St. Valentine

East meets West
Today, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, an Irish parish is partnered with St. Valentine's, a Polish parish just few blocks away on South Park Avenue.

The parishioners of Our Lady of Perpetual Help have adopted the name Pet's as an easy and affectionate name for their parish. Pet's was formed in 1897 from portions of St. Bridgid's and St. Stephen's parishes. From 1946-48, this parish was the temporary home of Bishop Timon High School.

Ten years ago the neighborhoods of the Old First Ward and The Valley combined to revive the original 1913 St. Patrick's Day parade route. In contrast to the large parade down Delaware Ave., this parade is called the "other" parade or more formally the "Old Neighborhood" parade. The Parade starts at the Valley Community Center on Elk Street near St. Stephen's and winds its way along the streets of Smith, South Park, Hamburg and O'Connell ending near Pet's.

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Our Lady of Perpetual Help, in the Old First Ward, is nestled in the shadows of Buffalo's Grain Elevators, where many of the parishioners worked as scoopers.

Here are some interesting links about the history of Pet's, the surrounding neighborhood and of the Grain Elevators.

From the Spring 2002 Erie-Ireland Journal of Irish Studies; "In the shadow of a grain elevator: a portrait of an Irish neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries"

From Buffalo History Works; The Grain Elevators

Brief History of Pet's written in 1929 by Rev. Thomas Donohue, D.D.