The passenger station, the third of ultimately four stations built by the New York Central Railroad to serve Syracuse, was built in 1936, when the railroad tracks that previously went through the city of Syracuse via Washington Street, at grade with pedestrians and automobiles, were elevated above city streets.

In 1962, after the purchase of the rail right-of-way near the 1936 passenger station by New York State for the construction of Interstate 690 necessitated usage of the old NYC freight bypass route for passenger trains through Syracuse, New York Central moved to a smaller "temporary" station near the freight yards in East Syracuse.

[3] Meanwhile, train service remained at the "temporary" East Syracuse facility well into the Amtrak era.

The passenger building was renovated from 2001 to 2003 by Time Warner Cable (now part of Charter Spectrum), both to serve as their main office for their central New York operations, and as the Syracuse bureau and studios for News 10 Now (now Spectrum News Central New York).

[5] Media related to Syracuse station (New York Central) at Wikimedia Commons