"WHITE HOUSE built by Joshua Forman 1825" was long carried by a tablet in the hallway of this neo-Greek structure. Thus by tradition is this the first house of Syracuse and, fittingly enough, the first temple to enter the survey.

Joshua Forman was the founder of Svracuse and the first village President. His life and that of the junction settlement are one and the same, leaving little to say that past historians have not already uncovered. But through his home, THE Greek Revival of Syracuse, we may speak.

Completely typical is the four-columned colonnade, the entablature encircling the house but broken on occasion by second story windows, the off-center doorway, and the splendid pediment topping all. This structure should be now of little surprise for it is closely allied to the preceedine examples with pilasters merely rounded to columns and the entablature assuming new proportions. Thus simply and easily is produced a Greek temple comparable to the small treasuries at Olympia or the wayside shrines to Athena, Erecthaus or Zeus. That our grandfathers considered themselves worthy of residing with the gods is an interesting commentary on the period, for here is just the first of many temples that must have dotted the shores of Onondaga Lake.

Figure one from the Post Standard for February 18, 1927 - Copy courtesy of the Onondaga Historical Society