SHADY SHORE

Inscription

SHADY SHORE
BUILT 1857 BY EDWARD A.
SHELDON, FOUNDER OF OSWEGO
STATE NORMAL AND TRAINING
SCHOOL. LATER, RESIDENCE OF
OSWEGO COLLEGE PRESIDENTS.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2018

Edward Austin Sheldon was an education reformer who in 1847 traveled to Oswego with the intent of starting a botanic nursery. The nursery was not to be as instead, Sheldon joined the education world where he established the Normal and Training School for teachers in 1861 (now called the State University of New York at Oswego (SUNY)) (Autobiography of Edward, Edward Sheldon, 1911).

According to Sheldon’s 1911 autobiography, prior to finalizing the school in 1853, he made Oswego his permanent home. In 1856, he purchased eight acres of land on the shore of Lake Ontario and built his home during the fall of 1857 (City Atlas of Oswego, 1880), completing the home only a short time later. He described his house as “a white cottage, situated on a peninsula, from whose extremity the eye commands charming views on the mirror of Lake Ontario, while the house itself is safely sheltered by a shady grove of trees” (Autobiography of Edward). Its location influenced the property name, “Shady Shore,” which still, as of 2019, remained its name. Sheldon and his family spent the majority of their lives here. Two children and three grandchildren were born in the house (Autobiography of Edward). Upon moving into his new home he stated, “here we were destined to live until removed by death,” Coincidentally, it was at his Shady Shore residence that he passed away in 1897 (Autobiography of Edward).

After Sheldon’s death, the home and property were acquired by New York State, becoming the Oswego Training School’s campus. Shady Shore officially became the home of SUNY Oswego’s president in 1909 (SUNY Oswego website, 2019). Designed as a Gothic cottage, the house was extensively remodeled and enlarged from 1934 to 1941 and restored with “support from the Federal Works Project Administration and the State of New York” (SUNY College at Oswego, Dorothy Rogers, 1988). As of 2019, Shady Shore continued to serve as the official residence of SUNY Oswego’s president.