Building date: 1840, demolished prior to 1975. Built c. 1842 stated in "Cobblestone Buildings in Onondaga County", 1992, Structure No. 18, compiled by Glenn Hinchey.
Original use:
Corner structures:
Mortar application and content:
Types and uses of stones:
Types and choice of windows:
Structures with similar masonry details:
Masons who worked on building:
Unique features: Greek Revival. 1½ story Greek with a nice Ionic colonnade (a row of columns supporting a roof, an entablature, or arcade.). "Cobblestone Buildings in Onondaga County", 1992, Structure No. 21, compiled by Glenn Hinchey.
Map views courtesy Google Maps.
Town of Salina and Onondaga County Maps
The stately Jerome L. Briggs house at 100 1/2 Buckley Road [just east of Buckley and Old Liverpool Roads], Liverpool stood on a knoll east of the Will & Baumer Candle factory. It was built in 1840 and demolished prior to 1975. Briggs was a District Attorney 1836-1841. Richard Palmer blog.
Editor's Note: The may be references that may infer that this structure was located in the City of Syracuse. It was located in the Town of Salina in the area of Galeville, a suburb of metro Syracuse.
The Jerome Briggs House
Above the shores of Onondaga Lake sprawls the most outstanding product of the Greek Revival in Syracuse. Lacking but five columns to gain a completely encircling colonnade, this house is technically the extent reached by the classic spirit, its 18 columns the closest approach to the ideal temple form.
Jerome Briggs was a district attorney [1836-1841] who built this house of native cobblestones in 1840 and here died in 1865. The hand-carved winding stairway and the fireplaces in each room are worthy of mention but it is, of course, the exterior that deserves most attention.
With difficulty the colonnade is disregarded to note the typical small attic windows which were probably at one time closed with grilles, the platform on the roof, and the doorway pilasters with their delicate anthemion carvings.
The most obvious inconsistency lies in the failure of the roof to extend to the extremes of the colonnade as they should in the true temple form. This is rather a roofed walk built around an inner structure. The builder must however be admired for his forthrightness in lowering the colonnade and thereby introducing second story windows to their share of light.
Jerome J. Briggs was born in Adams, Mass. on February 25, 1806. When nine years old the family moved to Schoharie where he received his early education. He then attended Hamilton College in Clinton and graduated with honors. He then commenced reading law in Utica. He completed his law studies with attorney John G. Forbes of Salina. He was appointed Onondaga County District Attorney in 1834. After about eight or 10 years he discontinued practicing law and built the large cobblestone house at Green Point and became involved in salt manufacturing and farming.
In 1852 he was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention that nominated Franklin Pierce as President. In 1853 he lost the nomination for the post of superintendent of the Onondaga Salt Springs. He died August 7, 1865 at his home and is buried at Onondaga Hill Cemetery. He married Charlotte, daughter of Hezekiah Strong of Onondaga. They had two sons, Jerome B. and Thomas Briggs and a daughter, Mary E., who married Thomas D. Newcomb.
From: The Greek Revival in Syracuse - An historical survey and analytical study of the architectural developments in Syracuse, New York, between the years 1820 and 1855. By Leslie O. Merrill Jr. - Thesis for a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Decoration (Syracuse University) April 15, 1943. Richard Palmer blog.
Landmark Overlooking Lake Hemmed in by Factories
Vista Disappearing, Encroaching Industries Shut off View from Old Home Above Onondaga, Syracuse Post-Standard, September 24, 1930
Bit by bit the beautiful vista once had from the pillared veranda of the cobblestone house just east of the junction of Buckley and Liverpool roads has been going as industry advanced and factory buildings encroached on the former salt lands shutting out the view of Onondaga lake.
"But we can still see the hills across the lake," was the optimistic comment of Mrs. Peter Egloff, who has lived in the house since 1907. The Will & Baumer company has owned the property since 1904.
The house attracts attention. The main part is of cobblestone, although there is a large brick addition in the rear. On three sides of the house is the pillared veranda. There is a hand-carved winding stairway, fireplaces in several of the rooms and all the ear-marks of early architecture and the prosperity of the man for whom it was built.
Jerome L. Briggs was district attorney from 1836 to 1841. He built it. He acquired the land from the state in 1835, with an addition of many more acres in 1842. His father, Olney Briggs, was born in Cheshire, Mass., January 8, 1780, and died at Esperance, Schoharie county August 16, 1856. He was appointed to the county bench in 1816, and served 16 years. His son followed in the same profession, came to Syracuse and died in the cobblestone house in 1865.
Simon Stevens acquired the house and the acres around it December 1, 1865, from the Briggs heirs. Simon Stevens' daughter, Florence, married Robert Young, on March 26, 1869. Young purchased the property from the Stevens estate after Simon Stevens' death for $50,000.
Robert Young's daughter, Florence Louise Young, born in the house, is the widow of Edward I. Rice. The cobblestone house was her girlhood home. Robert Young died April 7, 1901, when he was 74 years old.
The house went with the acreage purchased by the Will & Baumer Candle Company on March 1, 1904. The Will & Baumer plant on West Jefferson street, on the west side of Onondaga creek, was burned September 11, 1901, and after that fire the company moved its factory to Gfreenploint, as it was known, junction of the Liverpool and Buckley roads, where there was a tollgate and where Nate Sawmiller had his coal yard in those days. The cobblestone house is in back of the candle factory. Richard Palmer blog.
 1859 Onondaga County Sal-6 Map Excerpt.jpg ¹ |  90 5.24.09 PM.jpg ² |  91-1.jpg ³ |  91-2.jpg ³ |
 92-3.jpg ³ |
¹ 1859 Onondaga County map excerpt courtesy Library of Congress
² Image courtesy Richard Palmer.
³ Images courtesy of Leslie O. Merrill Jr. - Thesis for a degree in Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Decoration (Syracuse University) April 15, 1943.
