RochesterSubway.com : Inside the Abandoned Sykes Datatronics Building

Inside the Abandoned Sykes Datatronics Building

September 25th, 2013

The following is a guest post submitted by an anonymous reader.
Submit your story today.

If you’ve ever driven down the eastern end of Lyell Ave., or been to a soccer game at Sahlen’s Stadium, you’ve probably seen an enormous old shell of a building looming in the distance. Many times I had seen it’s old edifice sitting silent and, as I usually do, I wondered what the walls contained, what stories it could tell, and what it once was. That’s why one cool September morning I went to meet with the building and see what it could tell me…

The empty structure sits on Orchard Street just south of Lyell Ave. straddling a former railroad line, and it presents an interesting look back at the architecture and industrial manufacturing processes of the twentieth century.

Built in the early 1900’s it was part of a larger complex that took up the entire block between Orchard and Whitney and was used for many different purposes throughout its century of use. Beginning in 1915, the Northeast Electric Company owned the property before ceasing operations in 1922. In 1930, Delco Appliance acquired a number of buildings and production facilities. The company operated successfully for over 30 years before moving out in 1967. From there, buildings were divided up and used separately by individual companies.

Between 1971 and 1991 there were a number of businesses calling this block home. There were various tool & die, printers, metal finishers, a synthetic foam manufacturer, plastic manufacturers, and warehousing operations. One of those companies was Sykes Datatronics. They called the 7-story Orchard Street building home until leaving in 1992.

The City of Rochester has been through several times to demolish older buildings and clean up the property. Waves of demolition in 2003, 2006, and 2009 have left only the Sykes building standing. It will soon be abated and demolished as well in preparation for redevelopment.

Sykes Datatronics was a computer and electronics business in the 1970s and 80s. Eventually competition from larger companies, coupled with misdirection at the helm, led Sykes to file for bankruptcy and end productions.

I found myself looking up at the building from what was once the loading dock. The tall structure was rather imposing from this angle. Large bays of windows line up above me, peppered with holes and plants.

I entered the main floor and found a vast emptiness scorched by fire and warped by water. The wooden floorboards moved in silent frozen waves across the warehouse, sometimes rising up several feet. Although this was frightening at first, the wood was actually quite stable and could be traversed with ease

The building has been a victim to several fires over the years, leaving most of the interior charred and gutted. The second floor was the first I saw, which was open and empty.

The two photos above were contributed by Chris Goodenbury

Two large freight elevators sat at the ends of each floor, with a smaller elevator across from them in the middle of the wall.

The photo above was contributed by Chris Goodenbury

Next to the freight elevators were the stairwells. Needless to say, they weren’t in the best shape. However many still had some very nice original handrails.

On the third floor I began to see remnants of the building’s past with Sykes. Binders and paperwork were strewn all over the floor. A section of the building behind the staircase closest to Orchard St was filled with old documents. Most were for record keeping, including documents with company accounts and customers’ purchase history.

Old computer equipment sat in pieces on the floor. Smashed monitors were almost perfectly spaced out to provide an equal layer across the level. I found old keyboards, phones, instruction manuals, and even nearly untouched hundred page diagrams of the newest Sykes equipment.

Originally Sykes Datatronics only had offices on this third floor and parts of the now demolished buildings for storage. The main floor of the current building was the former offices and space of Ayer and Streb Printing, which had several locations around Rochester over the years. I wasn’t able to dig up any specific information on the Orchard St site but did find an old newspaper ad from February 24, 1933.

I moved further up to the 4th and 5th and 6th floors. Here is where Sykes expanded during their use of the Orchard St building. These floors were a maze of offices and hallways. Some were gutted by fire, some had succumbed to the elements, while others sat waiting for the next employee to walk in.

I could imagine these floors alive and buzzing with activity during the 1980s when Sykes was present. A few desks and tables were piled in a corner. More computer equipment was scattered through the larger rooms. As I later found out, the 6th floor was apparently home to a porno shop when Sykes first moved in, although there was little evidence left of that use.

