Red brick warehouse and commercial blocks from the 1870s to the 1940s, arched windows and brick sidewalks around a former armory turned science museum.
What Armory Square looks like
Red brick commercial blocks line and the streets around the former , three to five storeys tall with arched window heads and stone cornices. The sidewalks are trimmed in brick under street trees, and the blocks sit on a tight downtown grid a production could close off corner to corner.
On South Clinton Street, the rises five storeys in red brick with broad arches and cast iron columns at street level. The Neal and Hyde Block stands beside it, also five storeys, brick with limestone trim over what was once a dry goods warehouse. Ground floors along here hold bars and restaurants now, with offices and apartments in the storeys above.
The former Syracuse Armory faces Franklin Street behind a squared tower with a stepped brick parapet, its walls brick and limestone, built for the National Guard. It now houses the MOST science museum behind the same arched entrance.
The occupies the Loew Building at South Salina and Jefferson streets, a movie palace with a Classical Revival front on Salina Street. is closed to vehicles Friday and Saturday for outdoor dining. Its restaurants sit under a run of matching cornices along the block.
Shot in Armory Square
Paper Spiders is a 2020 drama directed by Inon Shampanier. The production filmed a scene at Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge in Armory Square, a bar at 321 South Clinton Street within the address range of the 1893 Butler Block.
Paper Spiders, 2020
Al's Wine and Whiskey Lounge
Lili Taylor and Stefania LaVie Owen shot a scene inside the bar, on the ground floor of the Butler Block on South Clinton Street. The production filmed on location in Syracuse in May 2019. Street View
Denver restored its own block of Victorian commercial buildings the same way, cast iron columns and decorative brickwork over ground floor storefronts, now filled with restaurants and bars rather than butcher shops and warehouses. Armory Square matches that scale of block, closed corner to corner for a shoot. Larimer Square runs only sixteen buildings on one block, so a wide shot needs Armory Square framed tight to keep the mountains out of the background. Try searching Victorian storefronts cast iron now.
Milwaukee rebuilt its own warehouse district in brick after an 1892 fire. Warehouses there became lofts, restaurants and galleries behind five and six storey facades that match Armory Square's scale closely. Third Ward buildings run taller in places, up to six storeys. Keep wider shots to the lower blocks near Broadway. Try searching brick warehouse loft blocks now.
Ybor City is Tampa's former cigar factory district, its red brick blocks now packed with bars and restaurants along the main strip. The same use filled Armory Square's own warehouses, both compact entertainment districts built inside older industrial brick. Ybor City buildings carry wrought iron balconies and Spanish tile accents Armory Square does not, so keep the frame to the plain brick blocks. Try searching cigar factory brick blocks now.
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