Columbus Circle and Montgomery Street

Montgomery Street is unusual downtown. This north-south road is discontinous, taking a dogleg as it works around Columbus Circle.

At the corner of Montgomery and East Jefferson Street, the Mizpah, formerly the First Baptist Church, has been sealed even longer. Its last use was as Columbus Center in 1993 and 1994, which was supposed to be a performing arts complex featuring the main auditorium, renamed Symphony Hall at the time. Nothing has happened with the building since 1998 when the city took possession except and the theft of over 40 of the irreplaceable stained glass windows. In 2004, Congressman Jim Walsh appropriated $130,000 to stabilize the structure.

It took three, separate bidding processes to find a suitable and interested buyer for the building. The first botched attempt created a scandal that cost two city officials their jobs. The second bidding process had two of three proposals instantly disqualified with the last later rejected because it lacked financing details.

In August 2005, Syracuse Bangkok LLC was chosen to develop the long vacant building into a combination of Ramada hotel and condominiums.

The seven-story Powelson Building in front of the County Courthouse was constructed in 1970 to house the Powelson Institute, a business and accounting school that was taken over in 1976 by Bryant & Stratton Business Institute (now Bryant & Stratton College). Bryant & Stratton moved its Syracuse campus to 953 James Street in 1993.

Like so many other buildings in downtown, the Powelson building could no longer find commercial tenants and the city considered converting the vacant building to residential units. However, it was eventually decided that the building was unsuitable for apartments. Having outlived all useful purposes, the building was demolished in 2002 at a taxpayer cost of over $400,000. The "greenspace" is gray with gravel today.

St. Mary's Circle was named after the church that stood there. St. Mary's Church became consecrated as the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception when the Syracuse Diocese moved there. The circle itself was renamed Columbus Circle on October 12, 1932 when the Syracuse Italian community unveiled a monument to Christopher Columbus.

Carnegie Library was built as the Syracuse Public Library in 1905. In 1976, it became the Central Library for the Onondaga County Public Library system, combining operations with other libraries in the county to save costs. The Central Library moved to the Galleries of Syracuse when it opened in 1987.

The city moved the William R. Beard Alternative School into the vacant library in 1999.
Beard was the last resort for problem students.1996 statistics show an 82% suspension rate and a 40% dropout rate for Beard students, far exceeding the average for the Syracuse School District. The Beard School has returned to its previous location on West Kennedy Street and the building is now home to the Syracuse Renaissance Academy at Carnegie.

The Metropolitan School of the Arts, a former Masonic Temple, was gutted in the 1990s to become part of an Avenue of the Arts. That project died and the building remains empty and unusable to this day. Companies who had done work inside during the cart-before-the-horse renovation continue to battle with the city for money due In 2000, a less ambitious “cultural corridor” was proposed for the same area, but that idea was stillborn.

The Yates Hotel stood on the southwest corner of Montgomery and East Washington Street, opposite from City Hall. It was designed by Archimedes Russell and displayed many of the same features still visible on the former Central High School. The hotel opened in 1892 and was demolished in 1971 during Syracuse's "urban renewal" phase. No firm plans were ever made for another building on the lot and the site is now permanently Key Bank's parking lot.