Pandemic cleaning= me finding old photographs and finally scanning them.
This batch was taken at the Winchester, VA Visitor Center back in 1996. At the time it was the closest to a Patsy Cline museum that Winchester had. Of course, while I was there I had to pay respects to her final resting place (and no, I was not the person who moved the flower arrangement).
The year was 1982. The Baby Boomers were growing up which left the post-WW2 suburb of Tonawanda, NY with more schools then students. The smaller K-2 schools built quickly for the boomer kids had already started to close (I was supposed to attend Horace Mann school but it closed the spring before I started- it was converted and expanded to become senior apartments).
From the years 1974-1982 the district closed 12 elementary schools (Via Wikipedia):
Dewitt Clinton Elementary School (McConkey Dr. Town of Tonawanda) close 1974 now New Covenant Tabernacle
Horace Mann Elementary School (Westchester Blvd. Town of Tonawanda) closed 1976 now Westchester Park Apartments for Seniors
Robert Frost Elementary School (Ensgminger Rd., Town of Tonawanda) closed 1977 now Town of Tonawanda Senior Citizens Center (writer comment-this was a K-2 school)
Jane Addams Elementary School (Cortland Ave & Belcher Ave Town of Tonawanda ) closed 1978 demolished to build Center Court Commons 28residential homes
Betsy Ross Elementary School (Wilber Ave & Mang Ave Kenmore, NY) closed 1980 now owned by Village of Kenmore and operates as a Community Center (writer comment-this was a K-2 school)
Longfellow Elementary School (Myron Ave. Kenmore, NY) closed 1981 now operates as School District use (writer comment-this was a K-2 school)
Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (Wendel Ave & Cambridge St. Town of Tonawanda, NY) closed 1981 now a Stanley G. Falk School
Green Acres Elementary School (Yorkshire Rd. & Pryor Ave. Town of Tonawanda, NY) closed 1981 now owned by Heritage Centers
Brighton Elementary School (Eggert Rd. & Fries Rd. Town of Tonawanda, NY) closed 1978 and demolished to build Brighton Senior Square Apartments
Philip Sheridan Elementary School (Elmwood Ave. Town of Tonawanda) closed 1982 main building converted to other School District use
Sheridan Parkside Elementary School (Sheridan Parkside Drive, Town of Tonawanda) closed 1982 now owned by Town of Tonawanda and operates as a Community Center
George Washington Elementary School (Delaware Ave. & Delaware Rd. Kenmore) closed 1982 now owned by Ellicott Development and coverted to loft type apartments
OK, where was I? Oh, that’s right, talking about Philip Sheridan Elementary School. There weren’t as many of us Gen X kids around as there were the Boomer Kids. That meant more schools needed to close. 1981 saw the closure of Green Acres and Abraham Lincoln schools. 1982 it became Sheridan Parkside, George Washington and Philip Sheridan’s turn to close. Philip Sheridan had opened in the late 1940s (hi post-war baby boom) for a cost of $1.2 million dollars (that would be over $12 million today) and district voters recently approved the sale of the building for $1 million.
What all this meant was the events of the 1981-1982 school year became very important for those of us at Philip Sheridan. The final event was flag day on June 14, 1982
History (via preservationready.org and Kay Nou = Our House)
In the early years of the 20th century, Roman Catholic Bishop Charles Henry Colton began plans to construct an even grander cathedral several miles north of the existing church, along Buffalo’s Delaware Avenue, where the well-heeled lived. The new structure would be build for $500,000 and would seat 1,500 people.
On June 9, 1912, 30,000 of the faithful marched two miles from downtown Buffalo to the intended site of the new St. Joseph’s Cathedral. The cornerstone was laid. The designer of the new building was Aristides Leonori of Rome, a man of some renown in the world of ecclesiastical architecture.
Unfortunately, Leonori’s knowledge of the destructive power of Buffalo winters was less profound than his reputation as a builder.
The design called for triumphal twin 260-foot towers at the corner of Delaware and Utica Street. A 45-bell carillon would summon Catholics to their cathedral.
In the end, only one of the towers was completed. Structural problems prevented construction of the second. The carillon was the largest in America at the time. The new St. Joseph’s Cathedral was completed in 1915.
Things went wrong almost immediately.
The cathedral began to deteriorate at an alarming pace. Just five years after its consecration, major repairs were needed at a cost of more than $100,000 (an exorbitant sum). The twin steeples of the structure had to be removed in 1927-1928 to the tune of $72,000.
Large chunks of ceiling plaster began to fall into the sanctuary. Several sections of pews were roped off to protect congregants from serious injury.
The magnificent marble exterior of the cathedral had never been properly bonded to the brick wall behind it. As a result, it began to gradually pull away from the structure. Over time, a gap of several inches developed.
By the 1970s, Bishop Edward D. Head proclaimed that the cathedral was the “victim of bad design or bad construction.” Descendants of the general contractor and the architect blamed each other
- 1902 – Diocese starts buying land near the corner of Delaware and W. Utica for a new St. Joseph’s
- 1906 – Plans for a cathedral were obtained from an Italian architect, Aristides Leonori of Rome, for a cathedral well suited for the climate of Italy.
- 1912-1915 – St. Joseph’s New Cathedral was constructed. Its twin towers were 260 feet high.
- St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral is located on Franklin St and still stands.
- 1924 – Major repairs included the rebuilding of both the north and south transcepts.
- A massive 45-bell carillon installed in the twin towers endangered the integrity of the towers and had to be removed.
- 1927 – The towers were removed
- 1976 – The exterior marble was separating from the brick. Bishop Head determined that appropriate repairs would be cost prohibitive for the diocese and St. Joseph’s New Cathedral was demolished
- 1978 – Timon Towers, a senior citizen apartment complex, was built
More links via Buffalo as an Architectural Museum
The images of the Cathedral being demolished came from the archives of Nancy Piatkowski.
[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”10″ gal_title=”St. Josephs New Cathedral, Buffalo, NY (demolished 1976)”]I am so sorry that I have been quiet the past few months- my father had knee replacement surgery and between him and the kids, life has gotten busy busy busy.
I finally have a chance to breathe (and find my living room floor!) so I’m slowly going through old slides. Today’s quick blog post has me finding old slides from St. John Kanty Church in Buffalo, NY. They were taken by my later mother and the banners were also made by her.
St. John Kanty is also the parish my great grandfather Antoni ended up after he emigrated from that shit-hole part of Germany that was really Poland. I actually need to get over there so I can do some more genealogy research. (Genealogy has become another rabbit hole I’ve gotten sucked into)
Don’t forget that if you can help with a donation to replace the recently damaged Mary statue you can find more information at the St. John Kanty website.
