Clinton Square
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Clinton Square is an intersection in downtown Syracuse, New York, United States. The square was the original town center and first came into existence in the early 19th century where roadways from north and south convened. With the opening of the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
in 1825 the intersection was further transformed. During the 19th century, the square was a marketplace that also hosted several public events, including an 1870 public barbecue reportedly attended by 20,000 people. As a busy intersection, the square hosted several large hotels and other historic buildings. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was dedicated in the square in 1911. In 1917 the Canal was closed and filled in. In the decades that followed, Clinton Square was redeveloped into a park that holds various annual festivals. Since the 1990s, the square has held an ice skating rink in the winter. A major 2001 redevelopment project saw a larger fountain implemented. Clinton Square is also the site of Syracuse's municipal Christmas tree and menorah during the holiday season. The modern era has seen a number of festivals take place in the square, beginning with the 1991 Jazz Fest.


Description

Clinton Square itself holds a large fountain, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument, a monument to the Jerry Rescue, and an information kiosk. The square is near Hanover Square. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument was dedicated in 1911. The monument consists of a square granite pylon with attached Roman
Ionic column The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...
s at its corners, crowned by a globe supported by four eagles. This is set atop a
plinth A pedestal (from French ''piédestal'', Italian ''piedistallo'' 'foot of a stall') or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In ...
, and a stepped plaza with corner piers supporting bronze lampposts. All four sides of the monument have different sculptures on it. The monument is approximately 75 ft (22.86 m) tall.Soldiers and Sailors Monument
from SIRIS.
The Jerry Rescue monument depicts Jerry, a recently freed slave, in broken chains, being aided by
Jermain Wesley Loguen Rev. Jermain Wesley Loguen (February 5, 1813 – September 30, 1872), born Jarm Logue, in slavery, was an African-American abolitionist and bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, and an author of a slave narrative. Biogr ...
and
Samuel Joseph May Samuel Joseph May (September 12, 1797 – July 1, 1871) was an American reformer during the nineteenth century who championed education, women's rights, and abolition of slavery. May argued on behalf of all working people that the rights of h ...
. It was dedicated in 1990.


Historic buildings

The buildings around the square have historically been prominent in Syracuse. However, many have burnt down, with fires in 1834, 1856, 1881, 1896, and 1943. The 1881 fire consumed the Wieting Opera House, which ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' described as "one of the finest structures here
n Syracuse N, or n, is the fourteenth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''en'' (pronounced ), plural ''ens''. History ...
and containing one of the handsomest theatres in the State". The Empire House hotel burnt down in 1943. Other relatively well-known buildings that have been taken down in the square's vicinity include the Clinton Block, Hotel Clover, and Goettel's laundry. The police quarters were replaced by a newspaper building. Clinton Square is surrounded by four bank buildings: the Gridley Building (1867), the Syracuse Savings Bank Building (1875), the Third National Bank Building (1886), and the Onondaga County Savings Bank Building (1897). The area to the north of the square is occupied by the Syracuse Newspapers Building (1971), which replaced the third Onondaga County Courthouse. It holds the offices of several presses.


History

Clinton Square's development is directly tied to the development of Syracuse as a city; the first lot sold was in the area. As it was at the intersection of Salina and Genesee Streets, the square was an early crossroads. From 1806 to 1844 the area around the intersection featured the Mansion House, an inn first known as the South Salina House and constructed by Henry Bogardus. The crossroads were initially known as Bogardus' Corners. Bogardus's building was purchased by Sterling Cossit in 1815; by this point it was a tavern, the city's first. Cossit, who took over operation of the Mansion House, lent his name to the corners and they were referred to as Cossits' Corners. When Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, visited Syracuse, a reception for him was held in the square.


