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Onondaga House


Text Source: Onondaga's Centennial, by Dwight H. Bruce (ed.),  Boston History Co., 1896, Vol. I, pg. 423.
West of this block was in 1827 the Eagle Tavern, kept first by Ezra Rhyne, and later by William A. Robinson, afterwards proprietor of the Onondaga Hotel.

Text Source: Syracuse and Its Environs, by Franklin H. Chase, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL, 1924, pg. 319
William A. Robinson brought the idea of a temperance hotel to Syracuse, along with the nerve to try it.  Mr. Robinson came from Delphi, but he did not put his temperance idea in practice the first thing, for he took over a hotel that had next to the longest history as an inn for Syracuse.  This was the Eagle Tavern, next west of the Yellow Block on West Genesee Street.  Carroll E. Smith says that it was kept by Frederick Rhyne, and was built soon after the Bogardus Tavern.  It said "Drovers' Home," over the stable door, and was credited with being commodious, hospitable and successful.  This was the tavern that Mr. Robinson first took, and he kept it until it burned in 1842.  Then Mr. Robinson built the Onondaga House on the southwest corner of North Salina  and the present West Willow streets, and that was the pioneer temperance hotel.

Submitted 4 April 2006 by Pamela Priest