West of Westcott

This impressive brick Colonial Revival house was designed by local architect Justus Moak Scrafford, who lived across the street. The style was popular in the early 20th century as an antidote to the ornate styles of the so-called Gilded Age. The Colonial Revival styles signaled for many a return to more stolid values and the purported propriety of an earlier age. The style too, could be seen as an expression of American “nativism” in an age of massive immigration, when whole neighborhoods of cities were transformed by populations speaking different languages and cooking different foods.

Paul Paine was a librarian and lecturer at Syracuse University and Director of the Syracuse Public Library from 1915-1942. The Paine Branch Library in Eastwood Library opened its present building on March 19, 1958 with ceremonies and named the Paul Mayo Paine Branch. The Paines are listed as living in this house beginning in 1912.

Sources:

Gruber, Samuel D. “Syracuse Architect: Justus Moak Scrafford (1878-1947),” My Central New York (May 13. 2014)