Erie Canal

The square grew in prominence as the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
passed through it. When the canal opened in 1825 it transformed the city. Three years later the
Oswego Canal The Oswego Canal is a canal in the New York State Canal System located in New York, United States. Opened in 1828, it is 23.7 miles (38.1 km) in length, and connects the Erie Canal at Three Rivers (near Liverpool) to Lake Ontario at Oswe ...
opened, passed through the Erie Canal near the square. Clinton Square was renamed in recognition of DeWitt Clinton, a governor of New York and prominent supporter of the canal, by Joshua Forman. It became a bustling marketplace, officially designated as such in 1837. A farmers market was held in the square from 1837 to 1899. Clinton Square grew with Syracuse, and was described as the "hub of the city" and the "busiest place in town". An early 1820s brick hotel on the square, the Syracuse House, was the largest in the region.
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...
visited it in 1869 and wrote of it as "the worst inn that ever was seen... located in a most wonderful out-of-the-way place which looks as if it had begun to be built yesterday and were going to be knocked over with a nail or two tomorrow." In 1844 a large hotel, the Empire House, was constructed on land previously occupied by the Mansion House. Clinton Square has played host to various large gatherings, During the 1851 Jerry Rescue, a crowd in Clinton Square advocated for the freedom of a fugitive slave. They were spoken to by antislavery leaders including
Samuel Ringgold Ward Samuel Ringgold Ward (October 17, 1817 – ) was an African American who escaped enslavement to become an abolitionist, newspaper editor, labor leader, and Congregational church minister. He was author of the influential book ''Autobiograp ...
. In 1869 the Cardiff Giant was exhibited at a building on Clinton Square for several weeks. A feast in the square on New Years Day in 1870 was organized by the brewer John Greenway. Aimed at feeding poor inhabitants of the city, Greenway had invited the whole of Syracuse, at the time 43,000 people. Contemporary reports stated that most of the attendees were not actually poor, and included some living outside of the city who had taken a train in explicitly for the banquet. Attendance was reported to have been around 20,000 people, many of whom sat at a long table. Although the attendance was described as "guesswork", in 1971, ''
The Post-Standard ''The Post-Standard'' is a newspaper serving the greater Syracuse, New York, metro area. Published by Advance Publications, it and sister website Syracuse.com are among the consumer brands of Advance Media New York, alongside NYUp.com and ''The ...
'' wrote that "every two-fisted drinking man" attended the barbecue, while in 2001 the '' Syracuse Herald American'' wrote that " lf the city" had come. Greenway reportedly supplied three oxen, of roast beef, 5,000 bread loaves, and of
plum pudding Christmas pudding is sweet dried-fruit pudding traditionally served as part of Christmas dinner in Britain and other countries to which the tradition has been exported. It has its origins in medieval England, with early recipes making use of ...
in the form of 12 puddings. There was also live music. Clinton Square also held celebrations after presidential elections and when wars ended, sometimes with fireworks set off. The square was officially re-designated from a marketplace to a park in 1899, and an oval flower garden was added to its center.


Early-mid 20th century

Construction began on the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in the square in July 1909, in front of a crowd estimated at 50,000 people. It was dedicated in 1910 or 1911 in memory of Onondaga County citizens who died in the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
. An estimated 110,000 people were present at the final dedication. The Erie Canal was closed in the city six years later. It was filled in and the bridge that spanned it was removed over the course of several years, reopening for traffic in October 1924. The Canal's path was replaced by Erie Boulevard, and much of the square replaced by a parking lot. Part of the parking lot was adapted into a park in the 1930s as part of a
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
project. Since 1933 Clinton Square has held Syracuse's municipal Christmas tree during the holiday season. It was lit on Christmas Eve until the 1960s, when the date was brought forward. The process of redevelopment continued with a redesign in the 1960s. However, this change also caused the square to have increased numbers of people who "seemed" homeless or were dealing drugs, according to Syracuse University professor R. Van Deusen Jr.


Later history and redevelopment

Redevelopment work in 1981 led to the installation of two pyramid-shaped cascading fountains, partially made with bricks from the Erie Canal. Nine years later the Jerry Rescue Monument was dedicated in the square. In the 1990s Syracuse city leaders sought to repeat the success of developing Armory Square at Clinton Square, aiming to make the square an attractive location for business and real-estate development. At the time, the square hosted few businesses, namely ''
The Post-Standard ''The Post-Standard'' is a newspaper serving the greater Syracuse, New York, metro area. Published by Advance Publications, it and sister website Syracuse.com are among the consumer brands of Advance Media New York, alongside NYUp.com and ''The ...
'', banks, and an office building. Work began to redevelop the square in 2001, rerouting Erie Boulevard. The project also saw cleaning of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument and addition of an information kiosk. Trees that had been planted in the 1960s were removed. A 2002 analysis of the square's redevelopment published in ''
GeoJournal ''GeoJournal'' is a peer-reviewed international academic journal on all aspects of geography founded in 1977. Twelve issues (three volumes) a year were published by Springer Netherlands (formerly Kluwer) until December 2009 and can be accessed via ...
'' described the neighborhood around Clinton Square as having undergone
gentrification Gentrification is the process of changing the character of a neighborhood through the influx of more affluent residents and businesses. It is a common and controversial topic in urban politics and planning. Gentrification often increases the ec ...
in the years leading up to the 2001 project, highlighting rules banning hot dog vendors and a movement to ban "alternative press street boxes". Since 1990 the square has hosted an ice skating rink during the winter. In 1991 Syracuse's Jazz Fest was first held in the square, its first music festival. The Jazz Festival was the first major festival, and others have followed, including Oktoberfest, the Great Northeast Blues Fest, the New York State Rhythm and Blues Festival and Festa Italiana. In 2000,
Ray Charles Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
performed in the square for a crowd estimated at 35,000 people. Syracuse's municipal Christmas tree lighting is traditionally a major event in the square; in 2001 the ''Syracuse Herald-American'' wrote that it attracted an average of 15,000 people when the weather was not inclimate. Since 2013 Clinton Square has held Syracuse's municipal menorah in addition to the Christmas tree. The tree, traditionally sourced from a state forest, has been an artificial one since 2018. The tree lighting ceremony was virtual in 2020.


References


Sources

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External links


Clinton Square with Wieting Opera House, 1872

Clinton Square, 2010




{{Syracuse, New York Parks in Syracuse, New York