43. Clinton Square

1 Clinton Square, an overall view looking east from South Clinton Street. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, restored in 2001, is seen at far left. 2

Near this spot, the young L. Frank Baum may have witnessed an 1871 balloon ascension which biographers believe inspired the balloon lift-off scene at the climax of The Wizard of Oz.

The fountain pool marks the position of the Erie Canal channel. Prior to 1924 the Canal crossed Clinton Square east-to-west.

3 This monument, added to Clinton Square in 2001, celebrates the October 1, 1851, rescue of William "Jerry" Henry, an escaped slave from Missouri. This rescue was a nationally significant victory for the abolitionist cause and helped set a pattern of Northern defiance of the Fugitive Slave Act. For more details, see Jerry Rescue Monument. 4

Hundreds watched as Prof. C. C. Coe of Rome, New York, launched his hot-air balloon New World from Clinton Square as part of an 1871 balloon race. Note Erie Canal, crossing the square east to west.

At this time L. Frank Baum was living in Syracuse, aged 15. If he was not among the onlookers he surely heard of the celebrated event, memo- ries of which may have inspired the hot-air balloon scene in The Wizard of Oz.

Clinton Square, an overall view looking east from South Clinton Street. The Soldiers and Sailors Monument, restored in 2001, is seen at far left.

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Clinton Square is named for DeWitt Clinton, three-term mayor of New York City, two-term governor of New York State, and a leading figure in the creation of the Erie Canal. Downtown Syracuse's central square, it is rich in history. Among many other things, it is the site of one of the first abolitionist "mob actions" in the North to free an imprisoned fugitive slave. It is also the spot where a 15-year-old L. Frank Baum may have witnessed a hot-air balloon ascension. Whether the teenaged Baum saw the balloon for himself or merely heard about it, Baum scholars suspect that this event inspired the scene of the Wizard's departure from Oz by balloon in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Clinton Square began in 1825 at the junction of the Erie Canal, New York State's early turnpike system, and the road to America's largest salt works. In 1910 it was repurposed into a public square with the dedication of a Civil War monument. In 1924 the downtown section of the Canal was filled in and converted to a boulevard. Finally in 2001 it was redesigned and rededicated as an integrated civic landscape.