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Alexander Brown House

Gilded Age mansionsHistoric American Buildings Survey in New York (state)Houses in Syracuse, New YorkHouses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)National Register of Historic Places in Syracuse, New York
Onondaga County, New York Registered Historic Place stubsRichardsonian Romanesque architecture in New York (state)
AlexanderBrownHouse main 2007 12 16
AlexanderBrownHouse main 2007 12 16

The Alexander Brown House, at 726 West Onondaga Street in Syracuse, New York, is a Richardsonian Romanesque mansion in Potsdam sandstone and Spanish tile home built in 1895. It was the home of Alexander T. Brown, inventor and co-founder of Franklin Motors and the Brown-Lipe-Chapin Company, a firm that was absorbed into General Motors.Brown was a successful inventor and manufacturer. His specialty was transmissions adapted from bike chain derailleurs, but is also known for inventing the shifting carriage that allowed typewriters to have multiple cases or fonts, patented a breech loading shotgun that became Hunter Arms and as any inventor would he added technology into the house. He added such engineering features to the house as a terra cotta shaped glass tile-covered skylight to bring natural light into the attic, a basement to attic hydraulic elevator, and a house-wide vacuum cleaning system.The 5,500 sf carriage house is known to have held up to ten cars and had a car lift installed so that the projects he was working on could be brought up and out of the cold and into his workshop where his drivers were often known to have lived and assisted. He held the largest collection of military weaponry in private hands during his day and was also known to have kept a live bear in what was once a stable for the horses who once pulled his carriages from the carriage house behind the main house on West Onondaga Street. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Alexander Brown House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Alexander Brown House
West Onondaga Street, City of Syracuse

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Wikipedia: Alexander Brown HouseContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 43.036780555556 ° E -76.1625 °
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Address

West Onondaga Street 703
13204 City of Syracuse
New York, United States
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AlexanderBrownHouse main 2007 12 16
AlexanderBrownHouse main 2007 12 16
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Westside, Syracuse
Westside, Syracuse

Westside is a Syracuse, New York neighborhood, directly west of Downtown Syracuse. It corresponds to Onondaga County Census Tracts 21 and 22. It is made up of three parts, near West side, far west side and the West side Located between Interstate 690, and West Street, Syracuse’s Westside neighborhood consists of a mix of commercial, residential, and mostly-abandoned industrial units. The residential portion, centered on Park Avenue, is to the south of “Historic Automobile Row,” with its over twenty car dealerships. To the south of the neighborhood’s residences, is a former industrial section, still apparent, with its many, mostly-empty warehouses, and overgrown spur railroad tracks. Along Erie Boulevard, the southern boundary-road, much of the former industrial presence has been replaced with modern commercial office buildings. Leavenworth Park and Frazer Park are the two largest parks of the neighborhood. Its western portion has traditionally been a Polish neighborhood. Several families of Polish descent, even direct immigrants, still live in the neighborhood. The Polish Home, a banquet and bar facility on Park Avenue, serves as a major neighborhood meeting facility. While the neighborhood lacks pedestrian-friendly connections to its neighbors, the Lakefront, Near Westside, Far Westside, and downtown, it is served by three major bus corridors that pass along the north, south, and through the center of the neighborhood. The Westside of Syracuse is known for its large and continuously growing Hispanic population. This neighborhood is full of businesses that are owned by, and cater to, Spanish speaking clients. The C.G. Meaker Food Company Warehouse, Harriet May Mills House, St. Paul's Armenian Apostolic Church, Alton Simmons House, and West Brothers Knitting Company are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.