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hen David Haas started documenting landmarks in Syracuse, he would drive around the city, snap a picture of intricate homes “and be like ‘Alright, I want to bang out the story of this place.’”

Haas uploaded the photos to @SyracuseHistory, an Instagram account that documents historic homes and landmarks across the city. He started freelancing for the Syracuse New Times, a now-defunct publication, and oftentimes connected the city’s past to its present. He used to budget time for driving around the city, but now, documenting Syracuse has become more routine.

“I feel like the stories come to me often. I get contacted, or I’m just out and about doing other things and I’m like ‘Holy cow, what is this?’” said Haas, who grew up in the city’s Eastwood neighborhood. “I kind of learned that a story will lead to a story that leads to another story.”

Syracuse — founded by white settlers on Onondaga Nation land, developed along the Erie Canal, situated along the Underground Railroad, spurred by an industrial boom, split by redlining and uneven growth, and now growing again — is filled with with parks, trails, shops and buildings that give a glimpse into its complicated history and evolving present.

Customers shop at the Syracuse Antiques Exchange, located in a former textile mill from Syracuse’s booming industrial era. Students can walk to Corcoran High School by cutting through Elmwood Park, once a 19th-century resort that was a cornerstone of the temperance movement. A bike trail winds around an abandoned quarry on the Jamesville border, where a processing company once mined salt from under the ground to produce soda ash.

“You can almost pick an activity in every neighborhood,” Haas said.

Here are 10 places students should visit this spring, as recommended by Haas.

Onondaga Creekwalk

The Onondaga Creekwalk runs throughout the city of Syracuse, along historical sites such as an old railroad bridge and downtown spots such as Dinosaur Bar-B-Que and the Museum of Science & Technology.

The original section of the paved trail stretched 2.6 miles from downtown to the shore of Onondaga Lake. The completion of the second phase of the Creekwalk this summer added an additional 2.2 miles to the pathway from Armory Square to Kirk Park in Syracuse’s Southside.

Eileen Ponto described the Creekwalk, during a walk on April 10, as “a little jewel for the town” that showcases the creek. Will Fudge | Staff Photographer

While walking along the trail on April 10, resident Eileen Ponto described the Creekwalk as “a little jewel for the town” that showcases the creek, the downtown area and Franklin Square. Another Syracuse resident, Daphine DeRosa, walks at the Creekwalk every day, often with the rescue dog she adopted a few months ago. DeRosa enjoys the nature she sees at the Creekwalk. Aside from the trees and blooming flowers, she’s seen foxes and opossums there.

To central New York resident Ray Trudell, the Creekwalk is both a beautiful and historical area. He pointed to a water tower left over from a New Process Gear plant that occupied the Franklin Square area during its industrial days. A sign along the trail says that the now-quiet neighborhood of Franklin Square once “rumbled with trains and machinery” when it was a factory area in the 20th century.

— Mandy Kraynak, Senior Staff Writer

Oakwood Cemetery Tree Trail

For Cristian Toellner, the best spot in the Oakwood Cemetery Tree Trail is a European beech tree with a tire swing hanging on it. The swing was created to promote public interaction in the cemetery, with its creators hoping people passing through would stick by and hop on.

“It’s just cool,” said Toellner, an SU senior and one of the creators of the tree trail. “How often are we incentivized to go to a cemetery just to hang out?”

Although Toellner, Joseph DiStefano and Jonnell Robinson created the trail with Syracuse Community Geography in the fall, Oakwood has been around since 1859. The cemetery was first created through the rural landscape cemetery movement, a 19th-century effort to enhance the beauty of burial grounds.

People created a tire swing to promote public interaction in the cemetery. Christopher Scarglato | Asst. Culture Editor

Toellner helped form the trail for an internship, plotting a path of 24 different GPS markers. The trail starts at a stone brick gate and loops around the cemetery, with stops at different tree species such as a weeping cherry and Austrian pine. Besides being a way to utilize Oakwood, Toellner hopes the trail fosters a greater appreciation for burial grounds.

