Yates Castle (1852-1954)

In 1852 Col. Cornelius Tyler Longstreet, a wealthy local clothing merchant, began construction of his 24-room mansion in the shape of a Norman castle. The architect, James Renwick, also designed St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and several buildings at Vassar College. The castle was completed in 1855 at a cost of $200,000. First known as "Longstreet's Folly," it took its more familiar name from its second owner, Alonzo Chester Yates Sr., who acquired it in 1867 and lavished thousands of dollars on it to make it into an elegant palace of high society. The profligate heir, Alonzo Jr. ("Lonnie"), allowed the property to fall into ruin, and most of its furnishings and art treasures were sold at public auction in 1898. The Yates family rented it in 1900 to Prof. Abraham Lincoln Travis, who used it for the Syracuse Classical School, a preparatory institution, until 1905. Syracuse University bought the 14-acre site in 1906. The castle was home from 1907 to 1934 to the Syracuse University School of Education and from 1934 to 1953 to the Syracuse University School of Journalism. In the spring of 1954 its new owner, the State University of New York, demolished it to make room to add a southeast wing to the medical school building, later called Weiskotten Hall. The stone wall on the west side of Irving Avenue near the Health Sciences Library of the SUNY Upstate Medical University is all that remains of the Yates Castle estate.

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	Yates Castle (1852-1954) In 1852 Col. Cornelius Tyler Longstreet, a wealthy local clothing merchant, began construction of his 24-room mansion in the shape of a Norman castle. The architect, James Renwick, also designed St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City and several buildings at Vassar College. The castle was completed in 1855 at a cost of $200,000. First known as "Longstreet's Folly," it took its more familiar name from its second owner, Alonzo Chester Yates Sr., who acquired it in 1867 and lavished thousands of dollars on it to make it into an elegant palace of high society. The profligate heir, Alonzo Jr. ("Lonnie"), allowed the property to fall into ruin, and most of its furnishings and art treasures were sold at public auction in 1898. The Yates family rented it in 1900 to Prof. Abraham Lincoln Travis, who used it for the Syracuse Classical School, a preparatory institution, until 1905. Syracuse University bought the 14-acre site in 1906. The castle was home from 1907 to 1934 to the Syracuse University School of Education and from 1934 to 1953 to the Syracuse University School of Journalism. In the spring of 1954 its new owner, the State University of New York, demolished it to make room to add a southeast wing to the medical school building, later called Weiskotten Hall. The stone wall on the west side of Irving Avenue near the Health Sciences Library of the SUNY Upstate Medical University is all that remains of the Yates Castle estate.