Grassroots Effort Under Way To save Oswego’s 1850 House

OSWEGO – Members of Save Oswego’s Historical Sites gathered about 350 signatures on a petition that urges the owner and city to do every thing possible to save and refurbish the 1850 House, a former restaurant on the city’s east side.

The 1850 House, at the corner of East Bridge and Fourth streets, dates back to the mid-1800s. It was a restaurant and antique shop from 1976 to 2006. However, since then it’s been vacant.

“We need to save our history while we still have it,” Mercedes Niess, a spokesperson for the grassroots community group, told Oswego County Today at Monday’s Common Council meeting.

She presented the council with the petition; councilors showed their support by adding their signatures to the list.

“These are significant buildings in our community,” she said.

Many of the group first came together to support the restoration of the Oswego Public Library a few years ago, Niess pointed out.

“Our current group came together in 2015 to advocate for the Cahill Building. Besides their roles in the larger story of our history, the Cahill Building and The 1850 House are sites of beloved family restaurants; shared history that’s strongly personal for those in our community,” she explained.

“The 1850 House sits on a prominent a corner on the east side’s main thoroughfare. This half of the city, unfortunately, differs greatly from the more vibrant downtown on the west side,” Niess said.

The east side streetscape is without so many of its historic structures, which were torn down during the era of urban renewal, she said.

“Or, as has happened just across the street from The 1850 house, the 2010 collapse of St. Louis Church; a case of what’s called ‘demolition by neglect’ in the preservation community,” she told the councilors.

The condition of the property could send a message that neglect is a choice that an owner may make without consequences, she added.

Oswego is in the midst of an exciting downtown revival, that should inspire more restoration and renewal along the East Bridge Street corridor, Niess said.

The 1850 House’s issues need to be address immediately to stop its deterioration and begin its restoration, she said.

Save Oswego’s Historical Sites wants to help the owners restore the building, perhaps receive some grant funding, Niess said.

Warren Shaw (majority owner of Creative Development of Oswego, Inc.), has owned the property since 2012.

He said he appreciates the group’s efforts and will contact them in the near future to see how they may help restore the building.

It sat vacant for years after Joe Crisafulli shut it down. Someone else bought it around 2007 and couldn’t make a go of it. So it sat vacant a few more years.

Shaw said he has done a lot of work on the building and hopes to restore it to how it looked around the early 1900s.

Just like the Cahill Building and the library, the community does support and want its historic memories to be preserved and protected, Niess said.

The group will continue its petition drive probably through the end of September. They hope to get more than 1,000.

The 1850 House has had several code violations in recent years. However, Shaw told Oswego County Today that the violations have been more than 80 percent corrected.

“I’ve put on a new roof, heating and air-conditioning, fixed the foundation and a lot more,” he said. “I will keep working on it; get it structurally sounds and get the facade work done. I want to get a tenant in there for the long-term (possibly a new restaurant), something that will be good for the community. I’m not ignoring the building. I will continue to fix the property up.”

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