Question: Everyone should recognize this sign and its location. Currently it is being refurbished and upgraded. Do you know what it represents?
Last week’s answer: Last week’s mystery photo featured “Windy Hill,” the imposing home located at 16 W. Oneida St. Built in 1895, this photo of the home was featured on a postcard published by Baldwinsville druggists Gardner & Davis circa 1910.
During the 1840s, surveyor George Robinson laid out the streets that formed the core of the village. To the north of the Seneca River, Oneida Street was the east/west street farthest from the Four Corners. Robinson’s map was published in 1857 and became the official map of the recently incorporated village of Baldwinsville. At that time few dwellings were located on the north side of West Oneida Street. Its sloping terrain and dirt roadway made the hilly block difficult to access.
Post-Civil War Baldwinsville saw an industrial village with a mix of blue collar workers, tradesmen and a higher income entrepreneurial class. Once considered remote, the north side of West Oneida Street became desirable real estate. The hill gave prominence to large residences that sat on spacious grounds with views that overlooked much of the village. By 1896 the block became known as The Terrace.
The large lot at 16 W. Oneida St. was in a rural area at the western end of The Terrace and commanded a sweeping vista of the Seneca River. Purchased in 1892 by Syracuse Mayor Hon. Jacob Amos, it was to be developed as a summer home for Amos and his wife, Baldwinsville native Florence Wells Amos. The Amoses had one child, Christine.
Prominent Boston architect Harris Marshall Stephenson was commissioned to design the home. Stephenson’s designs had been built across the country from the suburbs of Boston to California. His work also included seashore hotels and summer residences on Cape Cod and at Cape Ann. The Amoses requested Stephenson to prepare several designs from which they would make a choice.
The Amoses chose the large sunny shingle style house with a Dutch gambrel roof. High-backed rocking chairs, porch swings and broad railings on the wide wrap around veranda extended the home’s interior, adding to the charm of the seasonal residence.
Interior features included several bay windows and window seats, a butler’s pantry with a six-foot long copper sink, handsome fireplaces with imposing mantles and large airy rooms. The two story carriage house was also designed by Stephenson. Situated on the lower west side of the lot at what today is the corner of West Oneida Street and Sunset Terrace, the lower level housed the stable and the upper floor was the groom’s quarters. Today the carriage house is a single-family residence.
Jacob and Florence Amos, with their 13-year-old daughter Christine, took up summer residence in 1895. In 1899 they gave up their Syracuse home and became year-round village residents. In its earliest years the Amoses called their property “Breeze Lawn.” It is unknown when it was renamed “Windy Hill.” A gazebo is visible in the photo. Gardens were designed and built in 1912. Thirty years later a gardener was still employed two days each week to maintain the extensive grounds. In 1940 the veranda was enclosed.
Windy Hill stood alone until the early 1920s when Sunset Terrace lots were hooked up to water and sewer connections and construction commenced. Neighboring Applecrest was built in 1925. In 1982 both properties were placed on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Oswego-Oneida Historic District which was nominated by McHarrie’s Legacy.
With the development of Sunset Terrace, Windy Hill lost its rural setting but its prominence continues yet today as the handsome anchor of the west end of The Terrace.
James Fedkiw was the first person to correctly identify the Amos home in a comment on the Messenger’s Facebook page. He wrote that it was two doors down from Applecrest.
Sally Weston McMahon commented as well, giving the home’s name of Windy Hill.
“I lived in this house for 15 years,” she wrote.
Email your guess to [email protected] or leave a message at 315-434-8889 ext. 332 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.