For Haas, it’s one of his favorite parts of the city.

“It has basically anything you want,” he said. “You can go there to take pictures, to clear your mind, to exercise, to look at the historic landscape, to learn. It’s just a gorgeous, gorgeous outdoor museum that we have.”

— Christopher Scarglato, Asst. Culture Editor

Syracuse Antiques Exchange

Just behind Stella’s Diner, in what was once a textile factory during Syracuse’s industrial boom, is Syracuse Antiques Exchange — a four-floor building filled with hundreds of thousands of antique items for sale.

“Something a lot of people always tell us is that they’ve lived in Syracuse for 40 years and they never knew this store was here,” said Kirsten Soos, the store’s front-end manager. “So we’re trying to make sure people are aware of this business and how long it’s been here.”

The business has been in operation for 30 years and is open seven days a week, said Wendy Pridmore, who’s in charge of the store’s social media and is also one of the 70 dealers who has their own “booth” where they sell their items.

The store has four floors, filled with hundreds of thousands of antique items for sale and each floor has a bell for customers to ring, if they need help. Sarah Slavin | Senior Staff Writer

Soos said that what makes Syracuse Antiques unique is that it sells a large array of items — it even has two coffins for sale at the moment. The store is now the main antique store in the city and took in some inventory from other antique stores that have closed.

Pridmore said the exchange takes items that are “vintage,” which typically means at least 25 years old. Due to its four floors, the antique store has a bell system at the top of each flight of stairs for patrons to ring in case they have a question on a particular item, Pridmore said.

— Sarah Slavin, Senior Staff Writer

Barnes-Hiscock House

People love the Barnes-Hiscock House’s dining room. With its stained glass windows, terrazzo floor and canvases imported from London, there just isn’t anything else like it in Syracuse, said Michelle Keib, president of the George and Rebecca Barnes Foundation’s board of directors.

“It has features you just don’t find,” Keib said. “It is so different.”

Abolitionist George Barnes first built the mansion in 1853. Barnes would host Underground Railroad meetings in the house with fellow abolitionist Samuel May. He would also announce larger abolitionist meetings in his own newspaper,
according to Spectrum News.

Due to Syracuse’s proximity to Canada, the city served as a major stopping point on the Underground Railroad. Jermain Loguen, an abolitionist who escaped slavery in Tennessee, helped more than 2,000 people escape enslavement, said Robert Searing, curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association.

Inside the house’s dining room, there are stained glass windows, terrazzo floor and canvases imported from London. Christopher Scarglato | Asst. Culture Editor

Helping one person escape took Barnes and approximately two dozen people to plan, and it’s one of the most defiant anti-slavery efforts in the U.S. before the Civil War, according to Syracuse.com.

The house is one of many sights that played a key role in the Underground Railroad. Frederick Douglass spoke in Syracuse several times. Loguen became a preacher at the African Methodist Episcopal Zion church on the Southside.

After his death, Barnes’ daughter Bessie and her husband Frank Hiscock inherited the house and expanded it to fit the Colonial Revival style. In the ‘40s — after hosting President Howard Taft and acting as a space for Le Moyne College classes — the Corinthian Club, a private women’s club, bought the house and held it for over 50 years.

In 2010, the house was eventually placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The house is currently going through a restoration project, and it remains virtually untouched, even though the city has grown around it.

— Christopher Scarglato, Asst. Culture Editor

Elmwood Park

In 1806, when the city of Syracuse was known as the “Village of Syracuse,” European settlers lived around the present-day Southside.

On a patch of land that is now Elmwood Park, they built a furnace that manufactured bullets used in the War of 1812.

Now, Furnace Creek runs through the park, passing picnic tables, a playground, hiking trails and a baseball diamond. The park is shaped like a valley, leading to Corcoran High School’s back entrance. Nearby homes on Glenwood Avenue tower over the green.

