Waiting for the copier to finish, out the window one, two, three, four churches I see. Looking to the right, grain elevators are crumbling to the ground. Back to the churches, these elevators of faith, I wonder do they share the same fate? Built before the sky-scrapers they must have dominated Buffalo's skyline back in 1909. So I set out to find these churches and admire their beauty. What I found was not four but more like fifty-four as each block I drove revealed yet another treasure.

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	"Tecumseh Came to our House for Christmas" by Larry Beahan, fifty years ago Teck came to Larry's home following Midnight Mass at Blessed Trinity.
	Pet's ...
	Lovejoy's Iron Island Churches
	SS. Rita & Patrick (and St. Monica)        Three, two, one ...
	Holy Family in South Buffalo              O Little Town of Bethlehem ...               The hopes and fears of all the years              Are met in thee tonight.
	Holy Apostles SS Peter and Paul              Upon this rock ...
	St. Valentine's         Pussy willows in the Old First Ward
	St. Casimir's        Somewhere over the ...
	St. Francis of Assisi      Where there is doubt, faith
	Holy Cross         Elogiato sia Dio         Alabado sea Dios
	Zoar Reformed ...
	St. Stephen's in the Old First Ward ...
	Memories of a Prospector  I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me..."                 -Apostle Paul
	Fear imprisons, faith liberates;  fear disheartens, faith encourages; fear sickens, faith heals;   -- and, most of all, fear puts hopelessness at the heart of life, while faith rejoices in God.   - Harry Emerson Fosdick
	St. Adalbert's Buffalo's first Basilica
	A 1986 fire razed St. Mary's on Broadway. This link will take you to Nancy Piatkowski's St. Mary's Redemptorist pages that are a part of her excellent Buffalo Folklore etc.  site.
	The Magyar Churches It is surmounting difficulties that makes heroes.  - Lojos Kossuth
	The National Register of Historic Places includes these Buffalo area Churches; Blessed Trinity, Durham A.M.E. Zion, Maria Hilf - Our Lady of Help Christians,  Michigan Street Baptist, St. Andrew's, St. Paul's Cathedral, and The Polish National Cathedral.
	We're just a small group and we can't solve all of society's problems but we can look after each other.                          - Rev. Quentin G. Poulson
	Immaculate Conception           - A tale of two churches
	Father Baker's, ...
	St. Joseph's Old Cathedral is the current Cathedral for the Diocese of Buffalo, and should not be confused with St. Joseph's New Cathedral that no longer exists.   St. Joseph's is preparing for its upcoming sesquicentennial in 2001.
	In 1837, a missionary priest from Bohemia called this place home ...
	Queen of Peace ...
	Wherever two or more are gathered in His name ...
	Buffalo's underground church ...
	Now vacant, this is Buffalo's oldest church building.  Built in 1827, as the Union Meeting House, it has a long and interesting history.  If you are a writer, this building offers an excellent foundation for a novel. Click on the picture to find out more ...
	Sacred Heart, what does this former Buffalo parish have in common with the Larkin Company?
	Wind, fire and ice have not been kind to Buffalo's steeples ...
	St. Aloysius patron of Youth ... (special thanks to Sharon Centanne for creating this site)
	"If you ever need any help, come to me."                            -  Father Joseph Bissonette.
	"What is the sense of saying you love your neighbor if you don't want to live near him or eat with him?"                       - Monsignor Herlihy
	Gone but not forgotten ...
	New Apostolic Church ...
	Silent night, holy night ...
	My encounter with a church on Sycamore St.
	When they were built ...
	These churches have taken on new lives ...
	No, it's not a church but ...

Do you have any memories or stories about these churches?  I would really like to hear them and if you like, add them to this page.

Email: FaithElevators@gmail.com

WEB: www.FaithElevators.us

Credits and Acknowledgements

        Special thanks to:

Chuck LaChiusa and his site Buffalo Architecture and History.  Frank Lloyd Wright is known to have said that he was not America's Greatest Architect but rather the Greatest Architect.  Chuck's site is the greatest architecture site bar none. Did you ever wonder what to call that thingamabob?  Check out Chuck's illustrated dictionary. 

The Old East Side Working Group is collecting and organizing information about Buffalo's Old East Side.  You can find everything from maps and family stories to schools and saloons!  

Rich Schwegler, who sent me several pictures and memories of St. Boniface, St Anne's, St Mary Magdelane, St. Michaels and several other Buffalo churches. Rich is starting his own web page dedicated to the Old East Side.

Sharon Troy Centanne who sent me her pictures and memories of St. Bartholomew's.  Sharon has her own WEB pages with information on computers, genealogy and her family.

Cynthia Van Ness, who found my site and added it to her list of  Little Known Buffalo Sites.    You can find Cynthia's new book "Victorian Buffalo, Images from the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library" in area bookstores.

Hats off to Ani DiFranco for her efforts to save Asbury Delaware Methodist Church and to David Karpeles who converted Plymouth Methodist into a museum for rare manuscripts.

The Preservation Coalition of Erie County.

          These sites are all good sources for Buffalo area churches:

                            Polish Genealogical Society of NYS
                            Polonia of the Eastern Great Lakes

                            Roman Catholic Parish Histories from 1929

                            Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo
                            Episcopal Diocese of WNY

                            Buffalo Street map from 1902 

                            Erie County Internet Mapping System

 

Here is an interesting link to a church architectural site by Heather Hartel from the University of Iowa.  Heather is writing a dissertation on Father Nelson H. Baker.

          Interested in interior pictures of Buffalo Churches, then visit Karl R. Josker's  Lofty Photos site.

 

Bibliography:

Church Tales of the Niagara Frontier, Western New York Wares Inc. (1994) by Austin M. Fox, Drawings by Lawrence McIntyre

Houses of Worship: A Guide to the Religious Architecture of Buffalo, New York (1995)
Masters Thesis by James Napora.  Available in the Special Collections Department of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library (NA 5235  B8 N37).

Victorian Buffalo, Images from the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library,  Western New York Wares Inc, (1999) by Cynthia Van Ness

Where Buffalo Worships, by Buffalo Council of Churches (1927)

History of the Catholic Church in WNY, Catholic Historical Publishing co. (1904), by Rev Thomas Donohue, D.D.

Souvenir Booklet for the Consecration of Bishop Charles Henry Colton (1903), compiled by Wm. A. King