this whole 300 and 400 block of Westcott - should be part of an historic district - but none of us neighbors has ever gotten organized enough to research and put this forward.  Perhaps it is not too late.  I hope the research behind my recent walking tours might tip the balance.   Many fine houses survive, though over the past two decades a good number have been neglected, and many have been 'remuddled' (to use Clem Labine's apt phrase), both inside and out.  With the pending restoration of the already locally protected and National Register listed Babcock-Shattuck house, located next door to the north, it's a good time to move ahead on this.

We don't know who the architect of 321 Westcott was, but the builder was local lawyer, politician, philanthropist, churchman and man of affairs Levi S. Chapman, who lived here beginning around 1900 (I've got to get back to the library to nail down the exact date) until his death in 1954. 

Here's Chapman's entry from Who's Who in New York City and State, (New York:W. F. Brainard, 1911), p. 166.

CHAPMAN, LEVI S.: Lawyer, b. Fayetteville, Onondaga Co., N.Y., Oct. 15, 1865; s. Nathan R. and Martha M. (Tibbitts) Chapman; ed. Fayetteville Union School, Whitestown Sem. and Syracuse Univ., A.B., 1889; m. Whitesboro, Onondaga Co., N.Y., 1892, Lucia Louise Pettingill; children: Ella Louise, b. 1894; Charles R., b.1897, Lucia M., b. 1905. Has practiced law at Syracuse since 1901; since 1892 mem. law firm Newell & Chapman or Newell, Chapman & Newell. Mem. N.Y. Legislature, 1895, from Third Assembly Dist., Onondaga Co., N.Y.; law clerk B'd of U.S. Gen. Appraisers, N.Y. City 1890-91. Director, sec. and treas. Watson Wagon Co., Canastota, N.Y.; director and att'y for City Bank of Syracuse; director of J. H. Morse Optical Co., H. J. Ormsbee Engraving Co., Syracuse & Elbridge Glove & Mitten Co., treas. Morningside Cemetery Ass'n, all of Syracuse, N.Y. Republican. Baptist. Mem. Phi Beta Kappa Soc., Delta Upsilon fraternity. Director Syracuse Y.M.C.A. (pres. 1898-1906). Clubs: University, Masonic. Address: 321 Westcott St., Syracuse, N.Y.

Levi S. Chapman was instrumental in the founding of the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University. He seems to have moved the project forward after the Death of George Maxwell in 19?? and the decline in value of the North American Holding Corporation from which the new school was originally funded.  In the spring of 1936 the directors of North American Holding Corporation, of which Maxwell had been president, and Chapman V-P, were finally able to make food their pledge to the university and proceed with the erection of Maxwell Hall. At the building's dedication in 1937, it was Chapman presented Maxwell Hall to SU on behalf of the company.

Time to Act: The Gustav Stickley House on Columbus Avenue is Rotting Away

Syracuse, NY. Gustav Stickley House. Columbus Ave. Views of water damage and other deterioration. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber Feb., 2012.

It's Time to Act: The Gustav Stickley House on Columbus Avenue is Rotting Away

by Samuel D. Gruber

A few weeks ago Dick Case wrote in the Post-Standard about two fine 19th-century houses, one of the North side and one on the West side, that have long been empty and which cry out for use and care.  To these should be added the Gustav Stickley house on the Columbus Avenue on the East side.  It is a shame on Syracuse that this famous house - critical in the history of American architecture and design - is rotting away.

A photo gallery of the building's condition. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber (Feb 2012)

The modest Queen Anne style house is less eye-catching than the others, but its place in the history of American art and culture is great.  Perhaps no other building in Syracuse, and certainly no other Syracuse house, has had such an impact on architecture, art and design in the 110 years since it was built.  The Stickley house - or at least its interior - helped jump start the Craftsman Movement, and once-dominant and still popular component of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.  Now that there seems to hope for renewal of the nearby Babcock-Shattuck house / former Jewish war Veterans' Post,  Eastsiders are eager to see the Stickley restored and made a community asset.

