Introduction

Introduction

This began as the story of the roadhouses along the Cicero Plank Road. However, there were a couple more roadhouses, which were located nearby that demanded attention and so they were added to the list. Of course, there were a few stories of the adventures experienced by the people that visited, or in some cases, attempted to visit, these dark places of the evening and several of these are retold in detail. While sorting out the various roadhouses and the persons that ran them over the years, several personalities rose to the surface. These were James Hayes, Maud Wilson and James Corcoran. The first two actually owned and ran some of the roadhouses described here but the last person on the list was a special character. Corcoran had run saloons, lunchrooms, a pool hall, gambling rooms and was in addition a full-fledged bootlegger.  

In the beginning, when a roadhouse first opened, there was sometimes an air of excitement, some ads and a story or two might appear in the local papers. In the early days there was more of a sporting flavor to the activities. There would be hunting and sometimes fishing depending on the location. Fighters from out of town would stay at a roadhouse while training for an upcoming fight in the area. In the 1890s a bicycle craze spread across the country and there were bike races along the plank road that added to the sporting nature of the roadhouse activities.

After they had been opened a year or two the local opinion changed. These were no longer viewed as roadhouses, which had a hotel flavor to it, now they were considered saloons. The roadhouses were now places of evil and dens of iniquity that were frequented by a certain low class of person. The owners, or the persons renting those facilities, were arrested occasionally for violations of the excise laws; there would be occasional fights and more than a few arrests for running a disorderly house.

During Prohibition liquor was still served at these establishments and the new “dry agents” were sometimes less than professional in pursuing their goals to stop the flow of liquor. On the streets of Syracuse and on the surrounding county roads, high speed chases and raids were the order of the decade. It was a bit like the wild-west.

It was only in retrospect, after a roadhouse had been closed for a while, or had been destroyed by fire, that those initial romantic thoughts began to re-emerge. Reflecting back, it was easier to overlook their faults, and to remember the “good old days.” Over the years all the old roadhouses slowly disappeared. Fire destroyed some of them and a few were then rebuilt on the same locations only to be destroyed by fire a second time. Most yielded to progress, their location was needed for other purposes.

Cicero Plank Road Roadhouses

This short listing starts at the city line (7^th North St.) and proceeds north on the Cicero Plank Road. The different roadhouses are labeled with the name by which they were best known even though various proprietors over the years would sometimes change the name to suit their taste.

Pard Orton’s - 1200 Wolf St at the corner of 7^th North Street. Pard Orton started running a roadhouse here in 1884. It’s not known if there was a roadhouse there before him. Over the years it changed hands many time and also had a few name changes. The time and cause of its final demise is not known but it probably lasted over 100 years.

Adam Eller’s - 1220 Wolf St. – opened around 1897. It isn’t believed that a roadhouse was operating at that location prior to Eller. In 1897 Adam Eller had an Excise License for an establishment on the Cicero Plank Road. Until the days of prohibition arrived Eller's roadhouse appeared to be a pretty quiet place, as viewed through newspaper reports. By 1925 John Luczak was running Eller’s old roadhouse. Later it became “Ye Lucky Horse,” “The Wolf Street Tavern” and finally the “Arena.” In 1974, when it was being operated as “The Arena,” the tavern was damaged by fire. At some point after the fire the property was purchased by Cooper Industries and they then sold it to Netti Enterprises in 1998.

The Watering Trough – Mention of a watering trough on the Cicero plank road, just past the city limits, as early as 1855. This roadhouse went through many owners, proprietors and names but the “Water Trough” was always its fall back name. The hotel was destroyed by fire in the early morning of August 31, 1909, while it was being run as the Bay Road Hotel. A replacement structure  was never built.

The Central New York Hotel – This roadhouse started as an 1888 makeover of Benjamin Baum’s Rose Lawn Mansion. There were three persons who ran it as a roadhouse, before it was destroyed by fire on the evening of February 24, 1899. A replacement structure was built on the same location, by Hattie Hallock in 1900-01. Thus began the Rural Inn. Theodore Faatz was associated with the place for almost 20 years. After a succession of owners, proprietors and names, the place was damaged by a fire on October 15, 1957. Before it could be repaired, a second fire on the evening of April 19, 1958 destroyed the structure.

Maud Wilson’s Place – Plank Road at Liverpool Rd. Maud & Henry, the new owners, converted a private dwelling into a roadhouse. The Grand Opening of the North Syracuse Hotel took place on Thursday, January 22, 1891.  Maud and Henry ran their roadhouse until at least December 1900.  The structure was destroyed by fire on August 24, 1904.

The Clarendon House – Centerville – Remodeled 1873. About five miles out of the city on the Cicero Plank Road. [1887-11-16] – “…at the southern outskirts of the village of Centerville and some four miles north of the city.” The “Clarendon” roadhouse was last run by Mollie Young, while the owner was W. W. Wright. She started on April 26, 1889 and was still running it until it burned down on July 25, 1890.

