NORTH SYRACUSE — For nearly 25 years, Mike and Karen Casey have lived in their cozy home on Lynn Drive in North Syracuse unaware that a possible “History Mystery” lay tucked away in a storage crawl space.
The Caseys — no relation to this reporter — moved into the Cape Cod-style home in the town of Salina in August 1996 and recently decided to install more insulation to ward off Syracuse’s winter weather. While working, contractors discovered two framed portraits in the crawl space.
One picture is of a bride and groom. The bride, seated, wears a knee-length dress and two strings of pearls, her dark curls framing her face underneath a long, beaded veil. The groom, clad in a tuxedo and white gloves, leans on the armrest of her chair. Judging by their clothing and hairstyles, the photo looks like it was taken during the 1920s. The Caseys were unable to remove the picture from its heavy wooden frame, and there is no telltale mark of a photography studio on the photo (think “Olan Mills”).
“You don’t see frames like that [anymore],” Karen said.
The other picture, which the Caseys were able to gently pry from the frame, is mounted on canvas, but there was no sign of a name for the young woman in the picture or the artist. It’s hard to tell if it is a photograph or a painting — the woman’s serene face looks photo-perfect, but the lace on her high-necked gown appears to be painted. She’s not the bride in the wedding portrait; her attire puts her closer to 1900-1910.
While the Caseys don’t recognize any of the three people in these pictures, they said they would like to find their descendants and return the portraits. They are hoping readers of the Star-Review might recognize a familiar face or the names of the previous owners of the house.
Mike and Karen purchased the home from Mike’s former colleague, Ann Brigandi, a parishioner of Assumption Church in Syracuse.
“I worked with her at the Scotsman Press,” Mike said.
After her husband, Carmen, died in 1993, Mrs. Brigandi decided to sell the home and move to Florida. According to an obituary on Syracuse.com, she remarried in 2002. Ann Brigandi-Haney died in 2013, one year after her second husband, William Haney, passed away.
The Caseys knew of one occupant prior to the Brigandis, Bill O’Toole, but they weren’t sure who owned the home before O’Toole family or if there were other owners before the Brigandis moved in.
Thanks to archives made available by the Onondaga County Clerk’s Office, the Star-Review traced the ownership of the home back to its construction in 1951. County Clerk Lisa Dell was invaluable in helping uncover the history of this house.
The home at 121 Lynn Drive was built on what was known as the Zeller Tract. Joseph and Ethel Zeller sold Lot 22, Section B, to Ivan W.A. Nelson and Irene I. Nelson for $1 in 1951. The Nelsons previously lived on Hayes Road in Baldwinsville. It is unclear from county records who actually built the house, but the Nelsons may have built it.
In 1956, the Nelsons sold the home to Patricia and William F. O’Toole Jr. — that’s the Bill O’Toole the Caseys remember. According to the O’Tooles’ obituaries (Bill died in 2018 and Pat in 2020), they had six children.
The O’Tooles sold the home in 1971 to Robert A. and Celine M. Charron, who in turn sold it to Carmen and Ann Brigandi in 1972.
“The sad thing is a lot of these people are no longer with us,” Mike said of the people who might know who the portraits belong to.
The Star-Review is asking its readers to help solve this mystery and return the portraits to their families. If you recognize the people in these portraits or know the surviving family members of any of the previous owners of 121 Lynn Drive, email [email protected] or call 315-434-8889 extension 332.