The photo above was contributed by Chris Goodenbury

The 7th and top floor looked to be an addition to the original industrial structure. It was built on the roof of the brick building and was made mostly of wood and steel beams. It had a largely open floor plan with access to one of the freight elevators. Some walls and rooms protruded from the southern end of the floor but didn’t intrude far into the space. It was left mostly unfinished aside from these rooms. I assume that Sykes expanded to this floor as well. However, at one point it had been rented to a local glass blower as a studio space, which seemed to fit the style of the floor.

I stepped out the door and onto the roof. It was well on it’s way to becoming a rooftop garden. Tall grasses and trees were growing amidst the puddles of water. There was a great view of the Rochester Skyline. I cautiously climbed up to the elevator control room.

I entered and immediately noticed that there was no floor, only a rusting metal grate suspended a hundred feet above an idle elevator below. It was a terrifying realization followed by 15 very uneasy minutes trying to get some decent photographs.

I made my way back down to the main floor. All windows were sealed and doors covered up. Here was where I assumed customers and visitors would enter and be guided to the proper floors and offices. A few rooms remained, it was not as damaged as the floors above.

I went back to the loading dock and took one last look. Imagining this location filled with employees and activity and then seeing what it has become was an eerie feeling.

Sykes Datatronics filed for bankruptcy in the late 1980s and ceased operations in 1990. [Sykes Datatronics Maxed Out – NY Times, December 1, 1984 ] They removed equipment and furniture (not everything apparently) and closed the doors in early 1992. Sykes had other offices in the Rochester area as well. Including a property on Kings Highway (across from Bishop Kearney) that they acquired in the late 1970s in addition to a location on Stone St. downtown.

If you, or anyone you know used to work at Sykes Datatronics (or in any buildings formerly on this site), please comment! I’d love to hear your story.

• • •

UPDATE: Today (12/18/2014) I noticed the building is slowly being demolished. The work site was quiet this afternoon when I walked by, but an entire section of the building has been removed. The windows are now completely gone. And huge slabs of concrete, clinging to rebar, dangle precariously in the air…

• • •

*Some of the information mentioned in this post
was gathered from this other great article .

Tags: abandoned, abandoned places, City of Rochester, Delco Appliance, demolition, Lyell Avenue, Northeast Electric Company, Orchard Street, Rochester, Rochester NY, rochester photos, Sahlen’s Stadium, Sykes Datatronics, Whitney Street

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 at 7:57 am and is filed under Reader Submitted Stories, Rochester History, Rochester Images, Urban Exploration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

68 Responses to “Inside the Abandoned Sykes Datatronics Building”

Sarah says:

September 25, 2013 at 8:25 am

thanks for the pics, ive wanted to poke around that building myself for awhile!
Carlos Mercado says:

September 25, 2013 at 8:31 am

Either this building or one of the nearby ones on Orchard St that might be demolished housed the Haloid Corp. that was renamed Xerox Corp.
Flour City says:

September 25, 2013 at 9:13 am

Would make a great spot for livable work lofts and ground level retail / restaurants and entertainment
rochplanner says:

September 25, 2013 at 10:08 am

Agree with Flour City, seems ideal for re-use. Not sure if this neighborhood is ready to support normal loft and retail/restaurant development like that though. I think it would be a great opportunity to turn the neighborhood into one for artists. Make these affordable artist lofts. But, like most old Rochester gems, it will make way for a parking lot or empty lot set aside for only the slight possibility of “future development”
RochesterRealist says:

September 25, 2013 at 11:28 am

Anyone who thinks these old buildings are good for stores & living have never figured out the cost associated with it. Even if the building was in an area that would support it (it’s not), the cost to bring it up to current codes would be huge. Some buildings are perfect for this idea but not this one. It has had extensive fire & water damage… it would need a complete rebuild, sadly, not a feasible option.
john says:

September 25, 2013 at 12:01 pm

I’ve been in this building it isn’t in as bad a shape as it looks. Its all reinforced concrete. The bowed wood floors are just flooring and not structural. It needs a massive amount of interior and cosmetic work, but structurally its in good shape. I dont see why the city doesn’t do the abatement, keep it bundled up and see if it can find a buyer. The cost to demo will be massive even after asbestos and lead abatement, this building isnt going to go quietly into the night, its gonna fight every step of the way. Last I heard was demo would be in the multi-million dollar range, seems it’d be best to find a constructive alternative. Its not like that neighborhood has any lack of vacant land. Try preservation once in a while, we’ve certainly demo’d enough in JOSANA and it hasn’t helped yet.
Adrian says:

