Pompey Center, New York
Posted by: 
YoSam.
N 42° 55.390 W 075° 56.980
18T E 422497 N 4752720
The Township of Pompey, named for the outstanding Roman General and statesman, was established by the Commissioners of the Land Office in New York City on July 3, 1790. In 1794 Onondaga County
Waymark Code: WMTB6G
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 10/27/2016
Views: 3
County of hamlet: Onondaga County
Location of hamlet: SE corner of county; crossroads of US-20 & NY-11
County is center in state
location of town hall: US 20, just east of Pompey Center Rd.
Elevation: 1,240 ft (377.95 m)
"Anyone familiar with the history of Onondaga County knows the name of Pompey’s native son, Homer D.L. Sweet. It was he who produced an atlas of the county in 1874 that is still the standard for accuracy of survey and information. In addition to being a surveyor and cartographer, Homer Sweet was well known as a poet and journalist. During 1868, he produced a series of articles for the Syracuse "Standard" called “Pen Sketches of Onondaga County”. Each town in the county was dealt with under the headings of history, natural scenery, archeology, agriculture, geology and population. Here are his accounts of the five hamlets of the Town of Pompey from the “Standard” of March 4 and 5, 1868 – in his own words.
"This is the oldest village in the county, and was one of the leading places for this whole region of country. People came here for legal advice, they came here for medical advice and to do their trading; and they came here for fashions, they came here for military parades, for political discussions, and for general consultations of a public nature: they came here to engage in all the amusements and duties of a public character. But the old place has sadly deteriorated. The large dry goods stores of the ancient days have dwindled and the mechanics shops have grown small and beautifully less, until at the present time, there are four churches, an Academy, a hotel, three stores, two blacksmith shops, two wagon shops, two shoe shops, a harness shop, a milliner's shop, a jeweler, three clergymen, an old physician and a young one and about fifty dwellings. The village was originally laid out handsomely with broad streets and ample squares, but the streets are nothing extra, the sidewalks merely passable, and the shade tree, taken as a whole, abominable." ~ Pompey History