Western New York Architecture Deep Cuts
Montante Cultural Center, Canisius College (former St. Vincent de Paul R.C. Church), Hamlin Park, Buffalo, September 2019
Canisius College's Montante Cultural Center, located at 2021 Main Street (corner Eastwood Place) in Buffalo, New York and seen in September 2019. Built in 1926 to a design by the Pittsburgh-based firm of Comes, Perry & McMullen, the architectural features of this magnificent structure - it heavy massing, small rose window, sumptuous Classical detailing (note the Corinthian columns framing the entrance and interspersed between arched windows on the façade), cross-themed latticework in the tympanums of the arched side entrances, and above all the enormous tile-faced central dome - point to an interesting hybrid of the Byzantine and Romanesque Revival styles that were both popular in the late 19th century but quite anachronistic by the 1920s. The interior is faced in a combination of buff brick and salt-glazed Guastavino tile, with mural paintings and mosaics by artist Felix Lieftuchter. It is obvious that the original use of the building was as a church, and the congregation in question was St. Vincent de Paul, a Roman Catholic parish that was founded in 1864 under the direction of Buffalo bishop John Timon to serve an East Side neighborhood relatively far removed from downtown, at the time populated sparsely and largely by Germans who worked in the nearby limestone quarries. The initially struggling parish was placed in the charge of a group of itinerant Redemptorist preachers who would travel weekly from St. Mary's on Broadway to say Mass for a small, ragtag group of congregants, but the urbanization of the surrounding neighborhood in later decades led to both the parish's growth as well as its ethnic diversification, and St. Vincent's membership was majority English-speaking by 1914. The church seen here - the third to house the parish - was built at the apex of its history, before the decline in membership brought on by the changes to the neighborhood's ethnic demographics after the Second World War. The Buffalo Diocese's proposal to merge the now struggling church with that of Blessed Trinity on Leroy Avenue was initially resisted by the parishioners, but the inevitable end came in 1993 with the dissolution of the parish and the sale of the building to the adjacent Canisius College. In 1998, the college kicked off of $3.4 million top-to-bottom renovation of the building as a performance space and cultural center named in honor of Carol and Carl Montante, whose donation to that year's Capital Campaign largely funded the work.
Montante Cultural Center, Canisius College (former St. Vincent de Paul R.C. Church), Hamlin Park, Buffalo, September 2019
Canisius College's Montante Cultural Center, located at 2021 Main Street (corner Eastwood Place) in Buffalo, New York and seen in September 2019. Built in 1926 to a design by the Pittsburgh-based firm of Comes, Perry & McMullen, the architectural features of this magnificent structure - it heavy massing, small rose window, sumptuous Classical detailing (note the Corinthian columns framing the entrance and interspersed between arched windows on the façade), cross-themed latticework in the tympanums of the arched side entrances, and above all the enormous tile-faced central dome - point to an interesting hybrid of the Byzantine and Romanesque Revival styles that were both popular in the late 19th century but quite anachronistic by the 1920s. The interior is faced in a combination of buff brick and salt-glazed Guastavino tile, with mural paintings and mosaics by artist Felix Lieftuchter. It is obvious that the original use of the building was as a church, and the congregation in question was St. Vincent de Paul, a Roman Catholic parish that was founded in 1864 under the direction of Buffalo bishop John Timon to serve an East Side neighborhood relatively far removed from downtown, at the time populated sparsely and largely by Germans who worked in the nearby limestone quarries. The initially struggling parish was placed in the charge of a group of itinerant Redemptorist preachers who would travel weekly from St. Mary's on Broadway to say Mass for a small, ragtag group of congregants, but the urbanization of the surrounding neighborhood in later decades led to both the parish's growth as well as its ethnic diversification, and St. Vincent's membership was majority English-speaking by 1914. The church seen here - the third to house the parish - was built at the apex of its history, before the decline in membership brought on by the changes to the neighborhood's ethnic demographics after the Second World War. The Buffalo Diocese's proposal to merge the now struggling church with that of Blessed Trinity on Leroy Avenue was initially resisted by the parishioners, but the inevitable end came in 1993 with the dissolution of the parish and the sale of the building to the adjacent Canisius College. In 1998, the college kicked off of $3.4 million top-to-bottom renovation of the building as a performance space and cultural center named in honor of Carol and Carl Montante, whose donation to that year's Capital Campaign largely funded the work.