September 25, 2013 at 12:50 pm

Looks like a great building in a terrible neighborhood. No real reason to demolish it, it’s not like anyone wants to relocate to Orchard St. Might as well keep it until (if) the neighborhood improves so that the space and building is actually worth something.
Jason S says:

September 25, 2013 at 4:34 pm

See also:

http://www.thecolorblindphotographer.com/2009/10/11/exploring-sykes-datatronics/

These folks came out with some Sykes collateral.
RochesterSubway.com says:

September 25, 2013 at 5:31 pm

@Jason, yes. That’s the link at the end of this post. A lot of interesting information and stories from Sykes ex-employees came from that page.
Jibreel Riley says:

September 25, 2013 at 5:45 pm

industrial waste? Where does a demo landfill go?
DJ says:

September 25, 2013 at 6:00 pm

Every comment so far has valid points. My first thought was ‘can this be converted to lofts?’. Yes, it’s in a bummer of a neighborhood, yes it would cost lots to fix up… But I hate to see an old school bldg torn down w/out even trying. My thought is for city to do the old $1 sale to a developer w very loose strings attached. Clean it up, DON’T tear it down, and do Something w/it. Be it lofts, businesses, art gallery.

I’d even leave that offer on the table for next 5-10 yrs. if the bldg isn’t hurting anyone & would cost a lot to demo, why not be patient & see if a creative developer comes along?
Adrian says:

September 25, 2013 at 6:23 pm

Nothing lost for the city to offer a deal like that. But a developer would be insane to take it. This isn’t just a “bummer” of a neighborhood. This is a neighborhood where someone getting shot to death make page B5. In order for anyone to put any money into this building, the neighborhood has to change and that will take decades.
gumby says:

September 25, 2013 at 8:01 pm

I just turned 53 and spent the first 48 of my years in Rochester. I make custom pens and would love a piece of wood from there. Is tent city still up? That is another building I would like a few pieces from.
Jay says:

September 26, 2013 at 7:14 am

About a stones throw from this building is – I think – 387 Orchard St, which is Dock Hardware/Surplus Select. If you ever get the chance to take a look, it’s an amazing warehouse full of reclaimed office supplies and industrial equipment. It’s easy to get lost there.
SmartGirl21 says:

September 26, 2013 at 10:22 am

I had an interview at Sykes in this building in 1987. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the job, which is probably a good thing. I remember it was a decent building back then, but what I remember the most is that the employees were getting ready to go on their company picnic. Really is a shame how things went downhill for Sykes. They were really making a name for themselves back in the 80’s.
Flour City says:

September 27, 2013 at 10:29 am

I just moved back from Brooklyn after 6.5yrs….. Rochester needs to start looking at the movements happening in places like Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Austin, Seattle etc… and creating gentrification within these neighborhoods, not more segregation. Buildings like this can be the center of those changes. Welcoming in developers who are willing to invest in reuse / re-purpose of old buildings is a key ingredient in maintaining the Heritage of Rochester.
Harrison Freer says:

September 28, 2013 at 12:09 pm

i knew people that wen to work for Sykes in the late seventies and early eighties. So sad meany Rochester industries have suffered a smiler fate.
Urban Explorer says:

October 1, 2013 at 8:28 am

@Flour City: I love Brooklyn et al., but those places have completely different market realities than Rochester. The city, particularly the current administration, is exceedingly welcoming to developers. After all, the city just gave away Midtown Tower for $2, AND threw in $10 million+ to the developer just for taking it off their hands. And that’s a building in the center of downtown.

That being said, it appears this building is reinforced concrete construction, not heavy timber frame, so as people have pointed out, it’s probably more solid. Remediate the lead and asbestos, button it up, keep it secure, and let it sit there.

