SOUTH SALINA HOTEL A/K/A Bogardus' Tavern, Afterwards, Mansion House, aftewards, VOORHEES House A/K/A RUSTS' Hotel, afterwards, Empire House





Text Source:  Early History of Syracuse, Rose & Miller, Syracuse, 1869, pp. 12-15.
In 1804, lots for the site of a village was laid out by Abraham Walton, and aggreably to stipulation, half an acre of ground was sold to Henry Bogardus, for the sum of three hundred dollars, ($300), binding him, within a reasonable time, to erect a suitable house for a tavern, and to keep, or cause one to be kept.  Accordingly, a house, two stories high was erected in 1806, its dimensions being thirty-five by forty feet on the ground, and occupied the site of the present Empire House.  In the keeping of this tavern, Mr. Bogardus was succeeded by Mr. Burlingham, in 1808; by Joseph Langdon in 1810; James Ingalls, in 1812, and by Sterling Cossit, in 1815.  At this time the village of Syracuse was called South Salina, and the tavern the "South Salina Hotel," although it is now north of the Canal, and was then the principal stopping place or head-quarters for stages, teams and travellers on their way between Albany and Buffalo.  For several years the place went by the name of Cossit's Four Corners, after Mr. Sterling Cossit who succeeded Mr. Ingalls in the "South Salina Hotel."  Mr. Cossit kept the house from 1815 to 1825, a period of ten years, after which it was kept for some time by Mr. O. H. Williston, an uncle of Ex-Mayor Charles Williston kept it until 1831, and then removed to New York city, to engage in more lucrative and congenial business to his taste.  Robert J. Brockway succeeded Mr. Williston, in the keeping of the hotel, when the name was changed to the "Mansion House;" and he in turn, by "Doty" Allen.  Philo N. Rust was the next landlord, who sold out to Daniel Comstock, who, after keeping it for some time, sold out to Evert Wynkoop.  It next passed into the hands of a company, who commenced tearing the old building down in 1843, and was rebuilt with brick, as it now stands, by James L. Voorhees, Caldwell, Baldwin and other members of the property company.  It was re-opened in 1846, under the name of the "Voorhees House," by a Mr. Miller.  Miller failed, and Harry Allen became its next landlord.  He was succeeded by Walt. Herrick, who kept it a short time.  Philo Rust took it in 1849, and Barney Filkins subsequently kept a boarding house, merely.  The genial and whole-souled Barney Becker, was its next popular landlord, and at this time the boarders, guests and travellers who made the "Voorhees House" their home, gave to it the appearance of a small village in itself.  Lucius W. Wright, of Troy, succeeded Barney Becker, who removed to New York city, and is there keeping a first class and popular hotel, as he well knows how to do.  Sprague & Gage will be remembered as the next landlords, but a few years since.  W. H. Sprague went out after a short time (who is now the present Canal Collector at Syracuse), and Capt. Gage assumed its management alone.  It has lately gone back to the name of the "Empire House," since its ownership by Horace White, Esq., with Capt. Gage as its clever and popular landlord, who has kept it for a number of years, and has made it one of the most popular hotels in the great State of New York.  Such is the varied history of the "Empire House," with its several landlords and succession of different names, up to the present time.

Text Source: History of Onondaga County New York, by W. W. Clayton, 1878, pg. 139.
THE EMPIRE BLOCK.

The hotel built by Bogardus was for many years called the "Mansion House."  In 1845, the old patched up establishment, with its outbuildings, was torn away to make room for the present Empire Block.  This block was finished in 1847, by John H. Tomlinson and Stephen W. Caldwell, of Syracuse and John Thomas, of Albany.  On its completion Mr. Tomlinson became sole owner.  Mr. Tomlinson was killed by a railroad accident at Little Falls in 1848.  The block was then sold at auction, an after several changes became the property of Colonel James L. Voorhees in 1850.

