Berkeley Park Subdivision Historic District

Berkeley Park is a forty-one acre residential subdivision in southeast Syracuse, laid out in 1911 by architect and developer Clarence S. Congdon. Built on a drumlin, its curving, climbing streets follow the natural contours, with terraces, elevated sidewalks, public stairways, shared drives, cast iron handrails and period street lamps. Berkeley Drive, a tree-planted boulevard, is the main street. Congdon imposed protective provisions limiting the area to single-family homes, with minimum frontage, set backs, limits on front-yard garages and minimum construction costs. The result is a neighborhood of early twentieth century revival-style houses, including English Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Arts and Crafts, Spanish Eclectic and Four Square examples. Local architects Ward Wellington Ward, Gordon Wright, Merton Elwood Granger and Dwight James Baum designed houses here. Forty-five percent of the properties were built by 1924 and eighty-nine percent by 1934. Of 137 properties, 126 contribute, along with the original road system, and the district keeps a high level of integrity.