FAYETTEVILLE — The historic home in Fayetteville known as “The Noble House” was treated to a unique driveway reconstruction this fall.
The white Greek Revival house at 305 E. Genesee St. was given a new driveway with a median right down the middle courtesy of CNY Evergreen Concrete.
It was the first time the Clay-based company focused on residential projects had created such a driveway, said project manager Paul Ososkalo.
In Ososkalo’s eyes, the recently installed driveway provides the property with an “extra, decorative touch” that completes the exterior of the home, making it look more “noble” aesthetically.
“It’s night and day to what it was,” he said. “Anywhere else in Syracuse, it might look weird to do a grass median. Here, however, it’s just the perfect character and charm.”
The company’s five-man crew recruited the help of a local hauler’s mini excavator to claw up and yank out the previous gravel driveway.
With the assistance of Circle T Ready Mix, CNY Evergreen then poured a six-inch-deep slab of concrete and butted it up to the cobblestone pavers behind the house where cars can park. Separated by a 20-inch-wide median, the two 44-inch-wide stretches of driveway that were put down extend 87 feet to the sidewalk and lead into a trapezoid-shaped public section.
The driveway was then sealed to make it shine, Ososkalo said.
The real, cool-season turf used for the median is an 80/20 tall fescue-bluegrass blend supplied by Sky High Turf Farms out of Chittenango, and CNY Evergreen went with sod for the project’s root system.
“With installing sod, you instantly have a natural drainage system for water retention, but concrete is a lot more durable and redundant than asphalt,” Ososkalo said.
He added that the concrete was poured at 5,000 PSI, or pounds per square inch as a measure of compressive strength.
“That’s industrial grade, like that’s what warehouse floors are poured—it’s super heavy duty,” he said. “The difference between 5,000 and 4,000 PSI is that more cement is added. Cement is the glue or bonding agent in concrete, so they just add more cement to the aggregate mixture.”
Ososkalo said that the “biggest wrench in the machine” approaching the project was the amount of traffic on East Genesee Street and the “high stress” from honking cars, fire trucks sounding their sirens, and people having eyes on his crew throughout each day. Despite that, he said they were able to concentrate and get through the pressure.
“I was honored to tackle this project with the crew, and I’m just happy to see it done and done right,” Ososkalo said. “We’re looking forward to driving by this area and admiring it whenever we’re around.”
The Noble House was built in the 1820s, and it belonged at one point to noted abolitionist Linnaeus P. Noble.
Over the course of 40 editions of his anti-slavery newspaper “The National Era” that were published through the years 1851 and 1852, Noble serialized and thus helped to publicize Harriet Beecher Stowe’s famous novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”
The historic house on East Genesee Street has been owned since June 2017 by local researcher and scientist William Sunderlin.
Considering himself an activist with a focus on civil rights and racial justice, Sunderlin said the air of history in his home is strongly felt.
“That’s really one of the main reasons I chose to buy the house,” he said. “It’s just kind of magical.”
He said it also reminded him of the 1830s Greek Revival home in eastern New York that his parents lived in for a good part of his life.
Now retired, Sunderlin has been affiliated with the Fayetteville Free Library as a board member, with the Center for International Forestry Research headquartered in Indonesia as a senior research associate, and with the Rights and Resources Initiative headquartered in Washington, D.C. as a fellow.
Ososkalo said the Fayetteville driveway project was made more special because of the house’s backstory, calling it reminiscent of Skaneateles’ Roosevelt Hall due to its similar look and significance historically.
The Noble House’s neighboring abode at 303 E. Genesee owned by Malcolm and Pamela Bender has its own driveway split by a median, and that feature served as the inspiration for the more recent project at the 305 address according to Sunderlin.
Ososkalo said the two houses on the Fayetteville street might be the only example in all of New York State of side-by-side driveways divided by medians.
Though Sunderlin appreciated his old driveway, he said it required hours of upkeep over the years to suppress the weeds rising through the gravel. In the winter, it would be messier whenever the snowplow came by as well, he said.
“With the concrete driveway, those two problems are solved because the snowplow can glide easily over the concrete and there are no more weeds,” Sunderlin said.
Expressing thankfulness for the care and hard work put into the construction project, he said his new driveway feels “well suited to the house” and doesn’t look “too imposing” or “too modern.”