“It’s one of those areas where you step into the park and you’re like ‘Wait, am I out in the country? Am I in a forest, or am I still in the city or not?’” Haas said.

Before becoming a park, the land that houses Elmwood Park used to be farmland and a resort. Molly Gibbs | Senior Staff Photographer

The area stayed as farmland after the war for more than 50 years until 1889, when it was converted into the First Class Temperance Pleasure Resort — 17 acres that included two artificial lakes, a dance pavilion, ice cream parlors and a cigar stand, according to Searing. Temperance was a social movement against the consumption of alcohol, and it served as a precursor for prohibition.

At the entrance to Elmwood Park, near where the furnace was used, a sign recites the rest of its history: the land was leased as another resort in 1908, which burned down in 1909. It sat vacant until the city bought it in the 1920s. Then, it was established as the Elmwood Park that stands today.

— Gabe Stern, Enterprise Editor

Downtown Eastwood

To Searing, the stretch of James Street between the old movie theater, the used bookstores and the antique shop is like “stepping back in time.”

The signage on the Palace Theatre hasn’t changed since the 1950s. The buildings are the same, just with different storefronts. If you look close enough, he said, you might see imprints from old trolley car lines sticking in the pavement.

“That area of Eastwood is the area where you can be plopped there,” said Searing. “And if the cars were different, you could get away with thinking it’s still the mid-1950s.”

Palace Theater’s signage hasn’t changed since the ’50s. Molly Gibbs | Senior Staff Photographer

As Syracuse’s population grew after the Civil War, developments spread south, west and east, including an enclave to the east of Syracuse called Eastwood, a village incorporated in 1895. Eastwood’s transit system became clogged and its services were spread thin, and in 1926, the village unanimously voted to become part of Syracuse. Today, the neighborhood still reflects its own unique downtown area, reminiscent of decades ago.

At Books and Melodies, owner Jon Goode enjoys the characters that walk in and out. “Every day’s different,” he said. After a decade of owning the store, which buys and sells used books, vinyl records, CDs and other art, Goode’s music taste has been shaped by the records his customers bring in.

“There used to be a pizza shop here, and a few years ago, I found a book in here that said ‘Eastwood Book Shop,’” Goode said. “And it was from the ‘30s, and it had this address. And I didn’t even know that.”

— Gabe Stern, Enterprise Editor

Hiawatha Lake in Onondaga Park

Located 10 minutes from Syracuse University’s campus, in Upper Onondaga Park, Hiawatha Lake is a small oasis amid the city traffic. A gazebo overlooks the water and an arched stone bridge is shadowed by willow trees. It’s bordered by a stone house with a recreational area, the park’s walking trails and a line of houses all located in the Strathmore neighborhood.

Residents visit the lake to take wedding photos, exercise, walk their dogs and swim in the recreational area’s pool during the summer, said Haas, who drives by there at least once a week on his way to work. Created in 1898, Onondaga Park was built in two sections, Lower and Upper Onondaga Park, which is where the lake is, Searing said. The Syracuse Water Company originally built the lake to use as a reservoir, but it then turned into Onondaga Lake in 1910.

The park was originally built in 1898 and has since become a major gathering place. Courtesy of Onondaga Historical Association

The park became a major gathering place, Searing said. The gazebo served as a bandstand, and residents loved to swim there. But drownings in the lake were common, as it was dark and murky, forcing the city to ban swimming in Hiawatha Lake in the 1930s.

— Abby Weiss, Asst. Culture Digital Editor

Wildflowers Armory

At 217 S. Salina Street sits Wildflowers Armory, a marketplace featuring local artists from New York state. Before becoming a permanent shop in November 2019, it was better known as Infinite POP, a pop-up shop.

