History:
As the name indicates, it is the first village north of the City of Syracuse and is situated on the road to Watertown and the North Country.

Long ago when the Indians inhabited our country, what we now know as Main Street was an Indian footpath - the "Thousand Island Trail" that went from Pennsylvania to the St. Lawrence River. It played an important part in the early history and development of northern New York. As settlers moved in, this Indian Trail was widened, but in the spring and fall heavy rains made the trail extremely muddy and the resulting deep ruts made the trail almost impassable. To improve the trail, the worst places in the roadbed were filled with stones and dirt, and logs and heavy branches were laid crossways to raise the roadway. Another layer of dirt and stones was shoveled on top of this; the resulting product being aptly named a Corduroy Road.

From the Corduroy Road, by an Act of the Legislation in 1812, the "Salt Road" was opened from the Old Salina Bank, corner of Wolf and North Salina Streets, to Brewerton. By 1826, a few people had settled in the area. The settlement was known as Podunk. The first two settlers on record were Eli Myers and Alfred Tilly. James Millard settled west of here about 1810 and John Slosson settled between Cicero and Podunk in 1814.

One landmark was the "Old Red Tavern" built by Peter Weaver about 1827. The building was on the southwest corner of the intersection of the State Road (Route #11) and the Liverpool Road (Taft Road) at stop 6, now the southern limit of our corporate Village where the Sweetheart Store now stands. The tavern was the stopping place for hundreds of teams loaded with salt barrels from the North Country, which came rolling in all times of day or night on their way to the salt blocks in Salina.

On April 12, 1844 the "Salt Road" was taken over by the Salina and Central Square Plank Road Company. The first plank road in the United States was finished and ready for travel on July 18, 1846. The road cost $23,000, was 16-1/2 miles long and planked its entire length. Thomas Alvord, State Legislator, who later became Lieutenant Governor helped secure the passage of an Act to construct, maintain and collect tolls. There were four tollgates about four miles apart that were operated by the company which was a profitable enterprise for many years. The fees were 1 cent per head of cattle, 5 cents for a single horse, and 25 cents for a horse and wagon.

There was a dirt side and planked side to the road; the East Side was dirt and the West Side planked 3" thick by 8' long. Loaded wagons had the right of way on the planked side, the other side being reserved for empty wagons, single horses and for passing. Bicycles used the plank side on Sunday for racing. Due to wear and tear by horses' shoes and iron hoops on wagon wheels, a gang was constantly busy just making repairs.

Today the Villagers are awakened by auto horns in the dead of the night, in those days it was the creaking of the heavily loaded wagons and pounding of horses' hooves on the plank road which disturbed their sleep.