History from OHA: Yates Castle-Syracuse University’s Very Own Manor

During the 19th century, Cornelius Tyler Longstreet, of Syracuse, became a highly successful businessman making men’s clothing. As a young man, Longstreet apprenticed as a tailor until he was 17 in 1831, then pursued a career as a merchant tailor, making custom-made men’s clothing. Longstreet’s business grew, and for about 10 years, he owned the largest merchant tailor business west of New York City. To expand his business even more, Longstreet transferred his business to New York City in 1846, moved it back to Syracuse in 1852, then back to New York City in 1855, to establish his son, Charles, in the business. By this time, Longstreet had amassed a sizable fortune, so he decided to build a majestic estate for his family in Syracuse, between 1852 & 1855.

Notable architect, James Renwick, Jr., was in Syracuse building the First Presbyterian Church at the corner of East Fayette and Salina Streets. Upon its completion in 1852, Renwick contracted with C.T. Longstreet to construct what would become Longstreet’s castle. Renwick had already designed the main building (also known as the castle) for the Smithsonian Institution, and several churches in New York City, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Renwick would later design the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. and the first buildings at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie.

For his castle, Longstreet selected 49 acres on the periphery of Syracuse known as The Highlands (today between Irving and Renwick Avenues, in the vicinity of Weiskotten Hall and the Syracuse VA Medical Center). He paid $27,595 for the land (worth about $860,000 today, or $17,550 per acre). Working together, the two men designed a 24-room Tudor Gothic mansion made from stone.

Maintaining the Gothic style, the castle had towers that rose on both sides of the main entrance. A massive oak door with carved animal heads and leaves opened into a vestibule, which then opened into a narrow hallway. The hallway broadened and led to a grand staircase that led to the second floor and an octagonal area known as the rotunda. The first floor accommodated a small reception hall, a library, two parlors, a dining room, as well as the butler’s pantry and kitchen in the back. The kitchen included an immense fireplace, covering almost the entire wall, and a brick oven. Servants’ quarters also were created in the back of the house, along with a separate staircase that allowed the servants to enter and exit without disturbing family members or houseguests. The second-floor plan mimicked the first-floor plan, adding to the house’s strength and stability. Because construction pre-dated steel reinforcement, heavy stone walls, measuring 13” to 24” thick, reinforced the construction. The floors were doubled with cavities that were filled with sand and quick lime to preserve the wood and to deaden sounds. 

Carpenters, masons, decorators, and woodcarvers spent three years creating an opulent interior for the Longstreet family. The walls and ceilings were frescoed, each with its own design. The dining-room ceiling was decorated with ornamental plaster shaped in fruit, vegetable, and floral patterns. Decorating just the dining room cost $10,000 (over $310,000 in today’s dollars). Windows were hand-painted with floral and landscape designs. Fireplaces were crafted from white marble quarried from Carrara, Italy that included carved mantles. Longstreet paid between $170,000 & $200,000 (worth $5.2 million and $6.2 million today) to lavishly decorate his castle. 

The grounds were beautifully landscaped as well, some of the first professionally landscaped property in Syracuse. Extensive flower gardens yielded abundant colors and aromas. The estate also included stables, an ice house, a barn, a gatehouse, bridges, as well as two cisterns.      

Cornelius Longstreet named his new mansion, Renwick Castle, in honor of the architect. However, it appears that Longstreet did not spend too much time enjoying his new opulent home. Between 1855 & 1862, he spent much of his time in New York City, assisting his son, Charles, with becoming a partner in the clothing business. Longstreet returned to Syracuse in 1862 due to ill health and found that living in a castle was not all that he and Mrs. Longstreet thought it would be. The local weather caused the roof to leak and the house’s Gothic style did not emit enough light. Also, the distance was too great between the castle and local businesses, shops, and the Longstreets’ associates and friends. The family felt isolated from the rest of the community and began to resent their new mansion. Longstreet began to refer to his new castle as Longstreet’s Folly. 

Longstreet soon advertised that he wanted to sell the castle and he was approached by Alonzo C. Yates. Like Longstreet, Yates was in the clothing business, and he and his young wife owned a fine home on James Street, then the social center of Syracuse. Yates’ house was large but he wanted an even bigger house to fit his rising economic stature. Starting with just $800 in capital to establish his business, Yates had accumulated more than $1 million by the 1860s. Longstreet wanted more bustle and commotion; Yates wanted more serenity. So, the two men struck a deal in April 1867 and switched houses, with Yates paying Longstreet an additional $30,000. 

