White's_Roadhouse

Frank White's Roadhouse

On the left is a portion of a 1924 map of the Town of Salina. On the right is an aerial view of the same region from 1926. The picture has the north at the top but the map was rotated to fit on the larger map. The map has north pointing approximately to the right. The pink colored structures on the map were made out of brick. Stop 4 can be seen in the map on the left at the small triangular piece of land that is an island in the middle of the old Liverpool Road. The brick structure just below Stop 4 was a brick building just outside the Will & Baumer Candle Company property. Although the structure is not labeled it is the only structure near Stop 4 that could have been Frank White’s general store and formerly his saloon.

Timothy White and Catherine Maloney were married in Ireland where their first two children, John and Bridget, were born. The family immigrated to the United States sometime between 1863 and 1866 and settled in the First Ward of the City of Syracuse. Timothy was a laborer who worked in the salt yards of the First Ward.

Timothy died between 1880 and 1892. Frank (12) and his older brother William (21) were still living at home, in the First Ward, with their mother and other siblings, at the time of the 1892 census. By 1900, William was running the Greenpoint Hotel that had been run by Thomas Leahy. Frank was still at home at that time but by 1905 he was living on the Liverpool Plank Road with his mother and sister Margaret. He had gone into the saloon business like his brother.

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.

Date	Description	Comment
February 26, 1905	Frank T. White has a saloon on the Liverpool plank road at Greenpoint. He ran an ad selling a horse, lumber wagon, harness, whips and blankets. [1905-02-26]	This Frank White was the younger brother of the William White who ran the Greenpoint Hotel.
1910 Census	According to the census Frank and his sister Margaret were living on the old Liverpool Plank Road. Frank’s occupation was listed as “Saloon Keeper.”	He was six entries away from Thomas Gale.
1920 Census	According to the census Frank and Agnes Gleason White were living on old Liverpool Road and they had no children. Frank’s older, unmarried sister, Margaret, was living with them. Frank was in the grocery business and was running a grocery store on the old Liverpool Road.	Whether Frank turned his old saloon into a grocery store or whether he bought or built a new structure is uncertain. However if the sequence of names are compared in the 1910 and 1920 census records it can be seen that Frank White is still in the same location so that he probably turned his saloon into a grocery store.
May 27, 1933	“Frank T. White, 53 of Stop 4, Liverpool road, died Saturday (5/27) in St. Joseph’s Hospital following a two-week illness. He was a native of the old First ward and operated a general store at Stop 4 for many years.” [1933-05-27], [1933-05-31]

NOTES:

[1905-02-26] “For Sale – Work Horse,” The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, NY, Sunday, February, 26, 1905.

[1910 Census] - NY Onondaga Salina T624-1055-27A

[1920 Census] - NY Onondaga Salina T625-1250-164A

[1933-05-27] - “Deaths – Frank T. White,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Saturday, May 27, 1933.

[1933-05-31] – “Frank T. White Services,” The Syracuse Journal, Syracuse, NY, Wednesday, May 31, 1933.