In the 1996 the house, then owned by antiques dealer and Stickley furniture expert David Rudd (Dalton's antiques), was sold to the Audi family, today's owner of the Stickley Audi & Co. and subsequent founders of the Stickley Museum in Fayetteville.  There were great hopes at the time for the building at the time of the purchase.  Articles in the Post-Standard quoted the Audi's commitment to maintain the house (which then was in pretty good condition).  Members of the Arts and Crafts, architectural, and local community looked forward to the inclusion of new cultural resource - perhaps of branch musuem or study Stickley study center - that would help Syracuse further claim Stickley's legacy and would also serve a beleaguered neighborhood.

Pages from Samuel Howe's article in the Craftsman illustrating the Stickley house interior
You can read the entire Craftman article here

For several years the house was kept up, though there was no public access, with no opportunity to view the still largely intact Stickley first floor interior that was first nationally noticed in vol. 3, no. 3 of the Stickley's sponsored Craftsman Magazine, when Samuel Howe published a well illustrated article "A Visit to the House of Mr. Stickley." (the entire article can be read attached to the 1984 National Register nomination).  These illustrations of Stickley's new interior helped launch the Arts and Crafts movement in American architecture and interior design.  The second floor was also intact in 1984, when then owner Norm Roth sponsored the  National Register nomination.

As late as 2004 the exterior of the house was well maintained, but several years ago the house began to be noticeable neglected.  Perhaps the decline in interest in and care for the house is tied to Alfred Audi's untimely death in 2007.  Whatever the reason, certainly deterioration of the roof, gutters, eaves, bays, porches and other features has dramatically accelerated since 2009, when I began to regularly check on the house.  Some modest repairs were made after damage was reported following the first destructive winter, but the building now looks worse now than ever.  It's a shame too, since the appearance of much of the street has improved over the past decade.  This mild winter has probably spared the structure much damage, but given the exterior appearance I can only image the increasing water damage, rot and even possible animal infestation inside.  At this point the damage is clearly reversible, but as deterioration spreads, repairs will get get more expensive all the time.

I'm not casting blame here - the Audis saved the house from dismemberment once - and the community was and is grateful to them.  But it is now time for the community to come together to save this building again - hopefully with the Audi family and Stickley Furniture company's full involvement, but if not, then through some other way.  The house is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a local protected site - but it is not being protected.  right now it is endangered, and its a woefully wasted resource of national significance.

I'll be visiting Columbus Avenue and the Stickley house on the first of four Westcott Neighborhood walking tours I'll lead this spring. I invite you to join me to view the house (outside only) and discuss its significance and fate on Sunday afternoon, March 25th.

In researching the house I've discovered, to my surprise, what seem to be previously unpublished - and presumably unknown, references to the house in articles from the Post-Standard from 1901 an 1902.

From an article about Stickley's purchase of the original house we learn the he bought it form the Rosenbloom estate and that Daniel Rosenbloom had overseen the construction.  Wellington T. Taber was the architect and detailed information about the original plan and decoration is provided - allowing us  to compare the original house what Stickley redesigned - after a fire. That fire took place Christmas eve 1901 (not 1902 as is  reported in the National Register nomination written in 1984). 

Post-Standard June 3, 1900

Mr. Stickley Buys a House,

Chair manufacturer purchases property in Columbia [sic] Ave.,

Building being completed,

Work of interior decoration under way -

Gustav Stickley of the firm of Stickley & Simonds has purchased from the estate of S. Rosenbloom the new house which is under construction at No. 416 Columbus Ave. The consideration is not made public. The house upon completion will be taken possession of by Mr. Stickley for a family residence. The building occupies a terraced lot of the regulation size  and Mr. Stickley has an option on the lots on each side of  the house, both owned the Rosenbloom estate.

The house was designed by architect Wellington T. Taber and constructed  under the personal  direction of Daniel Rosenbloom.  It has all modern equipments, including two bath rooms and a conservatory, the rooms all being large. The structure is three stories high in addition to attic.

The work of interior decoration has been commenced and the entire scheme is artistic. The spacious lower floor hall and parlor is treated in a gray brown oak and the side walls are covered with a Moravian coated material with an indefinite brocade stripe.  The dining room will be cased in gum wood with Venetian walls. The general color effect in several of the room will be gobelin blue and old orange. The parlor will be of a deep green hue with Pompeian decorations and the bedrooms will be done in delicate colors. There will be considerable work in the way of artistic ceiling decoration.  It will take several weeks to complete the decorations.