Politicians, economic development types, and even the general population in this city seem to have a problem with patience. A building can’t just sit, unused, waiting. It either has to be used or taken down for a grassy lot or parking lot. Witness the Cataract Building. The brewery could well have just secured the building, painted it, lit the exterior, and let it sit until a developer could be found. Demolishing these buildings, whether it’s the Cataract or the Sykes building, is so short-sighted because we’ll never build buildings like this again.
Joel Helfrich says:

October 7, 2013 at 11:32 pm

LAND BANK, people!
Joe says:

October 18, 2013 at 10:44 pm

Here’s the thing about cities and rough neighborhoods like this. If I wanted a new house, a big yard, etc all those suburban things that the city seems to be doing to “revitalize” these neighborhoods, I wouldn’t be in the city. I’d go to the suburbs. If you are going to get people into JOSANA that live there by choice and not economic necessity, you need to have things other neighborhoods don’t have. You know, like converted factory buildings into lofts, offices, maybe some retail, preserved 1860-1900 houses or at least houses from that period I can get cheaply and restore myself. Sorry, but these new suburban-like new construction houses I’ll go to Webster for.
Dan Colbert says:

November 21, 2013 at 2:36 pm

I worked in the building next door (367 orchard st)at Scientific Radio Systems. I had seen signs in that building which leads me to believe that Haloid utilized 367 orchard street as a business location.
Ironically, my father was an machinist at Haloid. He died in March 1979, I started to work for SRS in July 1979… never got to ask….
John Shepherd says:

February 14, 2014 at 5:54 pm

I worked for Sykes in 1982 though not, thank goodness in that building. At times employees leaving that building at night required an armed escort to take them across the road to the car park. A small company, Moscom (now part of Calero), also based in Rochester, started up in 1983, produced better products for a much lower price and won a lot of the business that Sykes used to have. This was the main reason that Sykes went out of business.
Michael Thompson says:

February 18, 2014 at 9:06 pm

The Rhode Island Computer Museum is restoring a DEC PDP-8e computer that has a SYKESdisk 7000 dual diskette system. We cannot find any technical information on this Sykes equipment. I was really surprised to see the manual that we need is in your image abandoned-rochester-sykes-datatronics-manuals.jpg.

Is there any possibility that someone could get this manual? Any other SYKESdisk manuals would be appreciated.
RochesterSubway.com says:

February 18, 2014 at 9:13 pm

@Michael Thompson, I can’t guarantee it… but I’ll have someone contact you if it’s a possibility.
Cheryle Wood says:

February 21, 2014 at 8:09 pm

Thank you so much for what you are doing. I’ve bookmarked your site. I worked in the marketing department at Sykes from 1975-1979. The people were great and it was exciting. The company had many sales reps and distributors stateside and many distributors worldwide. I typed some of those users and configuration manuals. I remember well taking the stairs in lieu of the elevator. Good memories.
Jack says:

July 29, 2014 at 1:33 pm

Haloid’s was located on Haloid Street off Barrows st. and runs between Rutgers St. ,which are off Lyell Ave. Where the building was is a vacant lot.
Jack says:

July 30, 2014 at 11:21 pm

I found a picture of the old Haloid building on line. I found it using bing.com My mother worked there for a time. I never knew where it was myself until I did a little research. I would up load the picture but I don’t know how. If anyone is interested I would send it via E mail.
RochesterSubway.com says:

July 31, 2014 at 4:11 pm

Jack, you can send photos to me, [email protected]
RochesterSubway.com says:

July 31, 2014 at 9:10 pm

Here’s the photo of the Haloid building…

Thanks Jack!
Frank Wilson says:

August 6, 2014 at 4:19 pm

Thank you for the Sykes information. Long ago and far away I used a General Radio board tester that had a PDP8/E with a Sykes dual cassette tape storage unit. They could have improved the design, but it was better than no mass storage. Later we bought an RK05 disk storage unit and ran it in parallel with the Sykes unit. You have answered a lot of questions.
John Ochs says:

August 7, 2014 at 3:15 pm

I worked at the Xerox Orchard St. facility and the facility o\behind it on Whitney St.Xerox built their older products there like the Microprinter, the 1824 and 1860 printers. No. 4 Camera and a newer one the 600MEP. I also worked on a new program in the Whitney Bldg. called the 2436 Engineering Copier.

