Between Darkness & Light | Sykes Datatronics

I love big empty industry, but add to that a spot with a long and unique history and a lot of antique computer parts and you have a winner. Sykes Datatonics is another amazing spot that was a draw to the Rochester Urban Exploration community. Seven stores of early 20th Century industrial that proved a rather chill and easy explore, even if you went in a decent sized group in broad daylight. While I only went here twice, I do regret not being able to check out some of the other former buildings in this once massive industrial complex with a rather interesting story.

Long before the age of computers is where this building story starts, although technology remains at the core of this building’s history. The early 20th Century brought about a great deal of industrialisation and modern manufacturing practices with many smaller companies providing the parts for the larger factories but remained independent. Among these smaller firms is the Rochester Coil Company, founded in 1908 and constructing a manufacturing base along Lyell Avenue between Whitney and Orchard. A year later they renamed to Northeast Electric Company, they produced automotive and light rail electrical parts, lights, horns, starters, ignition, and spedometers. Northeast quickly became known for the quality of the parts they manufactured and they caught the eye of General Motors. GM in 1918 had already acquired the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, and saw Northeast as the perfect addition to their new Delco brand. It would mark the beginning of GM’s presence in Rochester, becoming Delco Appliances in 1930. Under Delco, the manufacturing base on Whitney Street saw a massive addition in buildings and a second plant constructed in 1937, becoming part of the Rochester Products Division. Rochester would be a key part of the American war effort during World War Two, with Delco producing aircraft, boat, artillery, anti-aircraft, and generator parts of every branch of the American military and the allied effort. The post-war period saw Delco continue to produce high-quality parts of every branch of General Motors, but the Whitney buildings were showing their age, and General Motors were already expanding the second factory on Lexington. Operations at Whitney slowly wound down and the property parceled out and sold to smaller firms with all Delco operations stopping in 1967.

The block quickly became home to multiple businesses, from warehousing to tool-and-dye shops. The history of the seven-storey building here gets a bit vauge at this point until 1977 when a small tech startup, Sykes Datatronics sets up shop in the old complex. Sykes was one of the many third-party computer parts manufacturers that sprung up the days between the arrival of the personal computer and the days of mainframe and mini computers. Mostly focused on the data storage devices, Sykes produced floppy drives for computers like the IBM 3740 (itself part of the iconic IBM System/360 Mainframe) and IBM 5100 portable computer, internal floppy drives, and cassette drives for terminals. Most of their work focused on the CP/M operating system and 8″ diskettes. And they enjoyed small success for the first several years of operating. Financial trouble started to show in the 1980s, as technology moved forward, Sykes through mismanagement and poor decisions were left behind as IBM moved ahead with the innovation of the personal computer. Bankruptcy followed as banks refused to reissue new funding and by 1991 the entire company shut down and the building shuttered a year later. The history again goes dark at this point, the 1990s were not a good time for most of North American industry. Delco, now Rochester Parts Division became part of Delphi in 1995, and then four years later spun off as General Motors Automotive Components Holdings Rochester Operations. By 2000, most of the former Delco block had also been abandoned, the buildings becoming a popular spot for urban explorers and those living rough seeking shelter. Demolition of several of the buildings started in 2003 and by 2006 only the former Sykes building had been left standing. The same year it suffered two fires but the well constructed building remained standing although exposed the elements. The years of neglect and vandalism took its toll and by 2014 abetment started and in December that same year the entire building was torn down. Today the lot still sits empty with no plans for reuse that I could find online.

