What was Syracuse in 1874 - Part 1 of...

Joseph Silsbee arrived in Syracuse, after a tour of Europe, in late 1873. Upon arrival, he took a job with the city's most prominent architect, Horatio Nelson White. White would be taking a trip to tour Europe himself the spring of 1874 and Silsbee, with his education under Boston architect William Robert Ware, would seem a perfect candidate to run the office and take on White's teaching responsibilities at Syracuse University.

Much of the character of the city of Syracuse at the time could be attributed to White's architectural vision. Many of the city's key public structures were designed by him including the high school, armory, courthouse, and countless homes, churches and business blocks. The look of the city was a tight assemblage of carefully frosted Italianate and Second Empire structures. The dirt streets with an occasional paved crossing were neatly lined with young trees. The city was dotted with pretty little green parks, lushly planted, decorated with replica classical figures and elaborate cast iron fountains. 

View of Fayette Park, one of Syracuse's early downtown squares from Artwork of Syracuse (1899).  

The life blood of the city came from acres upon acres of flat lands between the downtown area and the lake, covered with distinct linear rows of salt sheds. In the sulfur air, this man made plank river was raked in the warm sun and teams of men gathered the snowy harvest in tightly woven willow baskets. Barrels of salt were fed into low wide boats that traveled up and down the canal, through the center of the city. 

View of  men raking salt along the salt sheds. 

Life in the city was very much guided by its industrious endeavors. The majority of the population, hard working German, Irish and French immigrants, toiled in the salt fields and along the canals. More worked as coopers, basket makers, grain scoopers, carpenters, and in the many other industrial shops, under the smoke stacks that dotted the cityscape. The captains of these industries and their families lived on forested plats in Greek and Italianate cottages along fashionable streets; West Genesee, James, and West Onondaga, almost oblivious to the rest of the city around them.

Silsbee immediately found his place among Syracuse's fashionable elite, sometimes passing time at the local Opera House or at social gatherings at a grand residence or fashionable local hotel. In February of 1874, he volunteered his services to oversee the decorations at one of these gatherings. The Shakespeare hall, in the Globe Hotel, was transformed for the largest charity event of the season, a ball to benefit all of the area hospitals. A temporary chandelier, loaned by the Masons, was lifted into place, and temporary fountains and new furnishings ornamented the space. The stage was filled with evergreens, flags, and lace. The highlight of the display were tropical plants, in full bloom, loaned from the greenhouse of banker and future Syracuse mayor and congressman, James Belden. In attendance that evening were all of the grand families of Syracuse: Longstreet, Leavenworth, White, Amos, Dissel, Lynch, Jenney, McCarthy, Hiscock, Snow, Bruce, Emory, and many more. For Silsbee though, there was probably none as important as the Sedgwicks with their beautiful daughter, Anna, who within a year, would become his bride.         

The Globe Hotel, on Salina Street at Washington Street, the site of the Great Charitable Ball of 1874. 

Even in White's absence, 1874 was an unusually busy year in construction. Begun three years earlier, the first building for Syracuse University's new home on a prominent hill overlooking the city to the north and the Onondaga Valley to the south, was nearing completion. Later known as the "Hall of Languages", it's appearance would be improved in 1887 with the addition of a tower designed by Ellis Hall, the man who would help oversee Silsbee's office in the 1880's. White's office was also busy with the construction of a beautiful stone church for an Episcopal congregation in the lakefront town of Skaneateles and a Presbyterian church, further west, in Geneva. In this year, Silsbee also would have first met John Moore, the prolific contractor who would go on to build two of his greatest downtown buildings. In 1874, Moore's company was hard at work completing the new Armory, an imposing brick structure with a large central tower sat in the middle of large park-like oval on a low lying area at the western edge of downtown. Though the office was incredibly busy, it wasn't the brisk construction season that would land Horatio White on the front page of local newspapers.

Syracuse University Hall of Languages, designed by Horatio Nelson White and constructed from 1871 to 1874. This image shows the main central tower, added by Silsbee partner, Ellis Hall, in 1887.