Auburn

Auburn
—  City  —
Nickname(s): Prison City
Auburn Location within the state of New York
Coordinates: 42°56′N 76°34′W / 42.933°N 76.567°W / 42.933; -76.567
Country	United States
State	New York
County	Cayuga
Incorporated	1815 (village) 1848 (city)
Government
- Mayor	Michael Quill (D)
- City Manager	Mark Palesh
Area
- Total	8.4 sq mi (21.8 km2)
- Land	8.4 sq mi (21.7 km2)
- Water	0.0 sq mi (0.1 km2)
Elevation	686 ft (209 m)
Population (2000)
- Total	28,574
- Density	3,405.3/sq mi (1,314.8/km2)
Time zone	Eastern (EST) (UTC-5)
- Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP codes	13021, 13022, 13024
Area code(s)	315
FIPS code	36-03078
GNIS feature ID	0942692

Auburn (Áhsku•ˀ^[1] in Tuscarora) is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 28,574. It is the county seat of Cayuga County^[2].

Auburn is home to the Auburn Doubledays minor league baseball team, which is owned by the Auburn Community Owned Non-Profit Baseball Association, Inc.

History

Early history

State Street in 1910

The site was called Ahsku by the Tuscarora, an Iroquoian American Indian people who inhabited the area after being pushed to the north by tribes in the Southeast. The region had been Iroquois territory for centuries before European contact and historical records.

Auburn was founded in 1793 by European-Americans, in the post-Revolutionary period of settlement of western New York. The founder John L. Hardenbergh was a veteran of the American Revolution who, like many other migrants, came to the area for the chance of land. He was buried in Auburn's Fort Hill Cemetery. The community grew up around Hardenbergh's gristmill and sawmill. ^[3]

Originally known as Hardenbergh's Corners in the town of Aurelius, the settlement was renamed Auburn in 1805 when it became the county seat. Auburn became an incorporated village in 1815, and was chartered as a city in 1848. It was only a few miles from the Erie Canal, which opened in 1825 and allowed local factories to inexpensively ship goods north or south. In 1871, the Southern Central Railroad, financed by the Lehigh Valley Railroad, completed a line primarily to carry coal from Athens, Pennsylvania through Auburn to wharves on Lake Ontario at Fair Haven. ^[4]

From to 1818 to 1939, Auburn was home to Auburn Theological Seminary, once one of the preeminent theological seminaries in the United States. In 1939, facing financial difficulties as a result of the Great Depression, the Auburn Theological Seminary moved to the campus of Union Theological Seminary in New York City. The only building from the Auburn Theological Seminary that stands today is Willard Memorial Chapel on Nelson Street, designed by Andrew Jackson Warner (1833-1910) of Rochester, with stained-glass windows and interior decoration by Louis C. Tiffany. It is the only complete, unaltered Tiffany chapel known to exist.

Auburn prison (Auburn Correctional Facility)

In 1816, Auburn Prison (now Auburn Correctional Facility) was founded as a model for the contemporary ideas about treating prisoners, known now as the Auburn System. Visitors were charged a fee for viewing the facility and its inmates. On August 6, 1890, the first execution by the electric chair was carried out at Auburn Prison. In 1901, Leon Czolgosz, assassin of President William McKinley, was executed at Auburn Prison. Although the ideas of the Auburn System have been abandoned, the prison continues to serve as a maximum security facility.

Geography

Auburn is located at 42°55′54″N 76°33′53″W / 42.93167°N 76.56472°W / 42.93167; -76.56472 (42.931660, -76.564770)^[5]. The city is located north of Owasco Lake, one of the Finger Lakes.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.4 square miles (21.8 km²), of which, 8.4 square miles (21.7 km²) of it is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) of it (0.47%) is water.

Owasco Outlet is a stream flowing northward through the city.

US 20 is an important east-west highway passing through the city, and New York State Route 34 and New York State Route 38 are north-south highways that intersect US-20 in Auburn.

Demographics

As of the census^[6] of 2000, there were 28,574 people, 11,411 households, and 6,538 families residing in the city. The population density was 3,405.3 people per square mile (1,315.0/km²). There were 12,637 housing units at an average density of 1,506.0/sq mi (581.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 88.57% White, 7.59% African American, 0.29% Native American, 0.57% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 1.41% from other races, and 1.55% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.82% of the population.

