The salt potato may not be America’s first great culinary invention. But it’s likely one of the first to get its own historic marker.
The Syracuse-based William G. Pomeroy Foundation, the people behind those blue roadside historic markers scattered across the state, is launching a nationwide campaign this summer to erect markers highlighting the notable moments in American food and cuisine.
The program, funded entirely by the foundation, is called Hungry for History.
The program’s first such marker in the country will be erected in Syracuse to note the origins of the salt potato, that staple of Central New York summer fun. The exact location will be revealed Thursday during a 4 to 6 p.m. launch party for the program at Willow Rock Brewing Co. (Details below). Unveiling and dedication will be July 10.
· Related: Things that make Syracuse great: Salt potatoes
“There’s so much energy and excitement surrounding food,” said Deryn Pomeroy, a trustee of the foundation founded by her father, who started local IT company CXtec and has a passion for history. “We think, and hope, there will be a lot of interest in this.”
The Pomeroy Foundation started up in 2006 to take over the creation and placement of roadside historic markers around New York after the state stopped doing them. There are more than 750 such Pomeroy markers in New York.
More recently, the foundation started its first national markers program, called Legends & Lore, which calls attention to stories, folklore, and myths associated with a specific place. In the Hudson Valley, for example, there’s a marker for Ichabod Crane, the lead character in Washington Irving’s story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”
The Legends and Lore program inspired the Hungry for History version, Deryn Pomeroy said.
“People around the country were nominating legends and stories related to food, and so we thought we’d break that into its own category,” Pomeroy said, noting as an example a group in West Virginia who nominated the Pepperoni Roll, a hearty snack associated with coal miners in that state.
“There are so many regional foods and local dishes to be found everywhere in the country,” Pomeroy said.
It made sense, she said, to start the new program with a notable food from the foundation’s home town.
The food markers, however, can’t just be a story or legend. “They must be accurate and fact-based,” Pomeroy said. “We’re looking for primary sources, contemporary records, not just the stories passed down.”
For background on the salt potato, the Pomeroy Foundation turned to the Onondaga Historical Association. Executive director Gregg Tripoli agreed to sign on, and OHA curator of history Bob Searing went to work on the “facts” behind the briny spud.
He started with the well-known tale, that salt potatoes developed in the early 1800s along with Syracuse’s then-booming salt industry. The city’s North Side and areas near Onondaga Lake were teeming with salt works, including the “salt blocks” in which brine was boiled to yield salt.
“The folklore has always said that the salt potatoes started in the salt blocks back in the 19th century,” Searing said. “We can assume that at some point somebody threw a potato into a salt block.”
It’s likely that the salt potato provided sustenance for the city’s many salt workers, who were often laborers of Irish ancestry.
Searing’s research produced more. He found news reports and articles that led him to the Keefe brothers, Arthur and James, who ran a saloon on Wolf Street. Their father was listed in the 1850 census as a salt manufacturer. Ads touted the Keefe boys’ salt potatoes on the bar menu, as early as 1883, Searing learned. Other taverns soon followed.
“At some point, then, the salt potato came out of the salt blocks and into the taverns and bars,” Searing said. (That’s also where they may have acquired the other critical part of their appeal, the slatherings of butter).
Searing explored this history in a column published around St. Patrick’s Day this year.
· Related: 60-second Syracuse: Why we eat salt potatoes (video)
Of course, much of the fame of salt potatoes came about a little later, when Hinerwadel’s Grove in North Syracuse began selling them at their famed clambakes around 1904. In 1981 Hinerwadel’s began selling the potatoes (and salt packets) by the bag. Though the clambake facility closed, in 2018, the Hinerwadel’s bags of spuds live on with sales online and at many local stores.
Salt potatoes has also on occasion been used as a popular alternate nickname for Syracuse’s AAA baseball team (otherwise known today as the Syracuse Mets).
The historic research provides the backing and support, but for the roadside marker, it has to be boiled down into a few concise words.
The Pomeroy Foundation’s rendering of the salt potato marker reads: “Salt Potatoes. Popularized by salt industry workers, potatoes boiled in brine & paired with melted butter served in local taverns and eateries as early as 1883.”
Hinerwadel's Salt Potatoes.Don Cazentre
In addition to a proven historical record, the Pomeroy Foundation has other standards for inclusion on the Hungry for History markers program. Those standards, all of which apply to salt potatoes, include:
- Must be a prepared, ready-to-eat dish, such as an entrée or dessert
- Must contain a minimum of 2 ingredients
- Dish must be created prior to 1960
- Dish must be historically significant to the greater community or beyond
- Dish is still available/eaten today or in some form
- No brand names allowed (e.g. Hershey’s, Kraft, etc.)
The Pomeroy Hungry for History markers are black with raised yellow lettering. They are 32- by 18-inches an sit atop a 7-foot pole.
Each markers cost about $1,200, including shipping, Deryn Pomeroy said. The cost is fully paid by the foundation.
Applications for a Hungry for History marker can be made to the foundation online. The deadline for a letter of intent to apply for a markers is Aug. 9. The application deadline is Sept. 13.
Although the foundation hopes to place markers around the country, she does expect more than a few application from across Upstate New York.
“There are things like chicken riggies (from Utica) and my dad is a huge fan of the (Rochester) garbage plate,” she said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what we can come up with.”
Hungry for History launch event
What: Salted to Perfection: Hungry for History Launch Party
When: 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, June 24.
Where: Willow Rock Brewing Co., 115 Game Road, Syracuse. (That’s off Ainsley Drive, behind Danzer’s Restaurant).
Details: This event launches the Hungry for History program and includes the “reveal” of the location for the Salt Potatoes marker. Beer and salt potatoes available. Hosted by the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and the Onondaga Historical Association.
Don Cazentre writes for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.
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