Text Source:  Memorial History of Syracuse, N.Y., Edited by Dwight H. Bruce, D. Mason & Co., Publishers, Syracuse, 1891, pp. 681-682
The Empire House was constructed in 1844-45 by John L. Tomlinson, a son-in-law of James L. Voorhees, of Lysander.  Mr. Tomlinson lived in a house where the County Clerk's office now stands, and he owned the whole block except the Onondaga Hotel and one dwelling house.  He was killed by the cars at Little Falls in 1848, and the property soon after was bought by James L. Voorhees, who traded that part on which the Court-House now stands for the old court-house lot between Syracuse and Salina.  The new owner called it the Voorhees House.  A few years later it came into the possession of Horace and Hamilton White, and is now owned by Horace K. and F. E. White.  The Empire House was opened in the fall of 1845 by Mr. Miller as a temperance house.  He remained one year.  The succession of landlords since then has been Captain Joel Cody, Philo N. Rust, Mr. and Mrs. Barent Filkins, Barney Becker, Lucius Wright, Sprague & Gage, Mrs. Gage, Hose Rockwell & Carpenter, Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Patten, Mr. Satterlee, and C. E. Talbot & Co., the present occupants.  The name of the hotel was changed from the Voorhees House to the Empire while Sprague & Gage were in it.  The Empire is one of the largest hotels in Syracuse, and contains a spacious hall in which almost every society and organization in this State, and some national organizations, have repeatedly held annual meetings.

Text Source: Onondaga's Centennial, by Dwight H. Bruce (ed.),  Boston History Co., 1896, Vol. I, pp. 402-403.
In accordance with his stipulation Mr. Bogardus built a tavern on the site of the present Empire House in 1806.  While the work was in progress he occupied a small frame house which he had built about on the site of the Convention block on the east side of Genesee street.  The tavern was 35 by 43 feet in size, two stories high, according to Mr. Clark, while the reminiscences of Mr. Cheney describe it as a story and a half structure, 20 by 30 feet in size.  (Footnote:  Mr. Cheney wrote a few years later than Mr. Clark, and was not a practiced investigator; but he was a builder, a man of observation, and moreover boarded for a time in the hotel with his father.  His statement would, therefore, seem to be authorative.)  Mr. Bogardus was succeeded by a Mr. Burlingame in 1808, and two years later Joseph Landon took the house.  The place soon began to be known as "Bogardus Corners," while the tavern was often called the "South Salina Hotel."  Landon was succeeded in 1812 by James Ingalls, who was followed in 1815 by Sterling Cossitt, from whom the settlement became known as "Cossitt's Corners."  This name did not long please the inhabitants; perhaps it seemed to lack dignity, or it may have been realized that with the future possible death or removal of all the Cossitts, the name would lose all significance and propriety.  Whatever the cause, the hamlet was about 1809 given the name "Milan," which it bore a few years, and was then changed to "South Salina."

ibid, pg. 420
The old Mansion house stood on the Empire House corner and was kept in 1825 by O. H. Williston; it was removed in 1844-45 to clear the site for the present structure. 

Text Source: Past and Present of Syracuse and Onondaga County New York, by The Rev. William M. Beauchamp, S.T.D., 1908, pg. 568.
. . . and Elias T. Talbot went into bankruptcy and retired from the Empire House, afterward taking control of the old Jervis House at East Fayette and South State streets.

Text Source: Syracuse and Its Environs, by Franklin H. Chase, Lewis Historical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL, 1924, pp. 303-304

When Taverns Were the Only Clubs.
If the historian of Syracuse could have chosen a seat in a hotel and lived long enough, he would not have missed much that was important to the city's history.  He might have had to change hotels, but in the hotel there has so much centered at one time or another, and so many have made it their club, that only the unobservant could possibly miss the history.

Syracuse began with a tavern.  The name of the tavern was put on the place before it was Syracuse.  The tavern was the first frame house erected.  It was part of the consideration in the sale of the land that a tavern should be built.  Other taverns have come and gone; other hotels built, served their purpose and passed on, but where the first tavern stood there has ever been a hotel.  That is the northwest corner of West Genesee and North Salina streets.