The let the lease lapse on both buildings in the mid-70’s and moved all the production to their Jefferson Rd. facility.
Tony P says:

October 31, 2014 at 12:29 pm

Board it up and let it sit? I’m guessing those commentors are not from Rochester, or haven’t lived here long.

Do a search on ‘Delco Rochester fire’ and you’ll understand why most of the buildings on the site were demolished.

Sadly, that’s what happens when buildings are left to sit. The city really doesn’t have much of a choice – if a developer doesn’t want it, time and vandals will force their hand towards demolition.
John says:

November 30, 2014 at 7:20 pm

Since the city did a proper job securing the lower floors, there hasn’t been an issue with it. However, its a moot point, they’re taking the place down. But like I said a few years ago, it isn’t going down without a fight. That “unsafe, unstable” building actually is built like a concrete reinforced shithouse.

Its just sad, because there is no way anything like that will get built in this town again and I doubt anyone will go to that lot to build. Why go there, when there are better lots with less environmental issues? Old buildings like that are the one thing we have against the suburbs, and this neighborhood has against most other city neighborhoods. I don’t see anything going on that lot for a long, long time and without boat loads of public money. I understand why the neighborhood might want it gone, but perceived threat doesn’t equal actual threat.
RochesterSubway.com says:

December 19, 2014 at 8:17 pm

UPDATE ON SYKES DATATRONICS BUILDING:

Today (12/18/2014) I noticed the building is slowly being demolished. The work site was quiet this afternoon when I walked by, but an entire section of the building has been removed. The windows are now completely gone. And huge slabs of concrete, clinging to rebar, dangle precariously in the air…
Ruth Nederlk says:

December 20, 2014 at 3:14 pm

The first Xerox building was he Haloid Co off of Birr St in the city It was there in the time I was growing up in the 20′ and 30’s and later was called Xerox when on orchard ST and then I believe it was on Hollenbeck St and later moved to Webster,NY Came a long way from a very small building on Haloid St.
Brad says:

December 22, 2014 at 5:45 am

i was at Sykes when they opened the doors here. I worked for RTC and we were installing a stromberg Carlson F-50 XY PBX phone system. I remember the lead tech on the job bought some shares for a dime each. Transmation was another company that was located on mt read near Lyell. I remember a big yellow building near the old Beechnut plant.
RochesterGoner says:

January 5, 2015 at 10:05 am

Did the Kodak, Sykes, Xerox and every other Rochester tech firms CEO’s get together for lunch at Oakhill in the late 80’s and decide that technology had finished advancing and they should just play golf?
John says:

January 7, 2015 at 3:36 pm

The management at xerox just got very risk averse and decided that it was too difficult to manage and costly to the bottom line to develop lots of new products. So they focused on a few and tried to fill out the product line by acquiring new companies with new technologies.

Then they moved mfg. off-shore to Singapore and now they are outsourcing their engineering to India. This does not bide well for Rochester or Xerox.
Lawrence Forsley says:

January 31, 2015 at 5:24 pm

HI, thanks for trip down memory lane! I was a consultant to Sykes Datatronics, probably in the early to mid-70s. I wrote the code for Sykes Dataronics Hewlett Packard floppy disk drives. I remember riding my 10 speed to this building, sometimes at night, from where I lived over in the 19 th ward. I don’t remember what floor I was on, but it was an open, industrial manufacturing floor with both their cassette tape drives and floppy drives for minicomputers. I worked with Ed Pavia.
hammerhead says:

April 14, 2015 at 4:27 pm

wow cool picts i used to work on those back when i wa a kid
Woody says:

May 15, 2015 at 6:06 pm

I worked at Sykes during hey days late 70’s to early 80’s. Ma Bell was their largest customer, and the AT&T breakup in ’82 into the Baby Bells damaged their revenue stream. They never recovered.

Sykes had a 6502 microprocessor-based computer with Basic programmability, database, and flexible communications features – CommStor IV – and a distribution network that helped establish the small computer market for business.

The Basic interpreter was written by a couple guys working out of a garage in Seattle. One of the Sykes engineers who worked with them commented at the time, “Do these guys really think they can build a company around this little Basic interpreter?”