The Wilbur Hotel –The first Wilbur Hotel was on the west side of Main Street in Centerville (North Syracuse). In 1893 Clark Wilbur built a second place, on the east side of Main Street. The second place became the Wilbur House and the first place became the Simmon’s Hotel, at least for a while. In 1905 Wilbur sold the hotel to the Syracuse and South Bay Railroad Company who in turn sold it while going through bankruptcy. Around 1916-1917 the property was purchased by Ethel Sprague who had her sister Grace Dewey become the proprietor and changed the name to the Great Northern Hotel. Grace Dewey was still running the place until at least 1943. In 1946 a notice offering “nicely furnished room” at Irish’s Hotel appeared in the paper. The place was run as Irish’s Hotel until 1996 when a “Complete Liquidation Auction” was held. Today that portion of the block is occupied by a Rite-Aid Drug store. 

The Parker House –On Main Street (the Plank Road) in Village of Cicero at the southwest corner of the intersection of South Street. The Parker House was located south of Main St and on the Plank Road in Village of Cicero. The structure began in 1818, located at Cody’s Corners. Jed Settle was running the Parker House in June 1871. The hotel was named after a local citizen named R. H. Parker. Charles King bought the hotel in 1895 and kept the Parker House name for a while and later changed the name to King’s Hotel. In September 1965 King’s Hotel was demolished to make room for a shopping center.

Liverpool Plank Road Roadhouses

The Maples – This name describes two different roadhouses that succeeded each other on the old Liverpool Road, which had been the Liverpool Plank Road. There was no “Maples” roadhouse in existence when the plank road was still in operation. The first operation was started in the early 1920s, near trolley Stop 8. That one ceased operation when it was locked up by a Ferderal Court order. In 1930 a second place calling itself “The Maples” opened up near Trolley Stop 5. The second Maples roadhouse was actually run out of a large house set back from the road. In June 1933, under the name The White Rock Inn, it was the scene of a murder when one of the co-proprietors shot and killed his partner. Things were quiet for a while and in 1939 Cady’s Tavern emerged at the location. This was followed by the Parkway Tavern around 1945, which became Hallock’s Parkway Tavern around 1988. By 1997 the name became The End Zone and that place is still in operation. At some point the operation transitioned from the actual house in 1933 to the Parkway Tavern building used in 1945. Exactly what happened to the old house is not known, but it is no longer on the site.

Frank White’s Roadhouse – This roadhouse was located at Trolley Stop 4, where Buckley Road branches off Liverpool Road, right across old Liverpool Road from the Will & Baumer Candle Factory. This was a one man operation with Frank White being the only owner and proprietor. Measured against roadhouses of that time, Frank White ran a quiet one. The newspapers contain no reports involving White’s saloon and fights, gambling, liquor law violations, rowdiness or just generally being a place for the gathering of the denizens of the lowest levels of society. During the course of modernizing the roads in that area, White’s roadhouse probably fell victim to the bulldozers. No trace of it remains.

Young’s Roadhouse – This roadhouse was located on Park Street, the Liverpool Plank Road, just inside the city line. This was also a one owner, one proprietor operation. There was a wooden, two-story hotel set back in the swamp of Bear Trap Creek and there was a set of planks that were used as a walk way over the swamp area. Young’s family was full of carpenters and his father and brother probably built the structure. John Young’s Hotel and Saloon had a grand opening on May 13, 1895. In November 1897 it was damaged by fire but being a family of carpenters, the damage was soon repaired. There must have been some financial setbacks because in 1900 his roadhouse was in the hands of a receiver at the bank, who was trying to rent out the place. Nothing more was ever heard of Young’s roadhouse, perhaps it sunk into the swamp.

Greenpoint

The Greenpoint Hotel – 7^th North St & Buckley Road – 7^th North St was called the Greenpoint Road. The first mention of a roadhouse at this location was when the roadhouse of Tom Leahy was damaged by fire, in November 1893. By 1897 William White was the proprietor of the Greenpoint Hotel. The place went through many proprietors until 1916 when it was offered for sale. By 1920 it was being rented out as flats and rooms. Then things were quiet for a while. In 1925 Ward Smith opened the old hotel as a restaurant. After a 34 year run that included the Prohibition era, the Great Depression and World War II Smith's Restaurant finally closed its doors in 1960. None of the other "roadhouses" could match that longevity. In 1962, on July 9^th, The Trivet House opened at that location and ran for about 25 years with none of the notoriety that had accompanied its predecessors at that location. In late 1988 the name was changed to the Four Corners to help improve business, but by 1991 the Trivet House closed. In May 1991 construction was started on the new and larger Chase Lincoln Bank office, part of which now occupies the old Greenpoint Hotel location.