Yates’ wealth surpassed Longstreet’s and he had no trouble getting people to come to him. He redecorated the castle and its grounds with further opulence. Yates and his first wife, Anna, held balls and large-scale parties attended by dozens of guests. His reputation for lavish entertainment grew in size and recognition. But the entertainment soon ended. Alonzo and Anna divorced in 1869; she went to New York, and their two children, Lillian and Cornelia, went to boarding school. Yates secluded himself for about two years before shocking local socialites by marrying his children’s governess, Sarah Quinlan, in 1871. They had three children, Alonzo, Jr., Inez, and Mabelle. Locals thought that the extravagant parties would soon return to the estate now known as Yates Castle, but Alonzo, Sr. and Sarah led a much quieter life without much pomp and circumstance. Alonzo C. Yates died on Oct. 11, 1880, at age of 53. His will was immediately contested by his first wife, Anna, for three years. In April 1883, Yates’ second wife, Sarah, was declared the beneficiary of the estate, with money set aside in trust for her children.

However, the money gained by the elder Yates’ wife and children proved too much to handle, especially by Alonzo C. (Lonnie) Yates, Jr. Caught up in his new wealth, Lonnie persuaded his mother to reinvigorate the mansion with elegant parties and extravagant spending. Lonnie also spent his fair share of the estate money on high living in Europe. After marrying his cousin from Milwaukee, the young newlyweds continued to spend his inheritance at the castle and abroad with careless abandon. 

After years of opulent living, Lonnie Yates’ profligate spending forced him to sell the castle’s luxurious contents at public auction in October 1898. Bargain-hunters swarmed the mansion looking for good buys. Outside, curious citizens took dozens of photographs, trying to capture the lavishness represented by the castle for the past 30 years, as well as the demise of the once grand mansion.

That December, leaving Yates Castle and other family-owned property in the hands of a trustee, Lonnie and Sarah Yates sailed for Nice, France. Lonnie died in Nice only about one month later at age 26 from heart failure. Sarah Yates stayed in Nice until her death in 1911. 

For two years, the castle was empty, home only to rodents, bats, and owls. The grounds became overgrown with weeds and underbrush. Then A. Lincoln Travis decided to rent the castle from the Yates family for a classical preparatory boarding school. Classes for boys and girls were held at the castle, which also housed the girls; the boys were housed about one block away. From 1900 to 1906, Yates Castle was known as the Syracuse Classical School. During their tenure at the castle school, Travis and his wife attempted to restore the old mansion and its grounds. They made repairs to the deteriorating building, and Mrs. Travis, an artist, reconditioned some of the frescoes. 

It was during the occupancy of the Syracuse Classical School that Syracuse University began to discuss establishing a college to train teachers at the castle. In November 1905, the university purchased the mansion and its property from Sarah Yates and her daughter for an undisclosed sum. The property was valued at $75,000 (about $2.1 million in today’s money). At the time of the sale, the out buildings required extensive rehabilitation and the university vowed to make the necessary repairs. In 53 years, the original 49 acres had dwindled to 14 acres after the Yates family sold 35 acres between Irving and Renwick Avenues. After Margaret Olivia Slocum Sage made a sizeable donation of $50,000 in 1909 (about $1.4 million today) to renovate the house, the teachers college was named in her honor. The Syracuse University Teachers College remained in the castle for the next 28 years until the university moved the School of Journalism into the mansion, displacing the teachers college, which administrators moved to another site on campus.

The Syracuse University School of Journalism’s first dean, M. Lyle Spencer, announced in 1934 that Yates Castle would simply be known as The Castle, eliminating any family association. Journalism School students became known as Kastle Kids and studied in the mansion. The Journalism School was among the first to establish separate departments, and by 1964, had eight departments: advertising, graphic arts, magazine, newspaper, publishing, public relations, radio & television, and the graduate program. Syracuse University was the first to establish a program in religious journalism. It also was the first to focus on illiteracy through the effort of Robert S. Laubach, son of Dr. Frank C. Laubach, who founded Laubach Literacy International in 1955. When Robert came to study at Syracuse University in the early 1950s, he developed a new course, titled, Learning for New Literates, which he then began to teach in the Journalism School. He also founded the Literacy Journalism program, and taught educators from at least forty countries to write literacy material for new readers. Ruth Colvin, another Syracuse University graduate, and honorary degree recipient, founded Literacy Volunteers of America. In 2002, Laubach Literacy International and Literacy Volunteers of America merged to form ProLiteracy in Syracuse.

