Text Source: Onondaga's Centennial, by Dwight H. Bruce (ed.),  Boston History Co., 1896, Vol. I, pg. 423.

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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

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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.

Since then the idea of a temperance hotel in Syracuse has been persistent.  One could always be found somewhere in the city.  Under the impression that to "temperance" was due failure there have been reversions to the liquor type - but generally temperance also came back somewhere.  The old Voorhees House, which afterward became the Empire and was located on the site of the first tavern, started as a temperance house and only for a time, in the 'fifties, had a bar.  That record was kept down to the present century.  The Globe Hotel was a temperance house early in its career.

Another Eagle Tavern was a Salina hotel thirty-eight years before that village became a part of Syracuse.  Jonathan R. Beach was not only its host, but a violinist and a teacher of dancing and polite deportment, and in the assembly room of that hotel were held many social affairs of the ancient village.  He afterwards became a merchant in the firm of Beach & Foot.  The Eagle Tavern stood upon the west  side of North Salina Street quite close to Wolf Street.  Albert Field at one time managed the hotel for his mother, and Richard Sanger also kept this house for a long period.  In the early days the election  polls of Salina were in this tavern.  It was the custom then, and down to 1846, to take three days for election.  One day was divided between Liverpool and Geddes, then a day for the village of Syracuse, and always the last day for Salina.  Upon the east side of Salina Street, diagonally across from the Eagle, was a hotel conducted by Augustus H. Scoville.  These hotels were of wood, and Nov. 8, 1856, a great fire swept them away along with many other places in Salina.  More than $200,000 damage resulted and the distress caused was alleviated in part by public balls and subscriptions.