"The Mule Days of Summer"

 Kelly Curry's The Mule Days of Summer, 

the new mural on the Water St. side of the Erie Canal Museum.

Dragonfly in Ithaca

"How far are you willing to go to get what you want?"

 Splendid production of Little Shop of Horrors at the Hanger Theater!

"How far are you willing to go to get what you want?"

Audrey II and her handlers, David Colston Corris, puppeteer, and Erin Maya, Audrey II's voice, at Hangar Theatre in Ithaca

Impression of a Red Chair

Muster at Tim Horton

No War!

Middle Saranac Lake

Canada Jay at Bloomingdale Bog

Bloomingdale Bog

Baker Chapel at Historic Trudeau Institute in Saranac Lake

The current, stabilized historic district was built to house and treat people with tuberculosis in the clean and cool air of the Adirondacks. It operated between 1885 and 1954.

Information about the chapel and other historic buildings within the campus at the edge of Saranac Lake is here.

Paul Smith's Electric Light and Power and Railroad Co. at Saranac Lake

Saranac Lake: Hotel Saranac and the Dew Drop Inn

We are spending the weekend at Saranac Lake with friends.

Years ago, when Ed and I first came to Saranac Lake together, we stayed here, at the Hotel Saranac. The rooms were plain and practical, and one could get a very nice dinner in the dining room.

After Paul Smith's College sold it, it fell on some very hard times and we all feared it might be lost.

Last year a new owner took over and is investing in major restoration and renovation, to the delight of town residents and visitors alike. We very much look forward to seeing the results, and to staying and having a meal there once again. 

Now it's the Dew Drop Inn that is in danger of being lost. It is for sale, and it needs lots of stabilization before it even passes code. The sign is classic.

fyi: Paul Smiths, the village, has no apostrophe; Paul Smith's, the college at Paul Smiths, has an apostrophe.

Archimedes Russell: The Snowdon Apartments

The Snowdon winds up our survey of Archimedes Russell, at least for now. Here is Syracuse Then and Now's article including historic photos.

Beatrice Possibly Leads Us to Paradise at Riley's

Clinton Exchange Building and Chimney of Snow Warehouse

Archimedes Russell: Amos Building

Mizpah Tower Hotel

It Poured!

Chancellor Angela Merkel Embraces Germany's Win at the World Cup

 We actually went to a bar to watch the final game on TV. Not like us. We had fun.

Nicky's Opening!

Syracuse Scottish Pipe Band Practice

The Spinning Wheel at India House

Conde Toy Shop

Pavone's Pizza recently removed their old sign to reveal this classic! I remember Conde Toy Shop, though I think we were outclassed and only looked. We rarely made the trip to Syracuse in the 1950s as it was considered a long way from Oneida.

Some Googling revealed the following two items:

from 1921 from Dealers Report on Trade Conditions:
Syracuse, N.Y. - Our toys are about 20 per cent more, and stocks are larger. We sell nothing but toys and carry a complete stock the year round. Wheel toys are selling best. There is a call for cheaper merchandise. High priced items do not sell as well as last year. Think sales will total as high as 1920. Very little of our buying is done. We are buying a few imported dolls and musical toys, and they constitute about 10 per cent of our stock. Prices on some lines are still too high. Some have not been reduced at all.-Conde Toy Shops

from 1936:
The Conde Toy Shop, Syracuse N. Y., buys white sea sand from New Jersey in carload lots, has it put up in large, stout paper sacks, with the shop's name printed thereon. These sacks each hold about 140 lbs. of white sand, and are retailed for $2.00, delivered at the purchaser's home. During the summer the Conde Shop advertises this sand in the newspapers and sells large quantities of it. Every purchase of sand means the sale of a goodly number of sand toys, among the most profitable of which are the sand boxes, which Mr. Conde has made locally. These boxes run from six to fifteen feet square and are a few inches high. In the centre is fastened a big sun unbrella.

Book Wagon

New on North Salina Street

Recently renovated, very narrow, housing a retail space on the main floor, and a two-story apartment above (for rent now), on North Salina St. 

Every project, small and large, brings more life into the city. Cheers and welcome!

The owner is also repairing and will reinstall the clock in the top center of the building.

Here's Dick Case's article from two and a half years ago in Syr.com with some history and a great old photo.

Gas Valve

Archimedes Russell: Third National Bank

Archimedes Russell's name comes up at least as often as Ward Wellington Ward's name does in a survey of historic buildings here in the city of Syracuse. Ward and Gustauv Stickley are probably more famous and admired. Still Russell and his contemporaries created a legacy of monumental buildings that has endured. 

Russell was born in 1840 in Massachusetts and began his career apprenticing to John Stevens in Boston. Schools of architecture were few and expensive. For Russell apprenticing was the only path to learning the art and craft of designing buildings.

By 1862 Russell had moved to Syracuse, home to his wife's family, and began working as an apprentice for Horatio Nelson White, already a well known architect here. Contemporaneous with them was Joseph Lyman Silsbee.

He left White’s office in 1868 to set up his own practice. During that time, post-Civil War Syracuse's population grew and businesses prospered. Russell and his contemporaries were busy. Russell drew up 800 commissions (not all of which were built), and taught architecture at Syracuse University at a time when most architecture was still being taught on the job.

Russell employed Asa L. Merrick from 1870 to 1877, and Charles E. Colton worked for him from 1875 to 1878. They too built their own firms after working for Russell.

Russell hired Melvin L. King in 1889 and made him a partner in 1906 as Russell began to retire. That trajectory leads directly to King + King, a highly respected architectural firm in Syracuse today.

As I look for Russell’s extant buildings, of which there are still many, I’m enjoying the wide range of styles he explored during his career, in an age of architectural diversity.

Here and in past and future posts is a sampler of the built legacy of Archimedes Russell and his cohorts.

Fourth of July