New York Central Railroad Passenger Station is a former railroad station in
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
. It was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
on September 11, 2009.
The former station currently is the home to
Spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors i ...
's
Central New York
Central New York is the central region of New York State, including the following counties and cities:
With a population of about 773,606 (2009) and an area of , the region includes the Syracuse metropolitan area.
Definitions
The New York ...
operations.
History
![Syracuse NYC station 1951 postcard](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Syracuse_NYC_station_1951_postcard.jpg)
The passenger station, the third of ultimately four stations built by the
New York Central Railroad
The New York Central Railroad was a railroad primarily operating in the Great Lakes and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The railroad primarily connected greater New York and Boston in the east with Chicago and St. Louis in the Midw ...
to serve Syracuse, was built in 1936, when the railroad tracks that previously went through the city of Syracuse via Washington Street, at grade with pedestrians and automobiles, were elevated above city streets. It is of
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
design. Both the station and the new elevated route opened for business on September 24, 1936.
In 1962, after the purchase of the rail right-of-way near the 1936 passenger station by
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
for the construction of
Interstate 690
Interstate 690 (I-690) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway that extends for through the vicinity of Syracuse, New York, in the United States. It is a spur of I-90 (here part of the New York State Thruway) that travels southeast from Thruwa ...
necessitated usage of the old NYC freight bypass route for passenger trains through Syracuse, New York Central moved to a smaller "temporary" station near the freight yards in
East Syracuse
East Syracuse is an incorporated village and a suburb of the City of Syracuse in eastern Onondaga County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the village had a population of 3,084. It is located immediately east of Syracuse, i ...
. The construction of the highway immediately behind the former station led to the demolition of all of its train platforms, with the exception of the one connected to the building and the one farthest from the building. The interior of the terminal was used as a Midtown Motors car dealership in the late 1950s to early 1960s.
Greyhound
The English Greyhound, or simply the Greyhound, is a breed of dog, a sighthound which has been bred for coursing, greyhound racing and hunting. Since the rise in large-scale adoption of retired racing Greyhounds, the breed has seen a resurge ...
continued to use it a bus terminal from 1964 until a fire in 1996.
[ an]
''Accompanying 19 photos, exterior and interior, from 2008 (see captions on page 31 of text document)''
/ref> Meanwhile, train service remained at the "temporary" East Syracuse facility well into the Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...
era. Bus and train service were reintegrated in 1998 at the William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center
The William F. Walsh Regional Transportation Center (RTC) is an Amtrak intermodal transit station serving the Syracuse area. It is owned and operated by Intermodal Transportation Center, Inc, a subsidiary of Centro, and is also served by Greyho ...
near the Regional Market, on the north side of Syracuse.
The passenger building was renovated from 2001 to 2003 by Time Warner Cable
Time Warner Cable, Inc. (TWC) was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, operat ...
(now part of Charter Spectrum
Spectrum is a trade name of Charter Communications, used to market consumer and commercial cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless services provided by the company.
The brand was first introduced in 2014; prior to that, these serv ...
), both to serve as their main office for their central New York operations, and as the Syracuse bureau and studios for News 10 Now (now Spectrum News Central New York). It serves both roles today. In 2016, New York State announced plans to restore the remaining station platform located across the highway from the station.
See also
* List of RHPs in Syracuse
The National Register of Historic Places listings in Syracuse, New York are described below. There are 116 listed properties and districts in the city of Syracuse, including 19 business or public buildings, 13 historic districts, 6 churches, four ...
* Railroads in Syracuse, New York The Railroad industry in Syracuse, New York got its start in October 1831 when a convention held in the city marked one of the earliest moves to stimulate the era of railroad building which ultimately brought steam railroad service to New York Stat ...
References
External links
Buildings and structures in Syracuse, New York
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...
Railway stations in the United States opened in 1936
1936 establishments in New York (state)
National Register of Historic Places in Syracuse, New York
Railway stations on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Railway freight houses on the National Register of Historic Places in New York (state)
Art Deco architecture in New York (state)
Railway stations closed in 1962
1962 disestablishments in New York (state)
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