Onondaga Park is an park in the city of

Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

. Man-made Hiawatha Lake is located within the park, which is situated in Syracuse's Strathmore neighborhood on the city's south side. Portions of the park were designed by famed urban planner

George Kessler George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was an American pioneer city planner and landscape architect. Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 comm ...

in the early 20th century. The park was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2002.

Park description

Onondaga Park consists of two neighboring sections, Lower Onondaga Park and Upper Onondaga Park. Upper and Lower Onondaga parks are linked with nearby Kirk Park via Onondaga Creek Boulevard, a parkway completed in 1930. The three parks, together with the parkway, form the only interconnected park system in Syracuse.

Lower Onondaga Park

Lower Onondaga Park is in size, and contains a baseball diamond and a greenhouse which supplies plants used by many of Syracuse's parks. This portion of the park was originally landscaped according to designs by urban planner

, who was hired to design the park in 1907. The park was completed according to Kessler's designs in 1915, featuring extensive stonework and several ponds, including Star Lake, which contained five fountain jets. A large neoclassical greenhouse, designed by a local architect, was added in 1917. Although some remnants of Kessler's original landscaping remain, several changes in the years that followed have obscured the original design, including the channelization of

Onondaga Creek Onondaga Creek is a major tributary of Onondaga Lake which is located in Onondaga County, New York. The headwaters of the creek originate south of the city of Syracuse near the hamlet of Vesper, in the town of Tully, New York. The creek flows no ...

in 1927, and the city's decision to fill in Star Lake in the 1970s.

Upper Onondaga Park

The Upper Onondaga Park is built around Hiawatha Lake. This portion of the park also includes eight tennis courts, three basketball courts, a playground, and a swimming pool with the capacity to hold 352 bathers. Upper Onondaga Park occupies the site of the former Wilkinson Reservoir, which was built to supply Syracuse with water in the 1870s. The city acquired the reservoir and surrounding land in 1892 and opened the area as a park in 1898.

Hiawatha Lake

In 1911, Wilkinson Reservoir was re-contoured as a man-made lake, and has since been known as Hiawatha Lake. Hiawatha-lake 1915 reservoir

One side of Hiawatha Lake was filled back in and a modern swimming pool was built. In the winter, the lake freezes and local residents use it for

pond hockey Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey similar in its object and appearance to traditional ice hockey, but simplified and designed to be played on part of a natural frozen body of water. The rink is 50 to 80 percent the size of a standard NHL-specif ...

. The lake is used for its picturesque quality and large

gazebo A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands. Etymology The etymology given by Oxford Dictionaries (website), Oxford D ...

and often serves as a backdrop for prom and wedding photos.

References

{{Authority control National Register of Historic Places in Syracuse, New York Parks in Syracuse, New York Parks on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)