Utica Landmarks

Below are photos and content regarding select landmarks in Utica, New York. The region is very rich in landmark history. More landmarks will be highlighted in the future.

Photos Courtesy Mohawk Valley Pictures

Stanley Theater & Stanley Lobby

Built in 1928 to be a movie palace, the Stanley Theatre is now a regional performing arts center and is host to shows presented by Broadway Utica as well as several promoters.

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Originally built to be a movie palace, The Stanley Theatre opened in 1928 with 2,963 seats. Constructed in just 13 months, it was designed by famous architect Thomas Lamb, who is considered one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas in the 20th century. His creations include the Fox Theatre in San Francisco and the Capitol Theatre in New York, both now demolished. Utica’s Stanley is one of three remaining Lamb theaters: The Stanley Theatre, Utica, Proctor’s Theatre, Schenectady, NY, and The Landmark Theatre, Syracuse, NY. Today, The Stanley Theatre is a regional performing arts center and is host to shows presented by Broadway Utica as well as several promoters.

DID YOU KNOW?
The theater has hosted a variety of performers over the years, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Marian Anderson, Connie Francis, Diana Ross, The B-52s, The Bangles, Expose, Eddie Money, Itzhak Perlman, Barry Manilow, and others.

M&T Bank (formerly the Savings Bank of Utica)

The M&T Bank Building on Genesee Street in downtown Utica was originally constructed as The Savings Bank of Utica. The bank building and its gold dome is a key Utica landmark.

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The M&T Bank Building on Genesee Street in downtown Utica was originally constructed as The Savings Bank of Utica. The bank building and its gold dome is a key Utica landmark. It was also one of the earliest banking institutions in the city. It was begun by the Devereux brothers, John and Nicholas, who initially offered the service to their customers who were looking to protect their money from theft. The Devereux’s accepted cash, not for temporary safekeeping, but for long-term savings which paid dividends. In 1821 they decided to establish a formal bank and were granted a charter. The bank had different physical locations but the need for space compelled them to purchase the former home of Alexander Bryan Johnson on Genesee Street. The current Italian Renaissance building was opened in 1900 and its dome was covered with real 23 karat gold leaf. In 1929 a 30 foot wing was added to the north side and a 10 foot addition to the rear. Further changes were made in 1964 with the addition of a mezzanine floor and new front and parking lot entrances and well as lowering the ceiling under the inside of the dome.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Devereux Brothers started the bank with only a strongbox in their store, and that same strongbox is on display today in the bank’s lobby.

Clark City Center Building

Initially home to the Robert Frasers Department store, and subsequently occupied by the FW Woolworth Co., the Clark City Center Building is today primarily occupied by Utica University business school’s undergraduate and graduate programs.

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Previously home to the Robert Frasers Dept. Store, and subsequently, the FW Woolworth Company, the Clark City Center Building is today primarily occupied by Utica University business school’s undergraduate and graduate programs. At one time, during the Frasers era, the building boasted a grand rooftop garden and restaurant. The Woolworth store, which came later, was a large and very grand variety store that contained an extraordinarily long lunch counter, elegant lighting, walnut paneling, terrazzo floors, and one of Utica’s first escalators. Stetson Harza Engineering later occupied the building, restored its original façade, and combined it with a neighboring (former Thom McAnn) building to create adjacent elevator towers. Additionally, the firm repurposed the building's upper floors as offices.

DID YOU KNOW?

Utica University, founded in 1946, was initially an offshoot of Syracuse University located on Oneida Square in Utica. Utica College and Syracuse University amicably separated in 1995 and Utica became independent. The college was renamed Utica University in 2022 and continues to grow with our city.

Adirondack Bank Building

Initially constructed as the First National Bank, this building was designed by noted architects, York and Sawyer, in 1926. The 16-story office building features Sullivanesque style details.

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Initially constructed as the First National Bank, this building was designed by noted architects, York and Sawyer, in 1926. The 16-story office building has Sullivanesque-style details with a vertical look topped by arches. Over the years, after the First National Bank, the building’s first floor had also housed an SS Kresge Variety store, a Brooks Women’s Wear store, Bankers Trust Company, and currently, Adirondack Bank. York and Sawyer also designed the Bowery Savings Bank Building in 1923 (occupied on its first floor today by Cipriani Restaurant & Lounge which is a New York City Landmark on 42nd Street in Manhattan.

DID YOU KNOW?

At one time, WIBX broadcasted from the bank’s 9th Floor studio. WIBX is one of the area’s oldest radio stations, dating back to 1925.

Restored Adirondack Bank in Utica, New York

Grace Church

Grace Church was formed in 1838. Around 1847, Alfred Munson secured the services of architect Richard Upjohn to draw up plans for a new edifice and location for the church.

