This week’s question: Baldwinsville’s commercial district was entering an era of new beginnings when this photo was taken in 1956. Do you recognize the business establishment? Can you identify its location?
Last week’s answer: The magnificent Colonial house shown in the photo last week has had quite a past. In the 1930’s the State Education Department put up historic markers. One of the signs was located on River Road on land that had been given to Marinus Willett as his payment for serving in the Revolutionary War. He never occupied the land but eventually his son William did. The sign read as follows:
“Willett House,
Built by William Willett,
Son of Colonel Marinus Willett, 1796.”
There has been much discussion about the legitimacy of that date. Marinus’ son William did live in the house but it would have been impossible for William to have built the house in 1796 inasmuch as he was not born until 1803. Therefore it seems that if the house was built in 1796, it could not have been built by the Willetts — either William or his father Marinus.
This Colonial house was one of the first “frame” houses in the county. Materials to build it were brought from Albany by boat through the Mohawk River, Oneida Lake and Seneca River. Its plan was similar to homes of the period — a wide hallway bisected the main part of the large, rectangular two story structure. An addition to the rear and a step below the level of the main house contained a dining room, kitchen, pantries and servants’ quarters. A wide veranda capable of seating 40 people once extended the length of the house, but in 1897 a small porch of four columns instead of eight replaced the original. The house had 20 rooms, eight elaborately hand carved fireplaces — one in each of the four main rooms downstairs and one in each of the bedrooms on the second floor.
One of the most interesting features of the interior was the stairway, made of solid mahogany with rungs as large around as a quarter set into a solid mahogany rail which curved gracefully with each landing and extended through the third floors. There was no metal used in the original construction of the mansion — wooden pegs secured the huge timbers. Originally two rows of Osage orange trees lined the drive leading to the river landing, where packet boats from Oswego to Utica made regular stops after the establishment of that line of transportation.
In 1970, the owner of the property announced that he had no use for the structure and wanted it demolished. A community uproar ensued but after great effort to save it through the Historic Trust and Council on Arts at Albany, it was deemed that there was no efficient historical connections to cause preservation of the Willett homestead, worth the great expense it would take. In the end the magnificent mansion was burned down by the Belgium Cold Springs Fire Department with the assistance of the Baldwinsville Fire Department on May 24, 1970.
An extensive archaeological investigation was done on the Willett Tract prior to Pooler Corporation who later developed Timber Banks. This can be found in the Local History room at the Baldwinsville Public Library at call number 974.765 STA. Today the Timber Banks Golf Community is located on the site.
Built by whom and at what date doesn’t matter — the Willett house was still a magnificent home with an extensive amount of history. Timber Banks Golf Community is now located on the site of that part of the Willett Tract where the house was located.
If you want to read further just visit the library local history room or the historian’s office at the town of Lysander. A reminder, many articles give the date of the house as 1796 — just remember that later research has shown that there is no definitive documentation of the exact date or the definite builder.
Glenna Wisniewski correctly identified the Willett house.
“Such a shame it was torn down. Spent much time there as a child as we had family friends who lived there,” she wrote.
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.
