Luther Buell, who in 1870 still lived in the town of Pompey, told the Pioneer Association of Central New York in that year, how he and Shubael Safford bought the lot upon which the Syracuse House stood for seventy or more years.  At the age of twelve Buell went to Pompey as a millwright and carpenter apprentice to Safford.  The first carding machines for wool built in the State of New York were made in that shop in 1813 and 1814.  N. P. Stanton was the other partner in that work. 

In 1819, and Mr. Buell said that what is now Syracuse was then known as Corinth and wasn't even a village, Kellogg and Sabin, the lawyers, got hold of the Walton Tract, and Joshua Forman was their agent.  At that time, Mr. Buell said, "there was the Cossit House, north of the canal, where the Empire House now stands; the old schoolhouse, where Church Street (West Willow) now is; a grist mill and millhouse on the creek; several shanties for laborers on the aqueduct, and Judge Forman's house and office."   That was the proposition in selling realty that Judge Forman was up against.

At that time the Lodi Locks, which were outside the village, were in process of construction, and the ground for the canal through the place was broken.

"Well," said Mr. Buell, "Mr. Safford and I called on Judge Forman for the purpose of purchasing the corner lot where the Syracuse House was afterward built.  We found the judge's opinion and ours coincided as the embyro [sic] city, and we purchased that lot at the corner of Genesee and Salina streets and the adjoining one on Genesee Street, for $900 - the first lots that were sold by Mr. Forman."  The remainder of the story, the unvarnished detail of the building of the first structure in Syracuse that was of brick and had two stories, is told in Mr. Buell's own words:


Then Mr. Buell described the first celebration of the Fourth of July in Syracuse, the presence of Governor Clinton and other State officers, the jubilee that was held in the grove across the road, and also that Joshua Forman managed to sell a number of lots, so that other buildings were commenced soon after.  Continuing the Buell story of that first structure:



It was in 1827 that the Syracuse Company rebuilt the Syracuse House.  Timothy C. Cheney and Daniel Elliott were engaged in the work of remodeling and changing it in every particular.  Then it was that the balconies were put around it, adding so much to its appearance that it was referred to as one of the finest buildings in Western New York.  The company also added several substantial buildings to the east.  The hotel at that time was really a stage coach rest house.  The four-house stage driving in was one of the sights of the period.  Five miles an hour over the log roads of the time was considered the limit, and such hotels were looked upon as quite necessary because of the cases of "sea-sickness" with the rocking chair motion of the coaches.  The swamps were bridged by logs laid close together, and there were places in Syracuse where to miss the road would have meant a complete loss of the outfit.  One of the stage drivers from Utica to the Syracuse House was Jason C. Woodruff, who became a mayor of Syracuse, and in the parlor of this same hotel introduced General Scott, the hero of many battles, to the citizens.  This Syracuse House was the first brick building erected in the place.

A place rich in reminiscence was this old Syracuse House, which was finally torn down to make way for the Onondaga County Savings Bank Building in 1896, several times its value having been paid in insurance with little or no loss by fire  Hand says that in the early days there was a platform with steps running all around facing the street.  This platform was of sufficient capacity to seat a hundred people, and frequently had its capacity tested.  It was the resort of men to discuss the news of the day.

In the summer of 1847, it was related by Hand, the balloonist, Wise, made an ascension from an enclosure on the west side of South Salina Street, between Fayette and Jefferson streets.  As he was taking his seat in the basket he made a speech in which he said that as he was to ascend in Auburn the next day he would bring his Syracuse friends the Auburn newspapers ahead of the fastest train.  So the next day this was chief topic of discussion on the porch of the Syracuse House, and, as the wind was the southeast, there was no expectation of seeing Wise again.  But he was discovered at a great altitude, having found a current in the right direction, and he made his descent in the First Ward.  A dray was sent for him and his balloon, and he delivered his Auburn papers as he had promised.  To amuse his friends on that porch he made another ascent then and there, and only by throwing out his clothing was he able to save his life, the balloon landing in a garden in West Genesee Street.

In 1840 the Onondaga County Bank issued a three-dollar bill that was embellished with a vignette of the old Syracuse House.  It presented the block with four stories surmounted by a square cupola, and piazzas extending across both fronts of the three upper stories.  In one of the changes of the house a balustrade from a piazza was put on the roof.  In the left foreground of the vignette could be discerned the outlines of the old stone bridge across the canal - the one that was built so solidly with a single arch that it had to be taken down stone by stone.  The bridge was built in 1823, and was scarcely large enough to permit the passage of the small boats of that day.  It was seventy-six by fourteen feet, and if a  boat was not steered for the exact center of the arch there was invariably an accident.  But when it came to a picture, it was so much more decorative than the bridge that followed, that the artist put in the earlier bridge.  Each side of the bridge was  a stone coping three feet above the roadbed.  It was the favorite place of the lazy loungers.

