This large two-story frame house dates from the early 20th century. It features a double-decker front porch, a front dormer with a Palladian window and a large side dormer above a projecting bay.
Since the 1990s it has been a cafe and sometimes art gallery, operating under different ownership and different names. It opened in the 1990s as the Cafe Agora Gallery operated by artist Sedat “Tosh” Taskale, and for many years it was a meeting place for local artists, intellectual and activists. The Agora closed in 1997. It was soon revived as the short-lived community-run Good Earth Cafe and restaurant organized by retired Syracuse University Political Science professor and community activist Ollie Clubb and Sue Wright, who had been manager of the Syracuse Real Cooperative Food Coop. The cafe was one of the first local business to provide access by ramp – easy for those with wheelchairs or strollers.
Since 2007, the building has housed the Recess Café, a popular coffee house that offers its own special varieties of coffee roasts. Founded by Adam Williams and Jesse Daino, the successful cafe was listed in People Magazine in May 2015 as one of “24 coffee shops in America you have to visit.”. In addition to the coffeehouse, Recess also roasts and sells coffee to restaurants and shops across the Northeast. Last summer, Recess opened a commercial coffee roasting center in DeWitt to meet demand and they will soon open a coffee house in Downtown Syracuse.