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Grace was an offshoot of the historic Trinity Church of Utica and was formed in 1838. Around 1847, Alfred Munson, a wealthy Utica businessman and a member of the congregation, secured the services of Richard Upjohn, architect of Trinity Church in New York City, to draw up plans for a new edifice and location for Grace Episcopal Church, which was ultimately built at the corner of Genesee and Elizabeth Streets in downtown Utica. In 1875 the tower and spire were completed under the personal supervision of Richard M. Upjohn, son of the original architect. The parish house, vestry room and choir room were added in 1884 and in 1890 the chancel was enlarged through the generosity of Mrs. Helen E. Munson Williams, who died before the work was completed. The new windows adorning the chancel were commissioned in her memory by her daughters, Mrs. Rachel M. W. Proctor and Mrs. Maria W. W. Proctor.

Henry Holiday, the notable English stained glass artist, was commissioned to design and create the seven windows. He took the great hymns of the church and the seven days of the Creation as the subject for what is considered by art experts the world over to be his masterpiece. Evidently Mr. Holiday considered them to be his best works for he chose them as the frontispiece of his definitive book on stained glass and copied them for the west window of the Cathedral Church of St. Savior, Southwark, London.

The present Parish House was constructed through the generosity of Mrs. Thomas R. Proctor and Mr. Frederick T. Proctor. The cornerstone was laid on Advent Sunday, 1926 and on May 15, 1928, the Parish House was dedicated.

The generosity of the Proctors to the church was also shown in a gift of the Lady Chapel. Stone from the dismantled old chapel was used in the new one, thus giving an impression of antiquity. Exquisite in design, the chapel was styled after Old World churches where it was the custom to dedicate the chapel immediately behind the high altar to the Mother of Christ. The chapel and its altar were consecrated on May 17, 1928.

DID YOU KNOW?

The works of Henry Holiday can also be found at Westminster Abbey, the site of many royal religious ceremonies, including both the wedding and the funeral of Queen Elizabeth.

St. John’s Church

St. John’s was incorporated and celebrated its first Mass in the Utica Court House on January 1819. In 1821, the first St. John’s Church was built on Bleecker Street.

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St. John’s was incorporated and celebrated its first Mass in the Utica Court House on January 1819. In 1821, the first St. John’s church was built on Bleecker Street on land donated to the church by Mr. & Mrs. Morris Miller, non-Catholics. The structure was a 60 x 45 white wooden building with Gothic windows constructed on the site of the present church. In 1834, Mother Elizabeth Ann Seton (now St. Elizabeth Ann Seton) sent three nuns to St. John’s at their invitation, to establish a school for young women and an orphanage for girls. In 1836, the first church building was moved across the street on the northwest corner of John and Bleecker Streets, and in its place, a second new and larger church was built in the Greek Revival style.

In June of 1868, demolition of the second church began. In June of 1869, the cornerstone of the third church—the present brick edifice—was laid. During construction of the church, the congregation worshipped in the original Court House on John Street and the Utica Catholic Academy. The first Mass in the new church was celebrated on Christmas day of that year.
Since then, St. John’s has undergone many expansions and renovation programs. In 2019, the church celebrated its bicentennial.

DID YOU KNOW?

St. Elizabeth Ann Seton is the first person born in the United States to be canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church?

Restored St. John's & St. Patricks Chapel

Gold statue on top of restored St. John's & St. Patricks Chapel

St. Joseph/St. Patrick Church

In 1965 St. Joseph (German) and St. Patrick (Irish) Churches’ parishes consolidated and together occupied the church building pictured, which had been St. Joseph’s.

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In 1965 St. Joseph (German) and St. Patrick (Irish) Churches parishes consolidated and together occupied the church building pictured, which had been St. Joseph’s, at 702 Columbia Street in this West Utica location. The present church was built in 1871 and is 180 feet long with a simple basilican plan in the German Romanesque style. It is built of brick with limestone trim. The stained glass windows are by the Tyrolese Art Glass Company of Innsbruck, Austria. The church was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.

After her beatification, a statue was erected in honor of Mother Marianne Cope, who attended the church in her childhood. In 2008, Mother Marianne's Westside Kitchen opened in St. Joseph & St. Patrick Parish Center. The soup kitchen provides hot meals and/or bag lunches every day to struggling families and individuals, the unemployed, and the homeless in the area.

DID YOU KNOW?

Mother Marianne Cope was declared a saint by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012, and is known as the Patron Saint of Utica.