While the Syracuse House Block which was torn down in 1896 had the original walls of the rebuilt Syracuse House of 1827, the three balconies and lower porch had gone long before.  The first Syracuse House  had but two stories and was forty-four by thirty-five feet.  That of 1827 was four stories in the main building, around which there were the balconies, with wings of three stories each on the south and east.  At first the office was on the corner, the bar room next and the dining room was in the wing on Salina Street.  Smith says that in the center of the office was an old style box wood stove that could take in four-foot logs, and around this gathered the congenial spirits of the place.

The names of Presidents John Quincy Adams, Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore have been upon the registry of the Syracuse House as guests.  Other famous statesmen who were entertained there were Marcy, Clay, Webster, Weed, Seward, Seymour, Richmond, Corning, Benton, Fremont, Johnson, Wright, Blair, Douglass, Crittenden, Scott, Cass, and Greeley.  Speeches that were made from the balcony by these men are matters of record.  Also, the many famous ones whose names are found in the history of the halls and opera house of the city were the guests of the Syracuse House during their engagements.  In the east wing were rooms known as the distinguished guests' chambers.

When the railroads came and the station was built in what is now Vanderbilt Square, there was an extensive addition to the south, the dining room was placed in the second story, and an entrance made to that floor.  This was for the double purpose of converting the first floor on Salina Street into stores, and to meet the competition of the restaurants and hotels that had sprung up next to the so-called "depot."  The Exchange Hotel, which was on the northeast corner of Washington and Salina streets, as also at this time given up to stores and offices.  It was the making over of the business section which came with the railroads.


Mural scenes upon dining room walls were a bit lavish in the early days.  The first floor dining room of the old Syracuse House was devoted mostly to war scenes.  Then there was a ball room in the upper story, the approach being by winding stairs from the lower floor.  It was a forty by fifty foot room, with adjoining service rooms, and was the scene of the big dinners, balls and parties of the period.  When there was a public dinner it was the custom upon the announcement of a toast, to give a signal from the balcony for the firing of a small cannon on the packet dock.  There were balls at the time of the presidential inaugurations, upon Washington's Birthday anniversary and the Fourth of July.  In the cupola there was a bell which was rung at meal times.

An invitation which shows an early military ball "in the saloon of the Syracuse House, January 9th, 1821," has this list of managers:  Maj.-Gen. Thaddeus M. Wood, Brig.-Gen. Oren Hutchinson, Col. Martin Woodruff, Col. Grove Lawrence, Col. Daniel Earll, Col. Johnson Hall, Col. D. B. Bickford, Lieut.-Col. E. D. Hopping, Maj. W. A. Cook, Capts. Silas Ames, W. D. Stewart, Seth Hutchinson, J. M. Ellis, E. W. Leavenworth, Ezra Town, and J. Day.

There was an especially elaborate Jackson ball at the Syracuse House on January 8, 1829.  Most of the managers of that ball became quite famous in the business and politics of early Syracuse.  That is why their names are given:  William Kirkpatrick, John G. Forbes, Henry Conklin, James H. Luther, Benjamin W. Adams, Mars Nearing, Caleb Hubbard, Elijah W. Curtis, G. Lawrence, Martin M. Ford, Isaac Jerome, Benjamin Coonley, Otis Bigelow, Levi Robbins, E. A. Baldwin, John Watson, John Fleming, Jr., E. L. Phillips, Elijah C. Rust, Nelson Phillips. F. G. Jewett, A. Kellogg, Jasper H. Colvin, Gard Lawrence, B. Davis Noxon, William A. Cook, Royal Stewart, Homer Wheaton, John Sprague, Horace Wheaton, Daniel Cruger, Ambrose Kasson, John H. Johnson, David S. Colvin, John Wilkinson, G. T. M. Davis, Jonas Mann, Jr., Samuel Larned, S. F. Myers, and John F. Wyman.  Such lists as these frequently correct dates as to when the old timers were in Syracuse.  This Jackson ball was long after referred to as the most important social event in the history of Syracuse down to that time.  Dudley P. Phelps, who didn't arrive in Syracuse until after the ball, said those who attended the ball talked about it until they died or lost memory.  It was the big social tradition.  Said Mr. Phelps nearly a half century afterward:  "When I came here eight months after the great event, and for years afterwards, all the incidents in relation to it were as fresh, and were told to any willing listener with as much interest, as if it had only just occurred, carrying the impression that en entire community had participated in its enjoyment."  And these traditions were still being talked about in 1879.

What was called one of the most brilliant balls of the early village was the Washington's Birthday ball "in the saloon of Syracuse House, February 21, 1834."  The managers mentioned upon the invitations were:  Maj.-Gen. Oren Hutchinson, Brig.-Gen. Grove Lawrence, Brig.-Gen. J. Richmond, Brig.-Gen. D. Hugunin, Col. Thaddeus M. Wood, Col. Martin Woodruff, Lieut.-Col. E. D. Hopping, Col. D. T. Jones, Majors Henry Davis, Jr., William A. Cook, C. C. Richardson and M. Williams, and Capt. Joseph Rhodes.  It has been related by historians that Lieutenant-Colonel Hopping became a brigadier-general and died in service in Mexico, while Colonel Woodruff, who espoused the cause of the liberation of Canada, was captured at the battle of Windmill Point, near Ogdensburg, and was executed.

