Program

NYS Historic, Pomeroy Education Program

Subject

Building, Food

Location

Main Building, 305 Oswego St, Liverpool, NY 13088, USA

Lat/Long

43.101099, -76.202132

Grant Recipient

Liverpool Public Library

Heid’s was established in the early 1900s by Valentine A. Heid (known as Val), a native of Liverpool, NY. What started as a small hot dog stand became one of the best-known restaurants in the Syracuse area. In the 1880s, Val’s father Michael Heid, a German immigrant, opened a meat market in Liverpool. Val worked for his father’s market as a delivery driver in the early 1900s (1910 U.S. Census). The market was located on what is now called Oswego St, on the east side of the railroad tracks.

It is thought that Val began selling hot dogs from a cart around 1917. The business took off and by ca. 1930, Val had established Heid’s as a restaurant. Located on the corner of Onondaga Lake Parkway and Oswego Street, the stand was built near his family’s market, just across the train tracks to the east. The name was later changed to Heid’s of Liverpool.

Val passed away in 1959, and his wife Bertha passed in 1977, but the family continues to operate the restaurant, now a Syracuse area landmark.

The student-led application for this grant came from the Liverpool Public Library, which ran a “Homeschool Teen/Tween Research Project: Local Historical Marker Initiative” program, and was led by librarian Jeanie Godly. Homeschooled students in the Syracuse, NY area researched Heid’s restaurant history, then gathered and submitted the required materials for the historical marker as part of our Pomeroy Education Program.