Syracuse native Harriet May Mills campaigned for women’s rights decades before she got the right to vote. She was raised by abolitionists and attended Cornell University just two years after it began accepting women and served in the Electoral College that elected Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Today, her home on West Genesee Street offers housing and other support for women recovering from addiction.

The Mills House serves as a halfway house for women as they receive outpatient treatment after rehabilitation. Programming at The Mills House includes mental health therapy, life skills classes, vocational training and other outpatient services, with residents staying between three and six months. The mission is to give residents the support they need as they regain independence.

Amy Nakamura | Senior Design Editor

The preservation of historic buildings helps keep the legacies of women suffragists alive, said Robert Searing, associate curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association.

“The idea of settlement houses and helping immigrant women, and women and families and children from more difficult backgrounds, was something that was very close to a lot of these peoples’ hearts,” Searing said. “It’s a nice continuation of her work for social justice.”

On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) announced the nomination of 17 new properties, resources and districts to the State and National Registers of Historic Places. In a statement, Cuomo said these nominations are designed to “pay tribute to some of the most exceptional and fascinating sites in New York State history.”

Central New York’s history of activism makes suffragist-related properties popular sites for preservation, said Daniel McEneny of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. He cited the Harriet Tubman House in Auburn and the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation house in Fayetteville, adding that New York has more properties listed on the National Historic Register than any other state.

“What I really love about New York state’s register program is the diversity of the listings, and telling the stories of civil rights, LGBT Americans and telling people about significant places,” McEneny said.

There are several ways a property can qualify for the register, McEneny said. It can have architectural significance or archeological significance, be the site of a historic event or the place where a famous figure lived when they were making history.

Amy Nakamura | Senior Design Editor

Searing added properties that have played a role in the local economy might be listed as well. Several old factory buildings in Syracuse are protected by the register because they symbolize the area’s historic main industry, he said. Buildings must also be reasonably-well preserved and resemble their original structure.

The National Register of Historic Places grants certain legal protections and makes properties eligible for state and federal grant money. By the time the city of Syracuse affords a property protection, Searing said it will be there until it “falls apart.”

Owners can apply for funding from the government, but just getting on the register usually brings a certain level of publicity and can lead to additional fundraising, Searing said. Local examples include the Onondaga County Savings Bank, the National Bank and the Landmark Theatre.

McEneny said many organizations end up hiring preservation consultants. Processing includes preparing of the documents, presenting to the New York State Board for Historic Preservation and reviewing the national register board, McEneny added. The process also plays a role in preserving history as the documentation of the properties is saved for future historians.

“It’s a recognition of the historic nature of the property, and it’s also a way of protecting that building from being lost to quote on quote progress,” Searing said. “It is something that the organizers and the applicants should be and are very proud of getting that recognition. It’s a significant, significant step.”

Published on March 25, 2019 at 9:39 pm