About 1980, one of those guys came to Rochester to talk about his vision for having personal computers in every home and under every desk within a few years. The Sykes marketing guys threw him out.

Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and Microsoft .. I wonder whatever became of them.

Many years later, Gates was a keynote speaker at a conference that one of those marketing guys attended. Afterwards, he introduced himself to Gates and said, “Do you remember coming to Rochester about 1980 and…” Gates interrupted him with, “Yeah, what a bunch of assholes!”
Rochester says:

July 12, 2015 at 6:31 pm

I explored this place a few times and it looked exactly like it does in your pictures. I walked through it about 10 times over the course of a year. I even explored it a few times during its last stages of being demolished (I know that it is extremely dangerous). It is completely taken down now, so no more exploring for me. It was very fun while it lasted.
Jim Sciuto says:

August 23, 2015 at 4:21 pm

I have a circuit board from 1978 marked SYKES
it about to go on Ebay for sale ….
check it out .. search it …
Mike Marshall says:

October 20, 2015 at 7:27 pm

I worked at Sykes during the early days..1970 thru 1975. There were between 20 and 100 employees at Sykes in those days.

Great pictures here. I walked down that stairway many times!

When I left Sykes in 1975 they gave me a nice going away luncheon and a gift of a Samsonite briefcase. The combination lock on the briefcase has always been set to ‘375’ as in 375 Orchard Street!

I was a design engineer and worked on many of Sykes’ early products. Most memorable, to me, was when I designed their dual floppy disk controller.

Many good people worked at Sykes in those days. I will write some of the names I can remember here just in case they find it. I would like to hear from you by email at: ekimllahsram (at) gmail (dot) com

Tom Greer
Don Grube
Ed Pavia
Marilyn Parshall
Norm LaFond
Al Montevecchio
Bob Sykes
John Sykes
Bill Mulligan
Ron Borges
Norm Kraft
Gil Morth
Beverly Chirka
Skip Consel (sic?)

Thanks for the great pictures Subway…

Mike
Mike Marshall says:

October 20, 2015 at 7:33 pm

The floppy disk system I designed was called: “SYKESdisk 7000 dual diskette”

A Michael Thompson commented above that he was looking for someone who knew something about the Sykesdisk.

Maybe the MODERATOR of this site could send my post to Michael Thompson….
Jack Lamphier says:

January 25, 2016 at 8:32 am

A good friend of mine, now dead, had worked there for many years in the late 40’s and early 50’s when it was Delco.
Michelle says:

April 15, 2017 at 1:28 am

I found a Sykes datatronics stock from my grandparents. Very interesting reading about this stuff.
John Voymas says:

May 5, 2017 at 10:38 am

I worked at Sykes on a six-month co-op work block in 1978 while attending RIT. Primarily worked in shipping and receiving and spent a fair amount of time in the freight elevator. We would pack the COMM-STOR into shipping boxes and spray foam in to create a safe package. Some went to colleges. As was mentioned, these were communication storage devices used by AT&T. Calls would be tracked on the COMM-STOR at local AT&T centers and then uploaded nightly to AT&T’s mainframe for later billing. The break-up of AT&T was a significant factor in Sykes decline.

They also had designed an office workstation which retailed at $15,000. I don’t think they sold many.

While I was there, they created a version of their computer that could be programmed in Basic. They asked me to write a couple of applications for it. The simple one was successful … it created inventory tags for the sub-assemblies with serial numbers on them. The other app was way too big for the 4K (later 8K) core memory of this machine. Yes, ‘K’.

BTW, these machines used an 8 inch floppy disk. I still have a couple.

Sykes was a very good company to work for. They participated in the Rochester corporate Euchre league along with Kodak and Xerox. I had the option to go golfing with the VP who was in charge of my work area, which was cool for a college student.

Piece of American history … the building was a Cold War fallout shelter and had many 55 gallon drums of water and cartons of soda crackers on one of the lower floors. And, yes, I saw the old porno booths on the upper floor.
Greg says:

May 2, 2018 at 1:37 pm

I was looking at google maps and noticed that in 3d mode the building was there, but when I turned it off it was gone. Further googling got me here.

