History of Syracuse, New York

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Historical population
CensusPop.Note%±
185022,271—
186028,11926.3%
187043,05153.1%
188051,79220.3%
189088,14370.2%
1900108,37423.0%
1910137,24926.6%
1920171,71725.1%
1930209,32621.9%
1940205,967−1.6%
1950220,5837.1%
1960216,038−2.1%
1970197,208−8.7%
1980170,105−13.7%
1990163,860−3.7%
2000147,306−10.1%
2010145,170−1.5%
2020148,6202.4%
[1][2]

railway network
. The city grew on the back of its salt and chemical industries, and later as a center of manufacturing and engineering. Although its industries have dwindled, the city has remained the economic and educational hub of Central New York, a region with over a million inhabitants; the population of the city, though, has been in decline since peaking in the 1950s.

Early history

Erie Canal at Salina Street
Salt sheds c. 1908

French missionaries were the first Europeans to come to this area, arriving to work with and convert the Native Americans in the mid-17th century. At the invitation of the

coureurs des bois, including Pierre Esprit Radisson, set up a mission, known as Ste. Marie de Gannentaha on the northeast shore of Onondaga Lake
.

The mission was short-lived, as the

Mohawk Nation hinted to the Onondaga that they should sever their ties with the French or suffer a horrible fate. The French interpreted this as an impending attack by the Mohawk, and Radisson and some of the other Frenchmen fled by night, having been there less than two years. Le Moyne shortly thereafter travelled to Mohawk territory to pursue diplomacy. The remains of the mission have been located underneath a restaurant in nearby Liverpool, NY
, where a living history museum now recreates the mission.

Just after the

Onondaga Hollow
, south of the present city center, which was marshland at the time.

Jesuit missionaries visiting the Syracuse region in the mid 1600s reported

Tully, New York, 15 miles south of the city, were developed in the 19th century. It is the north-flowing brine from Tully that is the source of salt for the "salty springs" found along the shoreline of Onondaga lake. The rapid development of this industry in the 18th and 19th centuries led to Syracuse's nickname—"The Salt City".[4]

19th century

South Salina Street c.1905

Syracuse went through several name changes before 1824, being first called Salt Point (1780), then Webster's Landing (1786), Bogardus Corners (1796), Milan (1809), South Salina (1812), Cossits’ Corners (1814), and Corinth (1817). The

village named Salina
.

In 1825, the Village of Syracuse was officially incorporated. Five years later the Erie Canal, which ran through the village, was completed. The Village of Syracuse and the Village of Salina were combined into the City of Syracuse on December 14, 1847. Harvey Baldwin was the first mayor of the new city.[5]

Early industries

Lewis Hamilton Redfield started the first weekly newspaper, Onondaga Register which published its first issue on September 17, 1814.[6]

The opening of the Erie Canal caused a steep increase in the sale of salt, not only because of the lower cost of transportation, but because the canal led New York farms to change their production from wheat to pork and curing pork required salt. Until 1900, the bulk of the salt used in the United States came from Syracuse.[7] As salt production climbed, the processing became increasingly mechanized and local industry became more generalized. The population grew from 250 in 1820, to 22,271 in 1850.

The first

Allied Signal
in Syracuse. This plant, though, made Onondaga Lake the most polluted in the nation. Efforts to clean up the lake continue to this day.

Since the discovery of large deposits of

Green River in Wyoming, the Solvay process
became uneconomical. The Syracuse Solvay Process Company plant closed permanently in 1985 and no such plants now operate in North America. However, throughout the rest of the world, the Solvay process remains the main source of soda ash.

