Onondaga County
Masonry Contractors Inside the Syracuse City Line
Find out whether your address sits inside a preservation district before a mason starts, because in the city that decides both the sequence and the money. Nineteen National Register districts sit within the city line, and exterior work on a designated site or inside a preservation district goes to the Landmark Preservation Board first.
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Which Syracuse addresses need the board before the mason
The city runs its own code enforcement program, and on top of that the Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board reviews exterior alterations to designated sites and to properties inside a preservation district, through a Certificate of Appropriateness. The board's own published list names Berkeley Park, Sedgwick-Highland-James, Hanover Square and Columbus Circle. Separately the National Park Service records nineteen National Register districts within the city, with Strathmore By the Park at 332 contributing buildings, Scottholm Tract at 266, Onondaga Highlands and Swaneola Heights at 260 and the Berkeley Park Subdivision at 126, so more than a thousand ordinary houses here are contributing buildings and most owners have no idea. Two consequences, both about timing. A district address means starting the conversation weeks before you want a start date, because the board meets on a published calendar. And New York's Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Tax Credit, worth 20 percent of qualified expenses with a 5 percent exterior minimum that repointing clears easily, has to be approved before work begins. Repoint in June, find out in September, and the credit is gone with no way back. Underneath all of that sits the fabric: a median build year of 1948, and 43.1 percent of the city's 67,601 housing units built in 1939 or earlier. That is why the mortar hardness question comes as standard at a city address rather than only on the houses that look old.
Areas within Syracuse: Strathmore By the Park, Scottholm Tract, Onondaga Highlands, Swaneola Heights, Berkeley Park, Hawley-Green Street, North Salina Street, Walnut Park
Not sure whether you are in a Syracuse district?
Send the address and say what the brick is doing. We will tell you whether the board and the state credit are in play before anyone prices the work.
What we arrange on city brick, district or not
Repointing and Mortar Joint Repair
Find out whether crumbling or missing mortar needs the joints raked out and refilled, and which mortar type belongs on the brick you actually have.
Repointing in Syracuse →Chimney Repair and Rebuilding
Work out whether a chimney needs its crown and top courses rebuilt, a rebuild from the roofline, or work at the footing, and what the state code requires either way.
Chimney Repair in Syracuse →Lintel Repair and Opening Repairs
Tell a rusting steel lintel apart from settlement, so the crack above your window, door or garage opening gets the trade it actually needs.
Lintel Repair in Syracuse →Brick and Stone Replacement
Understand why brick faces are flaking or popping off, which units have to be cut out and replaced, and what has to change so the new ones do not go the same way.
Brick Replacement in Syracuse →Retaining Walls, Steps and Foundation Masonry
Establish whether a leaning retaining wall, crumbling brick steps or a failing block or stone foundation wall needs rebuilding, and what has to change underneath so it stays put.
Retaining Walls and Steps in Syracuse →What a 1948 median and nineteen districts change here
The City of Syracuse operates a Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, authorized by the city zoning ordinance, which administers a Certificate of Appropriateness process. The city states that any exterior alterations to designated sites or to properties within preservation districts must be reviewed by the board through that process. The board's published pages name four local preservation districts: Berkeley Park, Sedgwick-Highland-James, Hanover Square and Columbus Circle.
Source: City of Syracuse, Syracuse Landmark Preservation Board, accessed 2026-09-10
The National Park Service's National Register geospatial records list nineteen districts in the City of Syracuse. The largest by contributing buildings are Strathmore By the Park with 332, Scottholm Tract with 266, Onondaga Highlands and Swaneola Heights with 260, and the Berkeley Park Subdivision with 126. Others include North Salina Street with 85, Hawley-Green Street with 48, Armory Square with 46, South Salina Street with 34, South Salina Street Downtown with 22, Walnut Park with 17, Hanover Square with 15 plus an 11 building boundary increase, and Montgomery Street and Columbus Circle with 15.
Source: National Park Service, Cultural Resources geospatial data, National Register of Historic Places points and polygons map service, queried for Onondaga County, New York, accessed 2026-09-10
The City of Syracuse has 67,601 housing units with a median year of construction of 1948. Of those, 43.1 percent were built in 1939 or earlier, 66.4 percent in 1959 or earlier and 85.5 percent before 1980. Only 8.9 percent were built in the 1970s and the remainder, about 14.5 percent, dates from 1980 or later.
Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, table B25034 Year Structure Built and table B25035 Median Year Structure Built, accessed 2026-09-10
New York's State Historic Preservation Office runs a Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program offering a state income tax credit equal to 20 percent of qualified rehabilitation expenses on repair, maintenance and upgrades to historic homes. The applicant must own and live in the home; the home must be listed in the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places, either individually or as a contributing building in a listed historic district; and the home must be in a qualifying census tract. Total qualified expenses must be 5,000 dollars or more, with a minimum of 5 percent spent on exterior work. The office states that all projects must be approved before work begins, that replacing repairable historic material is never recommended, and that damaged historic material should be replaced in kind.
Source: New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, State Historic Preservation Office, Historic Homeownership Rehabilitation Tax Credit Program, accessed 2026-09-10
Get the Syracuse address question settled
Crumbling joints, a leaning chimney, a crack over a window: describe it with an address and there is no obligation either way.