Letter to Acting Director Reynolds - Syracuse Project

Letter

Dear Acting Director Reynolds:

I write to urge the New York State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) and the National Park Service (NPS) to support and accept the 1930's era façade as the "period of significance' as it relates to the redevelopment of 321 South Salina Street in Downtown Syracuse, New York, and not the current façade installed in the late 1950's/early 1960's. Such approval will allow the building to continue to contribute to Downtown Syracuse's resurgence while also maintaining its historic character.

As you know, 321 South Salina Street is in the existing South Salina Street Downtown Historic District, which was added to The National Register of Historic Places in 2009, and enlarged in 2014. The South Salina corridor represents the commercial development of Syracuse's central business core from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. Specifically, 321 South Salina Street originated as part of a group of five buildings constructed in 1855 and known as "Washington Stores," serving various retailers and manufacturers that contributed Downtown Syracuse's commercial core for decades. As Downtown's commercial district began to decline, the building's original Italianate Style façade with brick and windows was parged over with solid concrete, altering its original historic character. When the district was expanded in 2014, the following was requested by the applicant and approved by both NYSHPO and NPS:

Several historic buildings in the South Salina Street Downtown Historic District

Have been successfully rehabilitated, with original details

that had been sheathed by unsympathetic alterations becoming visible again.

The blocks of South Salina Street and South Warren Street included

in the Downtown Syracuse Commercial Historic District include numerous

historic structures that may have suffered some loss of integrity through alteration,

but retain the potential for rehabilitation that has been experienced

by the historic fabric of the commercial core of the city.

National Register of Historic Places Enlargement Application, Sec. 8, Pg. 5

I concur that Downtown Syracuse's historic district on South Salina Street includes "historic structures that may have suffered some loss of integrity through alteration, but retain the potential for rehabilitation," including 321 South Salina Street. Allowing developers to utilize historic tax credits to help restore the original Italianate façade will bring the building closer to its period of historical significance and allow the building to join other structures that "have been successfully rehabilitated, with original details that had been sheathed by unsympathetic alterations becoming visible again." I hope that this request meets your approval and that the project is swiftly awarded Historic Preservation Tax Incentives to aid in the building's restoration.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to contact me or my staff.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

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