Henry Bogardus bought the first half acre upon this site for a tavern, and when he built a tavern in 1806 he called it the "South Salina House," but the people called it Bogardus' Tavern, and the place Bogardus Corners.  That was the name of the place until 1809.  Sterling Cossit became the owner of this tavern, and that was how this place came to be called Cossit's Corners from 1815 to 1817.  The tavern was more distinctive than the town.  It was two stories, thirty-five and forty-five feet, and had several names and various proprietors.  Burlingham was the name in 1808, according to Clark; Joseph Langdon in 1810; James Ingalls in 1812, and then came Mr. Cossit in 1815.  This was the principal stopping place for travellers, although, after 1811, Rufus Stanton had a sort of a tavern further down the road toward Salina, near where the bridge later crossed the Oswego Canal.  When Bogardus built his tavern there was a man named Merrill, who also erected a small frame house across the roadway, where the Third National Bank is located.  Merrill, after a short time, took down his house and put it up elsewhere, saying the place was altogether too unhealthy for him.

When Syracuse became a village in 1825, O. H. Williston, an uncle of the early mayor, Charles Williston, became the proprietor of that tavern, first called the South Salina, then after various proprietors, and later the Mansion House.  Mr. Williston went to New York in 1831, and Robert J. Brockway succeeded.  Then came "Doty" Allen.  Philo N. Rust's first try at that tavern was after Allen, and Rust sold out to Daniel Comstock, who in turn sold out to Evert Wynkoop.  This brings the site down to 1844, when it was completely rebuilt, and not just changed as in 1825.

Here is just an atmospheric touch in the days of Rust in the Mansion House.  It was previous to his advent as "mine host" of the Syracuse House.  The "Mansion" was the resort of all the genial ones.  Rust was ingenious in his endeavors to add to the comfort of his guests.  Flies and mosquitoes were the pests of the place, and so, from India, Rust borrowed the punkah idea.  Large green fans were suspended from the ceiling over the dining tables, and these fans were kept in motion by a system of strings operated by a negro boy in the rear.  The dining room faced the square, and all Syracuse could look in and see the moving fans.

The old Mansion House and other buildings were removed in 1844, and a company consisting of John H.  Tomlinson, Stephen W. Cadwell and John Thomas started to rebuild.  M. C. Hand says that some of the stores were occupied in 1845, but C. E. Smith says the hotel was not finished until 1847.  By '47 Mr. Tomlinson was the sole owner, and in the summer of 1848 he was killed in a railroad accident at Little Falls.  That brought the hotel onto the auction block in the fall and John Taylor, of Newark, New Jersey, bid it in.  Soon after it was purchased by James L. Voorhees and John D. Newton.  In 1850 Voorhees was the sole owner, and as the Voorhees House it was known for some time.  Harry Allen, Walt. Herrick, Capt. Joel Cody, and Philo Rust were successive landlords in the late 'forties, and if it is looked up in the first directory of Syracuse, which was published in 1851, it will be found listed as Rust's Hotel.

Barent Filkins kept the old Voorhees House once as a boarding house merely.  Then came Barney Becker, who went to New York as a landlord, and was succeeded by Lucius W. Wright of Troy.  It was in 1856 that the building was extensively enlarged and improved, and in 1857 that it passed to Horace and Hamilton White.  it was then Sprague & Gage were the landlords and it was given the position of canal collector of Syracuse, Capt. William C. Gage became the landlord.  In the Empire, upon the reconstruction, was built the Empire Hall, an auditorium which in its time became quite famous for social gatherings, small conventions and church festivals.

Hiram J. Rockwell and Beecher E. Carpenter came into possession of the Empire in 1873.  They were followed in 1876 by John Patten & Son (M. G. Patten).  In 1881 G. Satterlee had the house for a year and then began a long regime of Talbots  In 1882 Nancy I. Talbot & Company were the proprietors, followed by Charles E. Talbot in 1888, and Elias T. Talbot & Company in 1893.  E. T. Talbot came over from the Hotel Burns.
Submitted 12 March 2006 by Pamela Priest
Updated 3 April 2006 by Pamela Priest