There were 11,411 households out of which 28.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.3% were married couples living together, 14.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 42.7% were non-families. 36.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.27 and the average family size was 2.98.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.8% under the age of 18, 9.3% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 19.8% from 45 to 64, and 17.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 99.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $30,281, and the median income for a family was $41,169. Males had a median income of $32,349 versus $23,330 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,083. About 12.5% of families and 16.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.9% of those under age 18 and 10.2% of those age 65 or over.

Notable residents

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009)

Auburn, New York, 1909, by William Bruce (1861-1911)

William Seward House

Harriet Tubman House

• Harry Elmer Barnes, historian, scholar and social scientist
• John Beardsley, lawyer, judge, state senator and warden of Auburn state prison
• Samuel Blatchford, Supreme Court Justice
• Willard Bundy, invented first time clock
• John Chester Buttre, artist and publisher of The American Portrait Gallery ^[7]
• Theodore Case, developed the first commercially successful system of recording sound on film
• Richard and John Contiguglia, twin pianists
• Alfred Conkling Coxe, Sr., judge
• Abner Doubleday, general and for many years credited as creator of baseball
• Ulysses F. Doubleday, congressman
• Greg Downing, lacrosse player
• Avery Robert Dulles, cardinal
• Nathaniel B. Eldredge, congressman
• Charles Loring Elliott, portrait painter
• Buddy Hardeman, football running back
• Jerome H. Holland, first African-American board member of the American Stock Exchange
• Nathaniel B. Eldredge, congressman from Michigan ^[7]
• Raymond Hitchcock, actor
• Birdsill Holly, supposed inventor of the fire hydrant
• Thomas Y. Howe, Jr., mayor and congressman ^[7]
• Mark Jindrak, WWE wrestler
• William Kemmler, Auburn Prison inmate, and first person executed by electric chair
• James Lockhart, congressman from Indiana ^[7]
• Virginia V. Lyons, politician
• A. T. Mann, astrologer, architect and graphic artist
• Manowar, heavy metal band
• Truman A. Merriman, congressman ^[7]
• T.J. Middleton, tennis player
• Bob Mosher, TV and film co-writer
• Jerry O'Neil, NASCAR driver
• Theodore Pomeroy, speaker of the house and mayor
• Frederick W. Seward, assistant secretary of state
• William H. Seward, secretary of state
• William H. Seward, Jr., brevet brigadier general
• Sir James Jebusa Shannon, artist
• William J. Sharkey, naval officer
• William G. Stahlnecker, congressman
• Frederick Starr, professor and anthropologist
• Harriet Tubman, African American freedom-fighter and escaped slave
• Alexander Theobald Van Lear, painter
• John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted
• Jeremy White (radio personality), WGR Sportsradio 550 in Buffalo, NY
• Sylvester Willard, physician, industrialist and philanthropist
• Martha Coffin Wright, feminist and participant in the Seneca Falls convention

References

New York portal

External links

• City of Auburn
• Seymour Public Library
• The Auburnian - News, views and opinion of Auburn, NY
• Willard Memorial Chapel
• Cayuga Museum and Theodore Case Labs
• Auburn Players Community Theatre
• Auburn Public Theatre
• Cayuga Country Arts Council and Schines Theatre
• Auburn Musical Theatre Festival
• Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center
• Ward W. O'Hara Agricultural Museum

• Auburn, New York is at coordinates 42°55′54″N 76°33′53″W / 42.93166°N 76.56477°W / 42.93166; -76.56477 (Auburn, New York)Coordinates: 42°55′54″N 76°33′53″W / 42.93166°N 76.56477°W / 42.93166; -76.56477 (Auburn, New York)

v • d • e Municipalities and communities of Cayuga County, New York County seat: Auburn City Auburn Towns Aurelius | Brutus | Cato | Conquest | Fleming | Genoa | Ira | Ledyard | Locke | Mentz | Montezuma | Moravia | Niles | Owasco | Scipio | Sempronius | Sennett | Springport | Sterling | Summerhill | Throop | Venice | Victory Villages Aurora | Cato | Cayuga | Fair Haven | Meridian | Moravia | Port Byron | Union Springs | Weedsport CDP Melrose Park Other hamlet Sherwood