Roy Stubblebine (who spoke in Syracuse in 2007 and urged protecting the house) gives a good account of the post-fire rebuilding in his book Stickley's Craftsman Homes.  He posits that insurance payments might have contributed to the maintaining of the original houses form, though he points out that Stickley did add the impressive street front bay window and the new large Craftman style door, in addition to the all new interior decor on the first two floors.  Stubblebine does not mention what help Stickley received, though a fascinating short note in the Post-Standard of January 19, 1902 states that:

Architect Gordon A. Wright is directing the reconstruction of the Gustave Stickley house in Columbus ave. which was partly destroyed by fire Christmas eve. E. M. Allen is the contractor.

Wright is reported to have set up his architectural office in Syracuse in 1892, and taught at the new Syracuse University Architectural Department beginning at that time 1891-92.  By 1901 he was presumably established as a leading young ( 35) architect in Syracuse, though few of his buildings from this period are known.  I wonder how long the Wright-Stickley relationship lasted.  I'm intrigued to think what role Wright had in Stickley's design, and what effect Stickley's ideas had on Wright (who himself became a prolific architect of fine Syracuse homes).

Besides the architecture and design of the house, there is its close association with Gustav Stickley himself and the Stickley family.  The family lived here until 1905 when they moved to New York, but they kept an option on the house and it was re-purchased in 1913 by Stickley's daughter and son-in-law.  After bankruptcy closed Carftsman activities in 1915, Stickley moved back to the house and lived until his death in 1942 in a third floor apartment created for him.

Westcott Sundays: Architecture and History Walking Tours

Westcott Sundays: Architecture and History Walking Tours

Join architectural historian Sam Gruber for

“Walks around the block” through the Greater Westcott Neighborhood”

all tours begin at 1:00 pm at Petit Library and last approximately 2 hours

March 25 (raindate April 1)

The Old Neighborhood: South Beech, Dell, Columbus and Westcott

Tour begins and ends at Petit Library

April 15 (raindate April 29)

Stately Streets: Allen and Cambridge

Tour begins and ends at Petit Library

May 6 (raindate May 20)

A Gridded Garden:  Victoria, Concord, Clarke, Strong, Euclid

Tour begins at Petit Library, ends at Westcott Community Center

June 3 (raindate June 10)

West of Westcott: Avondale, Trinity, Greenwood and Thornden Park

Tour begins at Petit Library, ends at Edmund Mill Rose Garden, Thornden Park

All tours are free to the public and sponsored by

Westcott East Neighborhood Association (WENA) with financial support from the University Neighborhood Service Agreement Advisory Committee (UNSAAC)

New Hope for Former Babcock-Shattuck House / Jewish War Veterans' Post

 Syracuse, NY. Former Babcock-Shattuck House / Jewish War Veterans' Post today (top) and ca. 1997 when building was saved from demolition.  Photos: Samuel D. Gruber.

New Hope for Former Babcock-Shattuck House / Jewish War Veterans' Post

by Samuel Gruber

Hopes are high for the development of the long-vacant former Babcock-Shattuck House, which has been listed as a local protected site since 1997 when it was saved from demolition.  After years of failed activity to shift ownership of the property from the inactive not-for-profit housing organization ENIP, which had planned an arts and cultural center in the building, the City of Syracuse took possession of the property and recently sold it to the University Neighborhood Preservation association (UNPA) which plans to develop the property for residential use.  

UNPA is a not-for-profit organization, incorporated in 1991. It's mission is to promote owner-occupancy in the Syracuse University Neighborhood immediately east of Syracuse University and the other educational and medical institutions in University Hill, and to market this neighborhood as a great place to live.

UNPA was high bidder for the property, essentially paying the city slightly more than ENIP paid for the site fourteen years ago.  An UNPA committee (on which I am serving as a community representative) has raised $600,000 for the project  through grants and loans. Building renovation will begin in late spring or summer, when the exterior will be restored.  As reported in the Post-Standard on Dec 11, 2011 (with a gallery of interior photos) prior to the city approving the sale of the building, a project for four market-rate condominium apartments has been put forward.  There is also a possibility of a single occupant use for the structure, or other residential variants.  Now that UNPA owns the building, it will make its plans known in the spring. 

I will be leading a walking tour of the neighborhood in Sunday, March 25 at 1-3 pm which will stop and discuss the history, architecture, urbanism and preservation of the building.  We will also visit the nearby deteriorating Gustav Stickley house on Columbus Avenue (tour is free and leaves from Petit Library on Victoria Place).