Forest Hill Cemetery Chapel

The Forest Hill Cemetery chapel stands just inside the iconic Gothic Revival main gateway (1900-1901) of Utica’s historic Forest Hill Cemetery (1849-50).

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The Forest Hill Cemetery chapel stands just inside the iconic Gothic Revival main gateway (1900-1901) of Utica’s historic Forest Hill Cemetery (1849-50). The chapel was designed by Forest Hill’s landscape designer, Almerin Hotchkiss and Utica architect, Thomas Birt. It was constructed in 1868-69 of local coursed rubble sandstone, obtained from a quarry in Clinton, New York. The walls are complemented by limestone windowsills, door sills, window surrounds, and buttress caps. The building is 60 feet long, 20 feet wide, and 35 feet high. A steeply pitched roof of green and purple/red scalloped-shaped slate covers the tall central section of the building.

The one-story side aisles are covered with metal standing-seam roofing. Slate siding covers the exterior nave walls that extend above the aisles. Six pairs of Gothic-arched clerestory windows are located on the side walls of the nave. Iron gates and Gothic-arched paired wooden doors are located at the entrance. Along the exterior aisle walls and at the corners are sandstone buttresses. Finely-dressed limestone appears in the buttress caps, window sills, and jambs and surrounding the entrance. Simmons & Day, who operated the Forest Hill Cemetery Marble Works located at 21-23 Bleecker Street and a limestone yard on Washington Street, furnished the dressed limestone window and door trim. A stone Latin cross extends above the peak of the gable roof over the entrance.

The trustees awarded construction of the building to Chauncey Palmer (1807-1884), a cabinet maker who operated the first machine to plane wood in the region. Palmer’s enterprises included the Phoenix Iron Works foundry, which he built near his carpentry shop on Blandina and First Street in Utica. Palmer served as a director of the Utica and Black River Railroad along with several founding cemetery trustees, and is buried at Forest Hill. The structure was built to function as a chapel and also to fill the long-standing need for a dry, roomy, and attractive receiving vault. It could store 140 caskets in compartments on shelves when the ground was frozen during the winter. Senator Roscoe Conkling’s casket laid in repose here prior to his burial in April of 1888.

DID YOU KNOW?

Forest Hill is the resting place of many historical figures, including Governor Horatio Seymour. He was also a presidential candidate in the 1868 election, losing to Ulysseus S. Grant.

New York State Office Building

Modern style office building built by the state of New York in 1971 is the center for state government operations in the Mohawk Valley.

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Modern style office building built by the state of New York in 1971 is the center for state government operations in the Mohawk Valley. With plaza upgrades in the past few years, the building hosts numerous community events in downtown Utica. The building's West Plaza and East Park are important outdoor gathering areas and are enjoyed by nearby workers and visitors.

DID YOU KNOW?

The New York State Office Building provides office space for the State Assembly and State Senate, as well as many government services.

Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center Old Main Building

Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center’s Old Main Building in Utica was the first state-run institution founded in New York to care for the mentally ill and among the first in the United States. It opened in 1843. The Greek Revival structure was designed by Captain William Clarke and its construction was funded by the state and by contributions from Utica residents.

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Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center’s Old Main Building in Utica was the first institution founded in New York State to care for the mentally ill. It opened in 1843 It opened in 1843. There were initially 276 patients but the institution struggled in subsequent years with overcrowding, despite the opening of several more psychiatric hospitals throughout the state. Old Main is considered to be one of the finest examples of Greek Revival buildings in the United States. The main building is 550 feet long and was constructed of limestone from local quarries. The center section of the main building projects outward with six extremely large, fluted Doric columns, 8 feet in diameter at the base and 48 feet tall. The columns are constructed of heavy blocks of limestone and when constructed around 1840 may have been the tallest columns in the United States. Alexander Jackson Downing was hired in 1842 to layout the landscaping around the building. His plan included an impressive row of trees to line the main entranceway.

The Asylum at Utica, as it was known, predated the Kirkbride Plan, which just a few years later would become the nationwide standard for state run treatment centers. Dr. Thomas Kirkbride promoted a standardized method of asylum construction and mental health treatment, popularly known as the Kirkbride Plan, which significantly influenced the entire American asylum community during his lifetime.

Invented or popularized in Utica's Old Main: American Journal of Psychiatry (originally called American Journal of Insanity), the Utica Crib, progressive (for the time) treatment methods including occupational and creative arts therapy for the mentally ill.

Nonetheless, the Utica Asylum is noted for innovative treatments and changes in care for the mentally ill, many of which were developed by its first superintendent, Dr. Amariah Brigham. Old Main was closed by the New York State Office of Mental Health in 1974. Its expansive wings were demolished early in the 21st century while significant parts of its main frontage have been restored and repurposed as a New York State Mental Health Archive and repository. From time to time, the building has been re-opened for very popular tours and education events.

