Abstract
This thesis addressed the cultural landscape of Thornden Park, a city park in Syracuse, New York, that is significant as a part of the American Urban Park Movement.
Major Alexander Davis, a retired officer from the Civil War, purchased 76 acres of land in the southeast section of the city of Syracuse in 1873. For the next twenty years, Major Davis fashioned Thornden into a traditional English estate. A gate lodge marked the entry to the estate, while drives, lined with plantings, wound their way past the country house, greenhouses, barn, and stables. By 1900, the family moved to England and the gardener, David Campbell managed the property. Campbell later acquired a ten-year lease from the family while he served as Superintendent of the Syracuse City Parks. By 1912, real estate developers wanted to purchase the Thornden estate to build houses. A committee from the Chamber of Commerce opposed this and proposed that the estate become a city park. In 1921, the city of Syracuse purchased the estate from the Davis family for a park. The new Thornden Park combined pleasure ground design of the estate with the growing enthusiasm for active recreation in American parks typical of the Reform Park era. Thornden Park is also representative of a park landscape that possesses characteristics features of planning and designs within the Urban Park Movement. The park was awarded local designation as a protected site in 1989 by the City of Syracuse Planning Commission and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
This thesis will serve the City of Syracuse and its Landmark Preservation Board as preservation guidelines for the future planning and treatment of a valuable historic community park.
This thesis is also available at SUNY ESF’s Moon Library – Thesis Call Number Z642