In 1997 when I was Chair of the Westcott Street Development Committee of the Westcott East Neighborhood Association, I researched and wrote a building history which was utilized in the designation of the building as a local protected site - effectively halting its demolition. The building was subsequently listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  The following is extracted from that text.

History: The house at the corner of Westcott Street and East Genesee Street, commonly known as the Jewish War Veterans' Home, was built as a private residence and first mentioned in a the city directory of 1895 as the residence and office of Dr. Archer D. Babcock (1870-1939). Babcock, who became a prominent Syracuse physician and surgeon and founding member of the staff of Crouse-Irving Hospital appears to have occupied the house until 1913. He later served in World War I achieved the rank of Lt. Colonel and returned to head the U.S. Veteran's Bureau in Syracuse.

In 1913, the house was owned by Frank M. Shattuck (1888-1959?), a member of a prominent Syracuse business family, and himself manager of the Syracuse Schrafft's confectionery stores for forty years. In 1925, the house was listed as the residence of Harry H. Elmer (1868-1933), vice-president of the Britton Corp. and treasurer and manager of Globe Malleable Iron and Steel Co. Elmer, as general manager of Haines automobile company, was known as the inventor of a heavy oil type engine which was to revolutionize automobile and tractor and design, allegedly allowing 250-300 miles to the gallon. Plans were being made to produce the engine when Elmer died in 1933, at which work stopped.

In 1930, the house was occupied by John Johnson, and from 1931-1933 it is known to have been the 16th-17th Ward Republican Club. The caretakers of the house were Mr. and Mrs. Martin, and the widowed Mrs. Martin was still living there when the building was sold in 1947 (reportedly for $6,000) to became the home of Onondaga Post No. 131 of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America (JWV). The JWV, which had previously rented space on Cedar Street, engaged in fund raising drive to collect the $30,000 needed for the rehabilitation of the building until at least 1953, when a newspaper article reported restoration work in progress. Ownership in the property belonged to the 200 East Genesee Street Corporation, which was made of JWV members, and which, according to JWV Executive committee member Seymour Block, leased the building to the JWV for $1.00 a year.

JWV was founded in March 1896 in New York City by Jewish Veterans of the Civil War. At that time the organization was called the Hebrew Union War Veterans. In Syracuse, the organization was founded in 1936, and soon became active in protests against the Nazi presence in Syracuse, picketing a Nazi Bund headquarters on East Genesee and a downtown bank which displayed Nazi symbols. The Syracuse JWV became particularly active shortly after World War II, when so many Jewish Veterans returned home.

The JWV occupied the building for more than four decades, finally selling the house and moving to new quarters in DeWitt, in the early 1990s. During that time the building served as a meeting and activity center for the JWV. The Post was an active place. In addition to bingo, which was the first Jewish bingo in the city, meetings and memorial services regularly took place. Downstairs was a members lounge, to the left was a special memorial room with the names of Syracuse area Jewish war dead, which was equipped with a small Ark and even a Torah scroll. Before erecting its own building further east, Congregation Young Israel used these facilities for religious services. On the right hand side was a room with a pool table in back. Upstairs was a big meeting room, and the caretaker's apartment.

Syracuse, NY. Babcock-Shattuck House after a new roof was put on the tower with Syracuse Neighborhood Initiative funds.  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (Feb. 2006).

A few of the many prominent local figures long active at Post are attorney Morris B. Swartz (Commander 1948-49); Ephraim Shapiro, former chairman of Onondaga County Legislature (Commander, 1950); former State Assemblyman Hy Miller (Commander, 1953); Burton Lowitz, former supervisor in DeWitt (Commander, 1963); Judge Maurice Schneider (Commander 1967-68) and Jack Schultz, Town Justice in DeWitt (Commander, 1970). To these names could be added many more worthy citizens.

The JWV was always occupied by a caretaker -- Ralph Hoehrl in 1947, William Chase in 1951, John E. Dutcher in 1960, Carl Christian in 1970, Clifford H. Wicks in 1985, and Philip Rice in 1990.

Buy the late 1980s the JWV membership had drastically declined, and only a few dozen of the aging members ever came to meetings. The building was very costly to heat, and needed repairs. The Jewish institutions which had once helped define the neighborhood had all moved further east. The decision was made to sell, and to take space at the Jewish Community Center on Thompson Road, a new hub of Jewish communal activity.

