Onondaga Highlands-Swaneola Heights Historic District

This residential district in southwest Syracuse covers eight streets: Bellevue, Onondaga, Summit, Stolp, Ruskin and Clairmonte Avenues, Beverly Road and Crossett Street. It was built from two adjoining tracts, Onondaga Highlands and Swaneola Heights, mostly between 1901 and 1908. Deed restrictions banned commercial use, limited lots to one single-family house, and set minimum setbacks and house values, which produced consistent streetscapes. The district counts 260 contributing buildings, mainly houses with historic garages, plus three contributing structures including stone retaining walls along Onondaga and Bellevue Avenues. Houses are largely Queen Anne and early twentieth-century revival types, including Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival and American Foursquare. Three houses designed by Syracuse architect Ward Wellington Ward are individually listed. The neighborhood borders Onondaga Park, and its mature street trees, period street lamps and changes in topography distinguish it from surrounding blocks, which contain more multi-family housing, mixed uses and vacant lots.