Amplifying the ideals of its neighbor across the park, the Dennis Valentine house was built in the same year by a Mr. A. T. Sutler who sold it to Mr. Valentine, a prominent jeweler.

Here again is the off-center entrance, the correctly proportioned pediment, the stable Doric colonnade raised on high. But in this very secure colonnade is a second foreboding of future tendencies. In a commendable desire to provide illumination for the second story windows, but in a flurry of classic-destroying self-righteousness, the builder has eliminated large portions of the architrave. Why he chose this course rather than lengthening the columns, is not known, but apparently he strived to maintain classic balance by restricting the roof to a proper compositional level which with taller columns and a complete entablature would have been thrown askew. He therefore chose to destroy detail rather than form, in the larger sense perfectly permissable, but here inexcusable. Because of this feature, the house is of unusual Interest both to the student of psychology and of architecture, for the author has yet to find reference to anything aimiliar in the national scene.

Syracuse, in fact, was gifted with at least the two examples following and possibly others. In the Yale house, the same destruction has even affected portions of the frieze. The discord was completed with the shifting of the right hand column to the left to allow for a later addition. The fine window frames fortunately remain to mock the would be colonnade. The last resident of this house, Dr. C. F. Wright, saw not only its destruction in 1914, but the rise of a new business area where formerly it had been unthinkable that the city would spread below Jefferson Street and a row of splendid homes had taken their places under shady elms, among them the Hudson House already pictured (page 98). Of such character were the Revivalists, in a certain sense visionary but searching the past for their visions.

Figure One - Onondaga Historical Society

Figure Two - Clipping from the Syracuse Herald in the Syracuse Public Library files.