The Marriott Syracuse Downtown
August 13, 2026
A Grand and Hospitable Hotel!
Susan Cook Henry
The 2026 CFA Annual Meeting went off with nary a hitch, and it was evident the committees involved put much effort and detailed thought into the weekend’s events. The exceptional bonus was the hotel itself: The Marriott Syracuse Downtown. This hotel has an historic personality of its own, and lent us its magnificent façade, interior, and exterior spaces for our enjoyment – all the while itself becoming a character in the festivities. I’m not sure if any hotel hosting past CFA annual meetings has ever been the subject of so many interior and exterior photos!
Originally the Hotel Syracuse, it opened in 1924 to great fanfare and was the largest and most prestigious hotel in the city for almost 90 years. The timing was perfect for the rage of the Art Deco era as well as the Roaring Twenties. Initially, it housed more than 600 guest rooms and featured exquisite ballrooms including the Persian Terrace, where many elegant events occurred. In fact, this particular ballroom was once a supper club for acts like Cab Calloway, Glenn Miller, and Benny Goodman. For the Region 1 hospitality night, the aptly named Persian Terrace (as Persians are one of CFA’s most popular breeds) was spot-on for the Roaring Twenties theme. Many came dressed accordingly, from beaded flapper dresses, feather boas, and faux pearls for the ladies to pinstripes, fedoras, and spats for the gents … even Charlie Chaplin made an appearance! The countless list of notable hotel guests over the years has included Charles Lindbergh, Presidents Eisenhower and Kennedy, Elvis Presley, and John Lennon, to name a few. And at street level, you would find retail stores, an emergency hospital, along with tennis, squash, and handball courts – definitely a full-service location.
Unfortunately, the hotel eventually fell on hard times and struggled to attract enough guests to justify its existence; then in 2004, bankruptcy was declared. It took 14 years for someone to come to the rescue, realizing the potential this property had for restoration. Enter Ed Riley, a developer and Syracuse native who had the vision and the connections to work with state and city grants, conventional financing, and Marriott Hotels to raise the $82 million required for the 2-year renovation.
Walls were knocked down in the initial 600 guest rooms, creating more gracious and spacious rooms and suites now numbering 261. The original and unique hotel room doors were saved; these built-in servidors (a “door within a door” from the early 1900s) were installed for the convenience of the guests, who placed items in need of laundering or polishing inside and were left undisturbed when the items were picked up and later returned fully serviced – a guest option which remains to this day. One of the most important parts of the renovation was removing the mirrors covering the 40-foot long, 6-foot high mural above the guest check-in area, depicting major milestones in the first 100 years of Syracuse history. These milestones were brought back to life with new paint, and a key identifying them all in a timeline. The lobby furniture is by Harden and Stickley, two of America’s most famous heirloom-quality furniture brands. The magnificent wood-coffered ceiling of the grand lobby area is interspersed with the hotel’s original chandeliers, cleaned and brought back to working order. The art nestled between the ceiling’s woodwork was painstakingly restored with intricate floral, fruit, and avian designs. Some might have noticed one face in this artwork, directly above the check-in desk: that face belongs to Ed Riley, the man responsible for bringing this hotel back to glory!
It is no wonder the Marriott Syracuse Downtown is a member of the Historic Hotels of America (an official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation). It is also quite worthy of the coveted AAA 4-Diamond Hotel award, shared with only 7% of all the hotels in North America. And those of us fortunate to have attended the North Atlantic Region’s 2026 CFA Annual Meeting would agree!