West of Westcott

On Aug. 26, 1910, the construction of this house was featured in the Real Estate section of The Post- Standard. The house was designed by and for Justus Moak Scrafford, an architecture professor at SU who studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris. While in Paris, Scrafford competed in the 800 meters at the 1900 Summer Olympics. Scrafford went on to design several houses in the immediate neighborhood, several of which are featured on this tour.

At his own house, he provided a front porch with wide, fluted Doric columns and two sets of French doors that open to the living room. The foyer features an open oak staircase with a spiral-shaped newel post, and an archway with a keystone. The 14-by-15-foot dining room has a quarter-sawn oak floor and a coffered ceiling. It opens to a screened-in porch with 10-foot-high columns, beadboard ceiling and bluestone slate floor. The porch has a pass-through into the kitchen to make serving easy.

The porch overlooks the backyard, which was landscaped recently to qualify as a National Wildlife Federation wildlife habitat. The house also has a wing on the back, which Scrafford designed as a self- contained living area with a butler’s pantry, full bath, bedroom and sitting room. A very similar house is at 156 Westminster, though it has been remodeled with new windows and siding.

Sources:

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