Wildflowers aims to promote arts in the area, said Dan Bingham, one of the seven store owners. The store does this through events such as their immersive Van Gogh experience, which ran in late March, and by selling products from all art genres and local businesses.

What makes the shop unique is that the products they sell are all local and handmade, with some from businesses such as Johanna Wall Jewelry, Kingsley Street Artisan Soaps and Syracuse Salt Company. One artist is a high school student photographer.

The shop sells local handmade goods and fosters the growth of local art. Gavi Azoff | Asst. Digital Editor

The local products are the main draw that brings people into the store, Bingham said.

“I think the part that makes (Wildflowers) the most unique is the ongoing fostering of the local art, so it’s like a nonstop area that people have gotten to know to check out,” he said. “It’s their way of kind of sampling pieces of Syracuse, all in one area.”

— Gavi Azoff, Asst. Culture Digital Editor

The Kind Coffee Co.

There’s a reason that The Kind Coffee Co. is a hidden gem. Doug Nicolaisen avoids advertising his business, relying instead on word-of-mouth and a sign he put outside of his business on the Westside. It says “strong” coffee is sold there.

“When I put the sign out there that says, ‘strong,’ my landlord thought I was nuts,” Nicolaisen said. “That’s what sells my coffee.”

On Friday, Garrett Ingraham saw that sign and stopped at Nicolaisen’s store for the first time. The coffee roaster asked Ingraham, as he does with every customer who walks through the shop’s door, “Have you ever been here before?”

The Kind Coffee Co. sells “the kobe beef of coffee beans,” according to Nicolaisen. Louis Platt | Asst. Culture Editor

Nicolaisen treats every new customer to a shot of black coffee and usually his coffee pitch: He’s been at 715 W. Fayette St. for 26 years, he sells the “kobe beef of coffee beans” and all coffee beans are used the day they’re roasted.

The Kind Coffee Co.’s coffee is best enjoyed black because Nicolaisen uses expensive, high-quality beans, he said. But if you’re married to cream and sugar, he’ll oblige and add them to your cup.

Don’t expect a regular cafe atmosphere, either. Nicolaisen’s business is a coffee roastery — his convection-oven roaster is the first thing customers see when they walk in. Every week, he chooses a different bean or a blend of beans to roast, and each day, he intensifies the roast: Monday is the lightest roast, and Friday is the darkest.

The variety keeps the customers coming back because they get a new coffee experience each day and every week, Nicolaisen said. But there is consistency within each 12-ounce cup. Each one has the equivalency of a four tablespoons of coffee, which is roughly a dose of caffeine.

“Everyone brews it weak, and it’s sh*t,” Nicolaisen said. “I give you what used to be the truth.”

— Louis Platt, Asst. Culture Editor

Tipp Hill Bars, Stoplight

Irish kids didn’t like that green — their Irish green — was on the bottom of a Tipperary Hill intersection traffic light, so they hurled rocks at it. It was the mid-1920s, when traffic lights were first being installed across the U.S. And even after the city fixed the broken light, the kids broke it again. And they did a few more times after that.

Eventually, the city flipped the light upside down, with the green on top and the “British” red on the bottom. Nearly a century later, the traffic light at Tompkins Street and Milton Avenue is still flipped upside down. On the corner, a bronze memorial of a family stands by, watching over the intersection.

After Irish kids broke the light multiple times, the city finally gave in, placing the “Irish” green light on top and “British” red on the bottom. Christopher Scarglato | Asst. Culture Editor

“It’ll always be upside down,” Searing said. “I can’t imagine that they’ll ever flip it. Even if there are no Irish left in Tipp Hill.”

Besides hosting the U.S.’s only green-on-top traffic light, Tipp Hill also features age-old Irish bars such as Coleman’s Authentic Irish Pub and Nibsy’s Pub nearby.

— Christopher Scarglato, Asst. Culture Editor

Banner illustration by Nabeeha Anwar, Illustration Editor