I worked at Sykes one summer when I was in college. I was in receiving and then the warehouse. The place was flying at that time, 1981 I think? Yeah, the Bell breakup really hit them hard. I believe they were the sole tenant of the building at the time, but I was only on the first floor.

I grew up in Rochester and still live here. The city is fairly resilient, but the core is hollowed out. It was very manufacturing oriented, but is much more service and health care now. I work for a thriving manufacturing company. We have buildings that once housed Xerox and computer consoles (Northern Telecom) but it is nothing like things were in the 80s.

The neighborhood around Sykes was bad then and has not gotten any better. Many businesses are gone. The soccer stadium is a disaster and they currently have no tenants, 2 years ago they had a mens and womens team plus lacrosse.

As for re-purposing the building, there’s a lot of that going on in downtown and there’s more to come. I’d say there’s a glut of lofts in much better neighborhoods.

Thanks for the post!
john gormley says:

October 5, 2018 at 8:23 pm

I worked for Delco Appliance there for 10 years before we moved to Kettering, OH, when GM merged us into Delco Products Div. 7th floor was Engineering lab, 6th. floor was Engineering Dept. The 7th. floor was added during WW2. On nice days we would eat lunch on the roof. Birds called ‘skyhawks’ would lay eggs on the bare roof there. It was a safe area when we vacated in 1965.
Claire Naundorf Streb says:

November 8, 2018 at 6:20 pm

I worked for Sykes from 1977-1985 as a programmer, then a supervisor, then a manager. Contrary to another post, the real reason why Sykes went bankrupt was because upper management did not plan ahead for AT&T’s divestiture. Also, M****m actually stole Sykes’ software, and the adjudicators were given a backhanded deal to ignore that fact. I have proof.
Tom Hall says:

December 18, 2018 at 10:35 am

Was the building at 367 Orchard Street on the other side of the rail road tracks that still stands – the used furniture warehouse mentioned above – part of the AC Delco Building?
GM history is a hobby. I’d appreciate any information on the AC Delco buiding, what products were made there, etc – including any information on other GM/AC Delco operations in Rochester.
Thanks in advance.
David Porter says:

March 30, 2020 at 10:36 pm

My Dad Worked for Delco at that location.I believe it was North East Electric when he started working there just out of college in the early 20’s. When it was Delco division of GM they made windshield wiper motors,window lift motors, most all the electric motors for GM cars. In the early years they made oil burner units and electric gen sets for homes. Dad was the Manager of the Research dept.which was moved to Dayton Ohio in the 60’s.
John F. Gormley says:

March 31, 2020 at 5:51 am

David Porter, Your father hired me.You brother,John, worked for me when he first came to Delco. You must be rather elderly. I am a month away from being 97. The move to dayton was great. Great new lab. prices about 30% lower than in New York State. Is John still alive? if so, say hello for me.
David Porter says:

April 1, 2020 at 7:37 pm

John, You have me beat by 14 years. My brother is doing great, I will forward our conversation to him if its ok with you.
John Gormley says:

April 1, 2020 at 8:33 pm

David Porter Please do. There was an Engineer who worked on the 6th. floor.He did not come to Dayton. Bausch and Lomb rented space on the 6th floor, Hired that Engineer, and he ended up on the 6th. floor,WITH HIS DESK IN THE EXACT SPOT ,AS WHEN HE WORKED FOR DELCO. That is one for Ripley!
David Porter says:

April 13, 2020 at 9:18 pm

John, I just talked with my brother John. He remembers you and if you have an e-mail address he would like to talk to you. My wife\’s cousins husband (Tom Quackenbush) worked for Delco in Dayton and he worked with some of the guys that were transferred from Rochester. He mentioned some of the names which I new but I can\’t remember now.
RochesterSubway.com says:

April 13, 2020 at 10:11 pm

David, John, I’d recommend connecting via social media. Or email me and I’ll connect you. Don’t post your contact information in the comments.
John Johnsonm says:

April 13, 2020 at 10:20 pm

My brother worked in one of those buildings for Delco in the 50s.He retired in the 70s.
My wife’s brother-inlaw was an engeneer there
in the 40s & 50s.
Grant Downey says:

