1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Auburn (New York)

AUBURN, a city and the county-seat of Cayuga county, New York, U.S.A., 25 m. S.W. of Syracuse, on an outlet of Owasco Lake. Pop. (1890) 25,858; (1900) 30,345, of whom 5436 were foreign-born, 2084 being from Ireland and 1023 from England; (1910) 34,668. It is served by the Lehigh Valley and the New York Central & Hudson River railways, and by inter-urban electric lines. The city is attractively situated amidst a group of low hills in the heart of the lake country of western New York; the streets are wide, with a profusion of shade trees. Auburn has a city hall, the large Burtis Auditorium, the Auburn hospital, two orphan asylums, and the Seymour library in the Case Memorial building. There is a fine bronze statue of William H. Seward, who made his home here after 1823, and was buried in Fort Hill Cemetery. In Auburn are the Auburn (State) prison (1816), in connexion with which there is a women’s prison; the Auburn Theological Seminary (Presbyterian), founded in 1819, chartered in 1820, and opened for students in 1821; the Robinson school for girls; and the Women’s Educational and Industrial Union, for the education of working girls, with a building erected in 1907. The city owns its water-supply system, the water being pumped from Owasco Lake, about 2½ m. S.S.E. of the city. There is a good water-power, and the city has important manufacturing interests. The principal manufactures are cordage and twine, agricultural implements, engines, pianos, boots and shoes, cotton and woollen goods, carpets and rugs, rubber goods, flour and machinery. The total factory product in 1905 was valued at $13,420,863; of this $2,890,301 was the value of agricultural implements, in the manufacture of which Auburn ranked fifth among the cities of the United States. There are a number of grey and blue limestone quarries, one of which is owned and operated by the municipality.

Settled soon after the close of the War of Independence, Auburn was laid out in 1793 by Captain John L. Hardenburgh, a veteran of the war, and for some years was known as Hardenburgh’s Corners. In 1805, when it was made the county-seat, it was renamed Auburn. It was incorporated in 1814, and was chartered as a city in 1848.

See C. Hawley, Early Chapters of Cayuga History (Auburn, 1879).