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