One of a kind traffic light in Syracuse’s Tipperary Hill Neighborhood commemorated on St. Patrick’s Day.
Jacob Erlbaum: In Syracuse’s Tipperary Hill neighborhood, at the intersection of Tompkins Street and Burnet Park Drive, something is unique, unlike anywhere else in the country.
Janice McKenna: When the light first went up, it had red on top. And the Irish youth didn’t like that very much because they didn’t want the British red on top. So they would use their slingshots and knock out the light.
Erlbaum: and on this St. Patrick’s Day, as the bagpipes were played and people gathered in Tipp Hill Memorial Park to celebrate, the one-of-a-kind traffic light, with the green light on top, which has been a monument in the neighborhood for years, was immortalized, with the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate it forever.
Jimmy Conroy: It’s just a chance to put it in stone, I guess, literally in stone. So people don’t forget, you know, it goes on and on. And some people, well, generations don’t keep going. Hopefully, they give it a chance to continue that story and for people to understand why it’s here and where we came from and why it was important to them.
Erlbaum: And one of the biggest announcements on the day, a special proclamation, from Mayor Sharon Owens.
Sharon Owens: Preserve the proud tradition each year. Now, therefore, I, Sharon Owens, mayor of the city of Syracuse, hereby proclaim the 17th day of March, 2026, to be Stone Throwers Day in the city of Syracuse.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) — If you travel into Syracuse’s Tipperary Hill neighborhood, and head to the intersection between Tompkins Street and Burnet Park Drive, you’ll notice something off about the traffic light hanging above, but if you talk to the residents there, you’ll quickly learn that there’s nothing off about it at all.
“When the light first went up it had red on top and the Irish youth didn’t like that very much because they didn’t want the British red on top. So they would use their slingshots and knock out the light,” Janice McKenna, president of the Tipps Hill Neighborhood Association, said.
The light, which features green on top as opposed to red, is the only one in the United States that has the light that way, and has been that way since 1926. On March 17, the light was officially honored and commemorated with the unveiling of a plaque on the side of the road near the intersection.
Coomunity officials and residents gathered in Tipps Hill Memorial Park to celebrate the unveiling and share stories of the original stone throwers who forced the light to be chnaged initially. Jimmy Conroy, a second generation descendant of a stone thrower, shared the importance of etching this place in Syrcause history.
“It’s just a chance to put it in stone, I guess, literally in stone. So people don’t forget, you know, it goes on and on. And some people, well, generations don’t keep going,” Conroy said. “Hopefully they give it a chance to continue that story and for people to understand why it’s here and where we came from and why it was important to them. “
In addition to the unveiling of the plaque, Syracuse Mayor Sharon Owens made a speacial proclomation.
“I Sharon Owens, mayor of the City of Syracuse hereby proclaim the 17th day of March 2026, to be Stone Throwers Day in the city of Syracuse,” Owens said.