Once Syracuse University purchased the Yates Castle estate in 1905, the university periodically made statements about the mansion’s future existence and possible demise. As early as 1926, the university declared that the castle was in the direct path of its medical college’s expansion plans for the estate grounds and imminent progress would soon be the castle’s demise. Concerned alumni groups protested, its destruction was delayed for several years, and the old mansion continued to hold classes, along with various other lectures, programs, dances, and events.

But the inevitable expansion of the medical college onto the castle’s grounds triggered the university to begin demolishing some of the estate features, beginning with a stone bridge in April 1938. Using dynamite charges, workmen quickly and efficiently eradicated the 80-plus year-old bridge. That June, wreckers tore down the stone gatehouse. By August, the university had completed another phase of its medical college expansion and decided to keep a portion of the estate’s stone wall that ran in front of the new building. The demolition resumed in 1944 with the stables and carriage house along Irving Avenue being razed for another medical college building. 

In June 1949, SUNY trustees voted to establish an upstate medical center at Syracuse University as part of a $200 million expanded SUNY medical system. Syracuse competed with Albany, Binghamton, and Buffalo to acquire the new medical center. When Syracuse leaders traveled to New York City to convince SUNY trustees to choose Syracuse, they cited the opportunity for physical expansion; $20 million for new construction was allocated for the new facility. One of the first steps in developing an upstate medical center was for Syracuse University to transfer its medical college to New York State. On March 21, 1950, the New York State Senate voted to allow Syracuse University to transfer title of ownership of its medical college property to New York State; Gov. Thomas Dewey subsequently signed the bill authorizing the transfer, and on June 26, 1950, New York State officially owned the medical center and property.

In January 1953, New York State officials announced a $5.4 million building expansion of the medical center, consisting of a new four-story addition that would be contiguous to the existing complex. This new addition would be constructed on the site of Yates Castle, still the home of the Journalism School. New York State would reimburse Syracuse University for the value of Yates Castle through a State Court of Claims. A few Syracuse University alumni, as well as a Princeton University professor, tried to save the historic landmark. In a letter written in April 1953 by Dr. Donald Egbert, professor of art and archaeology at Princeton to Syracuse University’s chancellor and trustees, he stated that “outsiders trained in the history of architecture regard Yates Castle as a most important monument in our architectural heritage.” But their efforts were in vain; razing the castle was looming. However, before the castle’s demolition, Journalism School students and their guests hosted a farewell dance party at Yates Castle on April 25, 1953. Not since the castle’s heyday was there such grandeur inside the old building. About 150 attendees, some dressed in “period” clothing, were met at the Irving Avenue entrance and transported to the castle in a surrey to commemorate its life and forthcoming end. The castle’s interior was decorated with bright yellow streamers and lanterns, and guests danced through rooms and hallways as Carl Silfer and his orchestra played from an upper balcony. The festive occasion also commemorated the fiftieth anniversary of the university’s newspaper, The Daily Orange.

It took another year for Yates Castle to finally fall in April 1954 due to the time required to relocate the Journalism School to another campus location and to negotiate the price for the castle. On Monday, April 12, 1954, workers from Bielec Wrecking & Lumber Company completely demolished the beloved century-old landmark in a few short weeks. Originally asking for a reimbursement price of $300,000 in 1953, Syracuse University administrators settled for $169,000 (valued at about $1.6 million today) in 1956 for the castle, a stone wall, and a walk. 

Today, just a couple of vestiges of Yates Castle remain: a piece of stone turret stored at Upstate Medical University, a section of stone wall that runs along Irving Avenue, a table in Weiskotten Hall that was fashioned from a black walnut tree that grew on the estate, as well as two Orange Osage trees standing in front of Weiskotten Hall that also grew on the estate.                

Thomas Hunter is the curator of collections at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA) (www.cnyhistory.org), located at 321 Montgomery St. in Syracuse.