This week’s question: This magnificent house once graced the Baldwinsville area. The land it stood on now is quite developed. Do you know where it was located? What else do you know about it?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s photo shows Canton Street between Tappan and Downer streets. The photographer was standing in front of 15 Canton St. facing south. At the immediate near right of the photo is a frame home, number 26. To its left is the brick Italianate residence at 28 Canton.
The furthest home visible on the east side of the street (left side of the photo) is number 25, a brick home that no longer has the porch over its front entrance. Grove Street enters the picture from the east immediately north of the brick home.
A century later, utility poles still flank both corners of the Grove/Canton streets intersection. The fire hydrant on the west side of Canton also remains in place.
In Baldwinsville’s early 19th century days, Canton Street was the gateway to the state road, the pathway to Onondaga Hill, the county seat and nearest post office. The north end of Canton Street from Tappan Street to the river was totally industrial. Large sawmills were the first occupant. Other industries soon followed. As technology and transportation methods evolved, the industries changed also. They ran the gamut from distillery and stables to paper and grist mills, manufacturers of candles, paper and bamboo furniture, coal yards and boat yard, blacksmiths, teamsters and even a cannery. The Canton/Tappan intersection was where the action was.
In 1840, the Baptist community moved its two story wooden frame church from Cold Springs to 12 Canton St. where it stands yet today. In 1871, the congregation built a new brick church at the corner of Syracuse and Tappan streets and the Canton Street building was converted to residential use.
The 1857 map of the village shows only 10 residences between Tappan and Downer, none south of Downer St., and none on the east side of Tappan. The entire east side of the block was undeveloped property owned by pioneer Col. Gabriel Tappan.
By 1874 business and traffic patterns had changed. And Canton Street changed as well. The once bustling thoroughfare gave way to a tree lined neighborhood with a variety of 19th century architectural styles whose owners ranged from tradesmen and entrepreneurs to engineers and civic leaders.
Gone today are the tall trees, hitching posts, large stone carriage blocks, wooden plank sidewalks and unpaved dirt roadbed. Automobiles, school buses and occasional motorcycles travel the stretch once trod only by horses, oxen, mules and pedestrians.
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.