It is another Washington's Birthday b all night in the Syracuse House "saloon."  This one is February 22, 1840, and the noticeable thing is the lack of military titles among the managers.  The invitation had these names:  B. Davis Noxon, D. S. Colvin, Aaron Burt, L. H. Redfield, D. D. Hillis, Hamilton White, Joseph Savage, Daniel Pratt, Alfred H. Hovey, Peter Outwater, Jr., H. Sheldon, J. B. Burnet, G. W. Noxon, A. T. Butler, Jasper Smith, D. P. Phelps, G. J. Gardner, Thomas Earll, George Raynor, Charles Earll, W. W. Teall, J. W. Barker, L. W. Marsh, and Joel Cody.  In six years the fashion had changed so that a Washington's Birthday ball could be held without the prestige of military titles in the management.


S. P. Pierce and George J. Gardner were among the managers of a series of cotillions and parties announced in the press of 1840, to be given at "the saloon of the Syracuse House by Mr. F. G. Hopkins," who also taught the art of dancing and waltzing.  The other managers were A. H. Hovey, George Raynor, D. P. Phelps, J. B. Burnet and Jacob S. Smith.

In that same holiday season, upon New Year's eve, 1840, the ladies of the Unitarian Congregational Society had a great fair at which they gave an assurance that "everything fair and nothing unfair should be practice."  Upon January 6 following there appeared in the "Western State Journal" a card of congratulation upon this fair held at the Syracuse House.  It said that "in point of elegance and taste the affair surpassed everything ever gotten up in the village."  Especial mention was made of the statues and busts exhibited by David Cogswell of Syracuse.

During the period when each presidential inauguration was made fashionably important by holding inaugural balls in other places as well as Washington, there was an especially memorable ball held in the "saloon of the Syracuse House," as the invitation read.  This was upon March 4, 1941, in honor of William Henry Harrison, the ninth President.  The managers, according to the invitation, were:  John G. Forbes, E. B. Wicks, M. S. Marsh, Hamilton White, Willet Raynor, Parley Howlett, Horace Butts, P. N. Rust, Henry Agnew, George Stevens, Noah Wood, A. H. Newcomb, O. B. Brackett, Charles B. Sedgwick, Frederick Pratt, Jr., Jacob Richman, R. W. Washburn, G. J. Gardner, Harvey Sheldon, N. P. White, J. K. Barlow, E. H. Sherman, Henry Alvord, Amos P. Granger, P. D. Mickles, Silas Ames, I. T. Minard, R. Woolworth, John H. Johnson, H. N. Cheney, Henry Raynor, A. N. Van Patten, S. G. Pomeroy, H. W. Allen, W. A. Porter, John C. Beach, Edward O. Gould, A. S. Townsend, A. A. Hudson, Robert Noxon, D. P. Phelps, S. P. Pierce, R. D. W. Davis, George W. Noxon, Jasper Smith and George Raynor.  All military officers were requested to appear in uniform.

In 1841 there was also held the Old Folks' Ball.  The famous old ball room of the Syracuse House was converted into suites of rooms in 1846.


After the enlargement of the Syracuse House in 1827, George Rust, a brother of Philo N. Rust, was the landlord.  Then there was Daniel Comstock, Philo Rust, Gillett & Knickerbocker, who bought out Mr. Rust, and then Mr. Comstock came back for a period.  H. T. Gibson was also landlord in the middle period of its success.  W. D. Stewart and O. E. Allen followed for long terms.  In 1872 and '73, J. W. Clark was the proprietor, being followed by W. C. Gage & Company in 1874.  In 1875 Wadsworth & Gunn were the proprietors, and before 1880 it ceased as a hotel and the building was taken over for stores and offices.  There were some periods in this hotel's history that were much more brilliant than others.

Oliver E. Allen was for a number of years, in the later sixties, the "landlord" of the Syracuse House, a position that he also occupied at one time at the Vanderbilt.  Mr. Allen came after the Philo Rust period, and later Capt. William D. Stewart was "landlord."

During the time when Stewart and Allen were tenants, the Syracuse House was on fire no less than six times.  It was a local proverb that the building was fireproof, and the old block had to be finally torn down.

Mr. Allen, like his fellow townsmen, Chief Judge William C. Ruger of the Court of Appeals, was noted for calmness and an insistence upon only being seen in immaculate dress.  Judge Ruger, during an epidemic of burglaries in the 'seventies, being awakened by burglars, made a complete toilet even to his bath, before investigating or going to the police - and, in the meantime the  burglars got most of his silverware and a large sum of money.  Mr. Allen, when informed of a fire in the block which might take the hotel, also dressed completely before appearing in public.

The history of the Syracuse House seems like one long list of social functions, as it is glimpsed from the records.  The chief function at which Mayor Daniel Bookstaver officiated during his term of office was in presiding at a banquet given in honor of Harlow W. Chittenden, upon the occasion of his departure from Syracuse to accept the general superintendency of the New York Central.  He had previously been general superintendent of the Western Division of that railroad.