Question: The Greek revival style of this building indicates it was erected in the mid 19th century; the Victorian porches are later additions. The metal roofs covering the porches became popular in the years following the Civil War. The lush vines, overflowing urn and wooden sidewalks were also later 19th century landscape features.
Can you identify this house? Do you know anything about its history?
Last week’s answer: The buildings in the picture from last week were two warehouses on East Genesee Street that were being demolished to make room for the current public library. They had been owned by Morris Machine Works and were just two of the many buildings along East Genesee Street that were used by MMW for the production of the many pumps that were manufactured here and then shipped worldwide. These two buildings were used for storage of some of the extensive amount of materials that were needed to run the operation. Before Morris bought the building on the right, it was a tobacco warehouse, one of many in the village used to dry the extensive tobacco crop grown in the area.
By 1993, the library had outgrown its third site, the former Woolworth’s store on Oswego Street. A public referendum was held and overwhelmingly passed for the construction of a new facility on the site of these warehouses. With much fanfare, the grand opening of our current library was held Oct. 29, 1995.
From its humble beginning in 1948, our library continues to grow. In October of 2018, it was named Public Library of the Year for 2018 by the Central New York Library Resource Council. We should all be very proud of this wonderful facility.
Email your guess to [email protected] or leave a message at 315-434-8889 ext. 310 with your guess by noon Friday. If you are the first person to correctly identify an element in the photo before the deadline, your name and guess will appear in next week’s newspaper, along with another History Mystery feature. History Mystery is a joint project of the Museum at the Shacksboro Schoolhouse and the Baldwinsville Public Library.