DID YOU KNOW?

Many people believe that Old Main is haunted, and it is occasionally open for public ghost tours as well as for paranormal investigators.

Top view of Mohawk Valley Psychiatric Center

Munson

The Munson Museum of Art Building is an international-style building designed by noted architect Philip Johnson and completed in 1960.

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The Munson Museum of Art Building is an international-style building designed by noted architect Philip Johnson and completed in 1960. It is supported by eight external ferro-concrete piers, or two on each side. The exterior structural members are clad in bronze and black Canadian granite. The windowless cube is set above windowed office areas recessed in a dry moat, giving a "floating" effect. The interior features a two-story central courtyard, illuminated by a skylight, known as the Edward Wales Root Sculpture Court. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010.

DID YOU KNOW?

Munson is home to numerous works of art by such notable artists as Thomas Cole, Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Andy Warhol, and more.

Utica City National Bank Building

Utica City National Bank was incorporated in 1838 and became the City National Bank in 1865.

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Utica City National Bank was incorporated in 1838 and became the City National Bank in 1865. The bank built this building in 1904 and remained there until being absorbed by the Citizens Trust Company in 1930. In 1903, the Utica Saturday Globe stated that this 10-story building was Utica’s first skyscraper. Today, the building is called the Genesee Towers and contains apartments for downtown senior living.

DID YOU KNOW?

The aforementioned Utica Saturday Globe was published from 1885 to 1924. Original copies of the paper can be found in Hamilton, NY at Colgate University.

The Sullivan

This commercial building with limestone facing was built in 1905 and an addition added in 1938. The Sullivanesque Style characteristics can be seen in this building.

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This commercial building with limestone facing was built in 1905 and an addition added in 1938. The Sullivanesque Style characteristics can be seen in this building via its vertical piers between windows, vertical windows topped by arches, arched lower section, and flat roof with projecting cornices. It had been owned and occupied for over a century by the Commercial Travelers Insurance Company. In summer 2022, Lahinch Group, Hueber-Breuer Construction and Morrisroe Lynn Development completed restoration. It is now composed of residential loft apartments, and occupied by various commercial tenants.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Sullivan apartments offer a number of amenities including a fitness center and a community room, and they are in walking distance of popular Utica shops and restaurants.

West End Brewery/Utica Club

West End Brewery survived Prohibition by producing Utica Club Soft Drinks and several other non-alcoholic drinks, and was the first in the nation to obtain a license after Prohibition.

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Francis Xavier Matt came to the United States from Germany when he was 19 years old. He went to work for Carl Bierbauer’s Columbia Brewery. He eventually reorganized Columbia Brewery to be the West End Brewery, which was the smallest of Utica’s 12 breweries at the time. West End Brewery survived Prohibition by producing Utica Club Soft Drinks and several other non-alcoholic drinks. West End brewery was the first in the nation to obtain a license after Prohibition was repealed and began selling Utica Club Beer. Fort Schuler, Maximus Super, Utica Club, Matt’s, Saranac and a host of other beer brands have been sold by the brewery over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries. Today, the brewery continues to thrive, innovating with new brands, contract brewing, hosting Saranac Thursdays, and opening a biergarten in the heart of Utica’s Varick St historic district. The brewery itself is a great example of an early commercial building with round arched windows, decorative brickwork, and a Victorian Style main front entrance.

DID YOU KNOW?

You may have heard of Schultz & Dooley, who were anthromorphic beer steins that commercially represented Utica Club in the 1960s. But you may not realized they were both voiced by the famous comedian, Jonathan Winters.

First Presbyterian Church

The First Presbyterian Church on Genesee Street in Utica and its related McKinnon House are notable for their early twentieth century Georgian Revival style design and architecture.

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The First Presbyterian Church on Genesee Street in Utica and its related McKinnon House are notable for their early twentieth century Georgian Revival style design and architecture. The church was designed by Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram and built in 1924. The McKinnon House was designed by Binghamton architect C. Edward Vosbury and built in 1900.

In 1961 the Church and Church House were physically joined with the construction of a number of classrooms, Fellowship Hall, a modernized kitchen and the installation of a new organ. The church and McKinnon house were added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

The church facility and its small congregation continue to host several community ministries.

DID YOU KNOW?

Robert McKinnon, who owned a thriving knitting mill in Little Falls, NY, built the mansion as a special gift for his wife and daughters. It cost $100,000 to build the mansion in 1900 - which would be around $3.6 million today!

More Utica Landmarks

Interesting publications on Utica Landmarks that you can download and print as pdf files.

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