The building was sold in 1989 to a buyer who proposed a group home for the disabled. This project did not happen, and the property was sold again for about $85,000. the new owner proposed opening a restaurant and to further the likelihood of commercial use, the adjacent house was demolished to allow room for parking, and a variance was granted for parking. Nothing, however, came of this plan either, and the building was forfeited to the city for failure to pay property taxes, and then was sold at public auction in June, 1996 for $19,600 to 84 Associates of Buffalo, a subsidiary (?) of Ellicott Development Co. of Buffalo, Buffalo's biggest landlord and a developer for Rite Aid Pharmacies in Syracuse. Earlier in the month (November, 1996) a permit was denied to the developers for the demolition of the building because it is listed in the 1975-76 Study of City Resources as eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places as a significant city resource. 

Syracuse, NY. Babcock-Shattuck  Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (Feb. 2006).

Architecture and Urbanism: The former Babcock-Shattuck Mansion, or the Jewish War Veterans' Post 131, was one of the finest residential buildings in East Syracuse, and its intact exterior -- prominently serving as an important reminder of the prosperity that this part of the City once enjoyed. It remains a considerable source of neighborhood civic pride, despite the fact that it has been empty for the past several years. Sited on a small hill overlooking East Genesee Street at Westcott Street, it is one of the most carefully located buildings in the city in regard to vistas, both from within and without. To lose this building would deprive the East Genesee Street neighborhood of its grandest "jewel in the necklace" of grand old homes still standing, and significantly diminish the neighborhood's remaining visual appeal. Since it functions visually and symbolically as the gateway to the Westcott neighborhood business and residential district -- the demolition of this house would a tragic loss, and cause irreparable harm to the architectural and historic integrity of the neighborhood.

Built in the Queen Anne Revival style, the large wood-frame structure sits on a prominent rusticated limestone base. Its many attractive features include a spacious front porch overlooking East Genesee Street; a tower with a well-preserved conical roof and a series of arched windows on its top floor; and an a upper story Palladian window on the East Genesee facade. The rusticated base and many of the other building features relate to the adjacent contemporary house to the south on Westcott Street, creating a strong visual linkage between the two buildings.

The house is a landmark in the true sense of the word. The building is immediately known to whomever it is mentioned. Generations of residents and urban commuters are familiar with its powerful and reassuring mass and silhouette at Westcott and East Genesee. Built at a time when East Syracuse was opening up for intensive residential use, this grand house was a welcoming vision for the turn-of-the-century professional class that began to settle the area in great numbers at the time. The city atlases of 1892, 1904 and 1924 show how quickly this area (Ward 14) developed at the time, and how central a role the Babcock-Shattuck house played. In its second life as a public building, the building's uses reflect the demographic changes of the neighborhood. Serving shortly as a local Republican Club (but left vacant in the depression 1930s) the building, like much of the neighborhood took on a Jewish identity in the post World War II years. At that many Jews had moved east to the area from area of Adams and Townsend Streets. Two blocks away was the Jewish Community Center, across the street was Congregation Anshe Sfard, and Congregation Young Israel was located at 2200 East Genesee.

Built on part of a larger lot owned by W.M. Knapp, the Babcock house was designed with great sensitivity to its site, and continues to serve as a remarkable and essential visual anchor to the entire neighborhood. Set on a slight hill overlooking East Genesee and Westcott Street, the building hugs the corner of the lot, with a circular corner turret accenting the location, the turret pointing like a finger downtown along the main thoroughfare -- East Genesee. Because of the angle at which East Genesee Street approaches Westcott from the west two full sides of the building are fully visible to eastward traffic from a distance. The turret is a beacon on East Genesee beckoning traffic, while the soft curve of the tower's round plan, which rises high from ground level, serves to visually ease traffic into Westcott Street. Thus, approaching Westcott Street from the west or north, the house serves as grand and inviting introduction into an entire neighborhood rich in history and fine family homes. Indeed, several houses by the noted architect Ward Wellington Ward are just a few lots south towards Harvard Street, and the entire block of house between East Genesee and Harvard, though still somewhat dilapidated, contains dozens of fine houses without a single empty lot. The entire street, were it to be nominated, would probably qualify for National Register listing.