I had a lot of fun at Sykes, I explored with some excellent friends over the two visits and it was always a bold entrance. You never approached or entered the site from street level, the area wasn’t exactly in the best conditions back a couple of decades ago, instead you parked at an OTB spot a couple of blocks away making sure to park near enough to other vehicles and always in an American plated car. Then clamour up onto an old railway spur and walk across both Broad Street and Orchard, sometimes you had to duck down to stay out of site, but once you were on the property it was free reign and you could waltz right in. The years of neglect and vandalism while unfortunately destroying anything interesting inside (mostly), is a real shame, it certainly made our lives easier. Despite the condition, they knew how to make industrial sites back in the 20th Century, nothing could move this place with concrete and steel construction, the only concerns was the buckled floor and the areas that opened up to the exterior. And even the stairs were intact and ready to climb without any fear. I mostly stuck to the start at the top and work my way down. I do regret not making my way up to the elevator control room which was a trove of 20th century electrics and control relays. What drew me were the floors piled up with computer parts, most of things were smashed beyond recognition, but there was a whole cross section of tech from the golden age of computing in the 1970s, 80s and 90s.

Even though I only went here twice, I’m impressed with the images that I got, mostly. The digital work is interesting because even though I had the 14-24mm lens with me, I rarely used it on my D300 sticking instead to the dedicate DX lens or prime lenses. While I did focus on my usual wide angle shots, I also did a lot of work with details. And that’s mainly because the 17-55 offered up that ability and there were a lot of details to capture. Mainly all the left over computer parts and terminals scattered around. I also played a bit of with HDR imaging, focusing on making my final results look far more natural than some of the other outputs that HDR were providing in those early days. Plus some editing in black & white and other monochrome styled images. Most of my work with the 14-24mm lens came on the end of my Nikon F4, this was my goto 35mm SLR for many years of exploring and while it worked with the 14-24mm I was limited in the sense that I could not get access to aperture priority metering because the lens lacks the aperture ring. And I also shot slide film, Fuji Sensia 200, a classic consumer emulsion that did an amazing job both inside and outside the building. And getting that ultra-wide angle was perfect for the building. Now one thing that surprised me is the B&W shots, these were shot handheld at ASA-50, not exactly the best option, you can see some camera shake in some of the images. Now I’m not sure if I had the 35mm lens for the Pentax 645 by this point, probably not, but the 75mm offered up a fast aperture and the camera itself stable handheld. But in hindsight I should have stuck the thing on a tripod.

I’ll admit, I was sad to see Sykes torn down and only visiting it twice. I probably should have done a quick run at it one of my later visits, but now it’s far too late. I also should have tried to shoot at least one roll of Kodak film here, because it is Rochester. That being said, I have fond memories of this place, there was always lots to see and having an easy mark for exploring is always a good. I do have one piece of Sykes still, an 8″ Floppy Disk that I enjoy showing off at work, and it is fully Sykes branded. You can see all my images from Sykes over on the Flickr album.

Glossary of Terms
Minicomputer: The term “minicomputer” developed in the 1960s to describe the smaller computers that became possible with the use of transistors and core memory technologies, minimal instructions sets and less expensive peripherals such as the ubiquitous Teletype Model 33 ASR. They usually took up one or a few 19-inch rack cabinets, compared with the large mainframes that could fill a room.

Mainframe Computer: A mainframe computer, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and large-scale transaction processing. Most large-scale computer-system architectures were established in the 1960s, but they continue to evolve. Mainframe computers are often used as servers.

IBM 3740: IBM 3740 Data Entry System was a data entry system that was announced by IBM in 1973. It recorded data on an 8″ diskette, a new recording medium from IBM, for fast, flexible, efficient data entry to either high-production, centralized operations or to decentralized, remote operations. The “Diskette” was more commonly known as an 8-inch floppy disk.

IBM System/360: The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applications and a complete range of applications from small to large. The design distinguished between architecture and implementation, allowing IBM to release a suite of compatible designs at different prices.

IBM 5100: The IBM 5100 Portable Computer is one of the first portable computers,[1] introduced in September 1975, six years before the IBM Personal Computer, and eight before the first successful IBM compatible portable computer, the Compaq Portable.

CP/M: CP/M, originally standing for Control Program/Monitor and later Control Program for Microcomputers, is a mass-market operating system created in 1974 for Intel 8080/85-based microcomputers by Gary Kildall of Digital Research, Inc.