Montgomery Street-Columbus Circle Historic District

Columbus Circle and Montgomery Street form a compact group of institutional buildings in the middle of downtown Syracuse. The district covers about nine acres and centers on the circle, where a Columbus statue sits among landscaped open space. Around it stand the Beaux Arts Fourth Onondaga County Courthouse, designed by Archimedes Russell and Melvin King, and the Syracuse Public Library, funded by Andrew Carnegie. Churches include St. Paul's Cathedral of 1885, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the Greek Revival First Gospel Church of 1846-47, and the First Baptist Church, which combines worship space with apartments. The Hills Building of 1928 closes the district at its northern end. Two later buildings are counted as intrusions. The buildings share a late nineteenth and early twentieth century scale, along with similar materials and craftsmanship. Together they reflect Syracuse's growth after the Erie Canal and the railroad arrived, and its civic and religious life.