The Kingsley True House
1100 East Genesee Street

History

The house at 1100 East Genesee was completed about 1868 by for Hiram Kingsley and family. The Kingsleys don't show up in city directories as residing at the house until 1870. Mr. Kingsley was a "provisioner," similar to a wholesale foods merchant, and the family lived on Hawley Avenue prior to moving to E. Genesee Street. 

In 1886 the Kingsleys sold the house to an H. Danziger who almost immediately conveyed it to Ransom B. True and his wife Francis E. (Smith ) True.

True was a veteran of the Civil War and had been a prisoner of war in the South. He was also a prominent businessman, the local agent for the Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States with offices in the Bastable Block and later the Kirk Building.

True was apparently very active in local Republican politics and in 1900 was selected to be the Presidential Elector. He represented the 27th congressional district at the State Convention in New York City that nominated William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt.

Click on image to see enlargement Photos by Robert M. Haley, Jr.

The Trues had at least one child, a son, Gerald G., who was born in 1895, most likely while the family still lived at the house. He became an attorney in Syracuse and Franklin Chase's well-known history of Syracuse and its Environs notes that Gerald True served in the Mackay-Roosevelt Hospital Unit in France during World War I, was a member of Park Central Presbyterian Church, and gave "his support to the members and candidates of the Republican Party."

An entry in the Post Standard from December 30, 1900 indicates that R. B. True was in the process of building another house valued at $3,500-$4,000 on Genesee Street. It is not known when the Trues moved from 1100 or who occupied the house after their departure.

Historical research by Dennis Connors, Onondaga Historical Association