Question: The photographer faced southeast when taking the photo of this c.1886 home. The house would be remodeled several times during the following 100 years. Modifications included additions on both the north and south sides, two-story bay window additions on both the west and south sides, removal of the north side addition, addition of an exterior chimney and numerous changes to porches. Today it is more closely aligned with its original footprint, although the bay window additions remain and the porches are no longer present. Can you identify its location?
Last week’s answer: The building seen in last week’s photo was a hostelry begun in 1880 by Col. Payn Bigelow. The facility was in tune with its times: The temperance movement was growing, and a temperance hotel should appeal to the popular culture. Situated at 15 Canal St. (today’s East Genesee Street), the hotel opened in 1882 as the Cornell House, a temperance hotel. However, using today’s parlance, there was a difference between “talking the talk and walking the walk.”
Architecturally, the Cornell House was the most imposing and modern hotel in the village. A four-story brick structure, it had broad balconies and a sweeping view of the Seneca River with a vista extending to Pompey and the hills of Onondaga. The bricks came from Mawhinney’s brickyard on East Oneida Street. E. K. Ingoldsby was the contractor, and attention was given to “improvements and embellishments requisite to a first-class hotel.”
While the Seneca House and American Hotel dominated the Four Corners, they were sagging, old-frame structures from Baldwinsville’s pioneer days. However, the new hotel’s advantageous beginning was short-lived. The temperance policy discouraged many potential clients and, following a devastating fire, the 50-year-old Seneca House was replaced in December of 1883 with a large, ultra-modern brick Victorian hotel that had frontage on both West Genesee and Oswego streets. Located at the village center in the midst of the shopping and theater district, the Seneca quickly became the village’s premier hotel.
By 1890 Bigelow repapered and refurbished his facility and changed its name to Riverside Hotel. Its location had put it closer to the village’s industrial area and “commercial men” became the targeted audience.
Bigelow retained ownership as a succession of landlords operated the facility. In 1894 Stuart L. Devendorf came on board. Under his leadership the Riverside found its niche and thrived as a welcoming hotel featuring good food and an accommodating host. An avid fisherman and outdoorsman, Devendorf was a gregarious B’villian involved in civic affairs.
Devendorf ran the facility for 41 years, changing its name to Genesee House and selling it to Mrs. Agnes Peters in 1934. In 1960 it was purchased by Kenneth and Margaret Klink, who renamed it the Ken-Mar Hotel.
The heyday of industrial Baldwinsville had passed, and so had the glory days of the hotel. Eventually the hotel was renamed the Baldwinsville Guest House which better described its role as a rooming house. Its fading presence came to a dramatic end on the evening of Nov. 16, 1980, when it was once again consumed by fire.
While many readers recognized the former Ken-Mar Hotel, only Thomas Hall could recall its previous history as the Genesee House.
Contact Editor Sarah Hall at [email protected] or leave a message at 434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by 5 p.m. Friday (please leave the information in the message; we are not generally able to return calls regarding History Mystery responses). If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo, your name and guess will appear in next week’s Messenger, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
