Syracuse was a city born in the early nineteenth century through the combination of a valuable natural resource, salt, and its fortunate position sitting astride the great engineering wonder of the age, the Erie Canal. Over time, the importance of both faded, but by then the community had become a manufacturing power. By the late nineteenth century, it was producing a wide variety of products, from typewriters to agricultural implements. And it had grown to become New York State’s fourth-largest city.

Syracuse created beautiful city parks and public buildings in the early twentieth century, enjoyed a downtown retail and entertainment boom during the Roaring Twenties, successfully struggled with the hard times of the Great Depression, and then turned its factories into arsenals for victory during World War II. The postwar era brought its own challenges, ones that the city is continuing to meet, but also a new set of events and places to experience, and fondly remember today.

This fascinating journey through time is captured in the remarkable images reproduced in this book.