COURTS BEFORE THE FIRST COURT HOUSE
Courts were held at
various residences in Onondaga Hollow - Asa Danforth's, Reuben
Patterson's, Samuel Tyler's and John Adams' - from 1794 to 1805.
THE FIRST COURT HOUSE
The first court house
was located on
Onondaga Hill and was in use from 1805 to ~1830.
THE SECOND COURT HOUSE
The second court
house was located halfway between the villages of Salina and Syracuse
at North Salina and Ash streets, was built in 1830, and was
in use from ~1830 until it
burned down early in 1856.
It was thought that business would center around the Court House, but
this was never realized, thereby making it inaccesible to the
public. The Court House was made of brick, sixty feet square and
two stories high, fronted on the west side with a row of large
columns. The first story was divided by halls into four
apartments, one in each corner, for the use of grand and petit juries
and other purposes. The Court Room occupied all of the second
story, except the landing of the stairs and two petit jury rooms.
The Judge's seat was on the south side opposite the landing of the
stairway.
Photo at the OHA Museum - 'This is the only known photographic
record of the county's second courthouse. The image was
discovered by Edward Q. Williams in the backgrounds of an enlargement
of an 1854 daguerreotype view of Syracuse. The courthouse burned
in 1856.'
THE
FOURTH & PRESENT COURT HOUSE
The
fourth and present court house is located on Columbus Circle in
Syracuse, was designed by Archimedes Russell
and has been in use since 1906.
Submitted 2 February
2006 by Pamela Priest
Updated 19 March 2006 by Pamela Priest