July 19, 2020 at 12:13 pm

I worked for Sykes in that building as a programmer in 1981 and 1982. Makes me sad to see those photos. When I began there in 1981 they occupied the entire building, but apparently they had shared the building with other companies at one time. The story was that the 7th floor had once been a porn film studio. One morning all the equipment up there had been pushed into a pile with yellow police ribbon around it.
Sykes was doing very well when I started there, but when I learned that the vast majority of their business was with AT&T, I got a bit nervous, and my unease soon turned out to be justified when AT&T was broken up.
Sykes had been a pioneer in early 8 inch floppy disk development, but was losing ground to newer technologies. They tried to change course and started developing a long distance toll charge costing system based on a new platform with a 6809 processor and the OS-9 operating system. I worked on that system for a while, but moved on before it shipped.
Sykes rode the technology wave for a while and made a lot of people rich, but the AT&T breakup and failure to keep up with newer technology did them in, as well as competition from M****m, as mentioned above (hi, Claire).
Donn Lester says:

September 19, 2020 at 8:18 pm

I worked at SYKES for 10 years 1982 right until the last day with Jim Van-Vanslooton running the place Just the 2 of us working right until the end. I was the last employee that hung on to finish of all the outstanding work to keep some cash flowing into the place. Bill Marshall bought the sometime in the end hoping to use the SYKES business shell to get into other business ventures so I stuck around with promise of a job if they succeeded in other business ventures as the asbestos processing business and gas fields both of which fained
Paul Riley says:

March 20, 2021 at 1:51 am

Hi there.

I’m hoping that you scanned and archived the manual shown in the photo, or that you have it still.

I have a Sykes Datatronics 7000 disk drive unit, attached to an old PDP-11/03. It would be very handy to have the service manual. Would you mind sharing it?

Paul
Barrie Clark says:

May 25, 2022 at 3:17 am

I worked for Orbis Systems in the 1970s. We licensed Sykes to manufacture our 8\\\” floppy disk drive. They purchased parts from our tooling and built disk drives. I made two trip to Sykes. The first trip was to train their personnel how to build and test the drives. They were having trouble assembling and testing them successfully. I made a second trip to Sykes to analyse and fix their process after which they continued to make the drives. I very much enjoyed working with their team. A real shame they didn\\\’t last longer.
Steve Adams says:

February 16, 2023 at 12:11 am

I worked at Sykes from about ’79 through about ’83. Istarted as a coop and got hired full time while I finished at RIT. I worked for Ed Pavia and worked with Roy Hutchenson on 6502 assembly programming projects on new hardware. He was the best engineering mentor I have ever had. He let me do anything and everything without limits. I later worked with TAZ, Tom Zimnniwitz(?) on that 6809 based OS-9 (unix like OS) project. Chet Smith and I got the OS-9 prompt the first time late some night while re-writing much of OS-9. TAZ helped Microware re-write much of their C compiler. I worked with Fred Cupp in the circuit design area to build Orbis floppy controller boards using the 1771(?) controllers and we worked on a Winchester hard disk controller. Then the AT&T divestiture happened to Sykes. I ended up at Bell Labs in NJ and now work at AT&T. Sykes was the best way to kickoff an engineering career that I could imagine.
Herb Johnson says:

February 25, 2023 at 2:58 pm

Thanks for preserving your 2013 site visit and all the correspondence after. Sykes was an early pioneer in putting floppy drives on computers. It’s a shame they didn’t see the coming of personal computers; but in the 1970’s they cost more than used cars and had no software. Who knew? Only some farsighted people and tech enthusiasts.

http://www.retrotechnology.com/dri/first_floppy.html
RochesterSubway.com says:

February 26, 2023 at 5:26 pm

Thanks Herb! I’m happy people still find these stories interesting/useful.
Erocsky07 says:

April 10, 2023 at 9:35 am

This is my grandfathers business I would love to get in there somehow. I have always heard stories growing up but was already closed down by the time I was a little kid
RochesterSubway.com says:

April 11, 2023 at 9:20 am

@Erocsky07, unfortunately the building was demo’d in 2015.

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Inside the Abandoned Sykes Datatronics Building

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