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–Not graded
History · Fairmount

Fairmount’s post office opened in 1845

Most of Fairmount was built recently: 5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1961. Below: old-book passages.

1845first post office
0on the National Register
5%homes built before 1940
2famous people
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Quick answers

How Fairmount began

When was Fairmount founded?

1845

The Fairmount post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name.

2020 census: 10,248181 years
Founding year: the first Fairmount post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Fairmount’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Fairmount are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Deep rootsA post office since 1845: 181 years of Fairmount.Old housesHalf of Fairmount’s homes were built before 1961.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Fairmount’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Fairmount’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Fairmount came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Fairmount.

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The Fairmount area was part of the original 108-square-mile Onondaga Reservation lands which were acquired by the State of New York from the Onondagas in transactions that took place between 1793 and 1795. Formerly part of the Town of Onondaga, it was annexed to the town of Camillus in 1834. Prior to that date, census enumerations for Fairmount were included in the town of Onondaga census. The name originates from 1798 when engineer and politician James Geddes built his estate, called "Fair Mount" at the intersection of Genesee Road (now West Genesee Street) and Onondaga Road. The Brockway Tavern building, located on the northwest corner of West Genesee and Onondaga, formerly housed a tavern, motor inn, restaurants and later a funeral home, and now houses a credit union. The house was built c. 1808 and survives as one of the oldest structures in the hamlet. The oldest house still used…

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

From the old history books

What they wrote about Fairmount in 1878

Passages that mention Fairmount, cut from the printed page as they were published.

about the same time at Amboy. East and west, no houses had been erected at this time, except at Camillus village, between Elbridge and Judge Geddes', at Fairmount. The first school house, a log building, was erected in 1808, and was followed by a frame building in 1813.
... History of Onondaga County, New York1878 · page 308Read the page →
Read the text

about the same time at Amboy. East and west, no houses had been erected at this time, except at Camillus village, between Elbridge and Judge Geddes', at Fairmount. The first school house, a log building, was erected in 1808, and was followed by a frame building in 1813.

Text read by machine from the scan; it may contain errors.

Scans and text from the Internet Archive. Books published in 1930 or earlier, which are in the public domain.

By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

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Famous people

2 famous people were born in Fairmount

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

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George TruesdellAmerican businessman · b. 1842
John M. DooleyAmerican football player · b. 1897
Stories next door

History across the town line

Each neighbor’s History grade, on the same three inputs.

Solvay2 historic placesB+WestvaleIts storynot graded: under 1,000 residents or part of its townCamillus6 historic placesBGeddes2 historic placesA−

Questions about Fairmount’s history

What year was Fairmount founded?

The Fairmount post office opened in 1845, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

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Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people and old county and town histories (Internet Archive). Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.