The closing of the Onondaga Salt Springs Reservation in the early 1900s and the end to mining brine in the southern part of the Tully valley in the late 1900s marked the end of salt mining in the Syracuse region. However, groundwater flowing along the southeastern shore of Onondaga lake in Syracuse still allows salty water from a thousand feet below the southern Tully valley to flow by gravity, feeding salt springs around the lake where the Salina shale contains no halite beds.[4]

Fayette Street c. 1920

Abolitionism and the Underground Railroad

Syracuse became an active center of the

Liberty Party was holding its state convention in the city and when word of the arrest spread, several hundred abolitionists (including Charles Augustus Wheaton) broke into the city jail and freed Jerry. The event came to be widely known as the "Jerry Rescue". In the aftermath, the Congregationalist minister Samuel Ringgold Ward had to flee to Canada to escape persecution because of his participation.[8]

Industry and education in the late 19th century

The salt industry declined after the

manufacturing industry arose in its place. Throughout the late 1800s and early 1900s numerous businesses and stores were established, including the Franklin Automobile Company (which produced the first air-cooled engine in the world),[9] the Century Motor Vehicle Company and the Craftsman Workshops, the center of Gustav Stickley's
handmade furniture empire.

Syracuse University was chartered in 1870 as a Methodist-Episcopal institution.

The

Upstate Medical University and is the most prestigious medical college in the Syracuse area. It is one of only four in the State University of New York
system and one of only five medical schools in the state north of New York City.

20th century

See also: List of tallest buildings in Syracuse, New York
Children working in a Syracuse bowling alley, 1910. Photo by Lewis Hine.
city's tallest
, completed in 1928
Syracuse is actively renovating former industrial areas into usable space today. One example is Franklin Square.

By the 20th century, Syracuse University was no longer sectarian and had grown from a few classrooms located in downtown Syracuse into a major research institution. It is nationally recognized for its college basketball, college football, and college lacrosse teams. In 1911, under the leadership of Syracuse University trustee, Louis Marshall, the New York State College of Forestry was re-established in close association with Syracuse University. It since has evolved into the SUNY-ESF. Le Moyne College was founded in 1946 and Onondaga Community College in 1962.

Carrier Corporation and Crouse-Hinds traffic signal manufacturing, whilst General Electric
had its main television manufacturing plant at Electronics Parkway.

Syracuse's population peaked at 221,000 in 1950, when the Census Bureau reported Syracuse's population as 97.7%

immigrants from Africa and Central America also moved to Syracuse, sometimes under the auspices of religious charities. However, these new Syracusans could not make up for the flow of residents out of Syracuse, either to its suburbs
or out of state, owing to job loss.

Much of the city fabric changed after World War II, although

Urban Renewal
program cleared large sectors which remained undeveloped for many decades, although several new museums and government buildings were built.

The manufacturing industry in Syracuse began to falter in the 1970s. Many small businesses failed during this time, which contributed to an already increasing unemployment rate. Rockwell International moved their factory out of the state, and General Electric moved its television manufacturing operations firstly to Suffolk, Virginia, and later to Singapore. The Carrier Corporation moved its headquarters out of Syracuse and outsourced manufacturing to Asian locations. Nevertheless, although city population has declined since 1950, the population of Syracuse metropolitan area has remained fairly stable, even growing by 2.5 percent since 1970. While this growth rate is greater than in much of upstate New York, it is far below the national average during that period.

See also

References

  1. ^ Gibson, Campbell (June 1998). "Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990". United States Census Bureau, Population Division. Detailed Tables 8—21. Archived from the original on July 8, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
  2. ^ "Syracuse city, New York – Population Finder". United States Census Bureau. Archived from the original on February 12, 2020. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
  3. ^ "Science Tribune". www.tribunes.com.
  4. ^ a b "New York Water Science Center" (PDF). ny.water.usgs.gov.
  5. ^ "Our Founders" (PDF). City of Syracuse. 2004.
  6. ^ Searing, Robert (4 May 2021). "Inspired by Benjamin Franklin, Lewis Redfield started the first newspaper in Onondaga County". The Post-Standard. Retrieved 15 May 2021.
  7. ^ Encyclopedia AMERICANA,vol.26,1968
  8. ^ a b "The Jerry Rescue - New York History Net". www.nyhistory.com.
  9. ^ History of the Franklin Company. Baldwinsville, New York.: Baldwinsville Messenger. January 2003.
  10. ^ "Race and Hispanic Origin for Selected Cities and Other Places: Earliest Census to 1990". U.S. Census Bureau. Archived from the original on 2012-08-12.

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