When did East Syracuse station open?

When did the Central shift its passenger trains from the passenger station in downtown Syracuse to the station east of the city at the west end of the De Witt yard ? I know it was in the late 1950s or early 1960s, but can anyone provide a better date ?

I'm pretty sure it was around 1962 when NYC moved out of "downtown" Syracuse.

You're right --- August 29, 1962 to be exact

(The above is a correction to my original post, after doing a little date research!)

The old Syracuse station was recently renovated as studios for Time Warner Cable's local news station. When they pulled away old walls they found most of the original architectual details still in place- including the old train arrivals board- still chalked up with trains, if I remember correctly.

When you drive on I-690, you're driving through the concourse area. There is one platform left that you can see when you're on 690 West- it has sculptures of people waiting for a train. On the station itself, a mural was commissions that shows a Dreyfuss Hudson arriving with the 20th Century Limited (or something).

http://www.news10now.com/content/about_us/

-otto-

But they gutted a lot of the building in the renovation, particularly the upper floors. Some of the waiting room area and second floor hallways remain the same, but even that was divided up into TV studios. Then they moved the newscast to Albany or somewhere east and barely use it now. I guess that beats being a pile of rubble. But they had to change the layout for fire code reasons, or some such thing. The walls were all concrete block, inside, from the looks of what was left of them - they probably weren't the easiest to remove.


The train board was found in the basement according to a gentleman who hosted a CNY Chapter tour before the building was finished or opened up for business. Based on photos I've seen it was a felt type sign with push-on plastic letters. Not sure what's going on with that, maybe the Chapter will end up with it one day.

The station was used 1936 to 1962, as posted.