For much of the past century, those traveling through the Main and Clinton intersection looked up and saw a Times Square-style billboard.

For a time, the unusual three-section board showcased a statue of the Genny Girl, advertising Genesee Beer. Or it was emblazoned with the names of popular crooners like Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and Nat King Cole, promoting an AM radio station.

But as the years have passed, so has its allure. On Saturday, it came down.

"This is the first step," said Neil Bauman, who owns and plans to renovate the building on which the billboard is affixed. "We need to really see what's behind the curtain."

The corner is significant, opposite Sibley Square, Midtown and The Metropolitan, while sitting at the edge of the former Renaissance Square block. The investment completed or planned in the surrounding properties easily tops $300 million.

More:Under Construction: Get an inside look at construction on the old McCrory's

Watch:East Main Street Facelift

Bauman's family bought the century-old corner structure 63 years ago, relocating the now-defunct E.J. Bauman Jewelers from State Street. The building is curved much like the billboard, but the upper three levels have not been used since at least the 1950s, when the billboard blocked all its windows.

The billboard "is kind of iconic because it has been there for so long," said Jim Newton, general manager with Lamar Advertising.

Lamar owns that billboard, and most every other one in Rochester.

Work to disassemble the billboard will be done in two or more phases. There was some delay in getting started, as the project requires closure of the street and sidewalk. The building is structurally sound. But this undertaking is not for the squeamish.

"We filled the last bag of pigeon carcasses a couple of months ago, so we’re ready to go," Bauman said. "Everything has to be removed. It’s a painstaking process."

Removal of the billboard is part of a package deal with the city that also includes removal of a billboard at Mt. Hope Avenue and Ford Street, trading out a standard billboard for a digital one at 1850 University Ave., and construction of a new combination digital and conventional, two-sided billboard at 687 Lee Road along the Interstate 390 corridor.

The Main and Clinton billboard has been on the city's wish list for removal for years, but this was something offered by Lamar, said Zina Lagonegro, the city's zoning manager: "It wasn't anything we were pushing on."

Lamar needed a variance to get the Lee Road billboard approved, and offered up Main and Clinton in the process. The Mt. Hope billboard already had been tagged for removal.

Bauman has wanted the billboard down or swapped out for years. He signed a perpetual or indefinite easement with Lamar, back when the Renaissance Square combination theater, bus station and community college campus project was in the offing and meant certain demolition of his building. There seemed no reason to guess at a timetable.

Removal will start with stripping off the vinyl skin and any part of the structure not physically attached to the building.

Supports were driven through the building walls, roof and, Bauman said, the floor as well. A structural engineer will determine what work will be required to reasonably restore the building once all the supports are extracted. That is Lamar's responsibility.

Bauman is in talks to sell the property once it is restored. This is one of the last undeveloped blocks downtown, and presents a unique challenge as it is split between nine different owners. Still, Bauman sees this effort to flip the corner as the "last piece of the puzzle." Maybe so.

"We don't want to hinder progress," Newton said. "We want to be part of it."

BDSHARP@Gannett.com

Includes reporting by staff writer Justin Murphy.