Washington Square Historic District

Washington Square Historic District occupies a hill on the east side of the Oswego River near Lake Ontario, centered on a four-acre public green laid out in 1797 by Benjamin Wright. The district has 46 properties, including 37 residences, four churches, a synagogue, the county courthouse and office building, and a former railroad tunnel beneath the park. The Oswego County Courthouse, designed by Horatio Nelson White and built in 1859, dominates the square. Churches by local architect Zina D. Stevens, including the Gothic Revival Church of the Evangelist of 1852 and the Romanesque Revival Congregational church of 1857, face the green. Surrounding streets hold houses from the early nineteenth century to the early twentieth, in Italianate, Queen Anne, Greek Revival and other styles, among them the Italian Villa Richardson-Bates House. The district was listed for its architecture and its role in the planned development of the city's eastern civic and religious center between 1797 and 1959.