The old photo shows stone as it looked when the air was full of coal dust, which turned facades dark after a few years. These days the stone can be cleaned and it stays pretty bright for years.

It looks like they also painted over the original natural stone; not an improvement but at least the building is still standing.

One of the reasons Syracuse bid you welcome was that the the New York Central main passenger line passed right in front of this building until 1936. The speed limit was 15 mph. All of the Central's mightiest trains got this welcome.

City Hall was built about 50 yards off the old Erie Canal, which ran through downtown Syracuse until it was covered over in 1925 by Erie Boulevard. You can see the City Hall turret tower on the right side of this old postcard featuring the "Weighlock" building on the Erie Canal (which also remains now as a Canal museum).

Also a great picture taken from the Canal side:

What a fortress!

This Romanesque Revival gem has survived surprisingly intact in spite of the fact that the surrounding buildings from 1904 have all been destroyed (as seen on Google Street View). It appears that the turrets on the main tower (and those flanking the center gable) have had their tiny conical roofs lopped off, and that in addition to the electric sign, the only other major losses are the rooftop flagpole and patch of lawn in front (after all of the awnings this week I'll not shed a tear over their absence). Even the varnished wooden doors are the same. Amazing! It's great to see something this eccentric come down through time retaining its integrity!

Thank you for the latter-day picture. That's the first thing I look for in the comments accompanying old images of landmark buildings.

The electric sign is gone. But they've added color!