Beautiful! I have always thought that St. Louis should be the Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese in Buffalo. When St. Joseph's New Cathedral was dismantled, due to faulty craftsmanship in spite of warnings about the substandard marble the diocese chose to use at that time, St. Joseph’s Old Cathedral reverted back to the seat of the diocese. It’s a nice church tucked in next to downtown police headquarters, but it lacks the grandeur that the seat of a major, national Catholic diocese should have. Now imagine St. Louis as the city's Catholic Cathedral flanked by three-story, upscale red brick Philadelphia-style brownstone row houses on the vacant lot across Edward St next to Ansonia Center! Behind that the beautiful Cyclorama. Across the Street the Sidway and imagine the impact on the burgeoning 700 Block. I'd be at Chow chocolat every night... Man I wish I had 100 million bucks to buy and build out that corner. Imagine what just one concentration of residences in that location could do to nicely finish-off that area of town! Thanks for letting me dream a little.

Wow. Thanks for writing about this. Very cool. I dont think many people know about the hidden history within Buffalo. Thanks again

I have spent much time visiting the California Spanish missions. Much of the state's history can be traced to these 21 missions that run along the coast from SanDiego to SanFrancisco. They are all tourist magnets.

When I lived in NYC, I often passed by the churches in Harlem on Sunday mornings. The tourist buses of European and Asian passengers lined the streets.

As I look at these photos, I think Buffalo would benefit if all churches of all denominations grouped together in an organized way to open their doors to tourism. Buffalo does a poor job in revealing its history and the church tourism would be a good first step in telling the story of the area.

Thanks for the great article on St. Louis. What a magnificent building. St. Louis was my late father's childhood parish, where he was an alterboy in the late 20's and early 30's. Long after we had moved to the 'burbs in the late 50's, my family maintained an emotional attachment to St. Louis, often attending special holiday Masses. My folks celebrated their 50th anniversay Mass there and we even had one of the children baptized at St. Louis at that same event. (It's also within walking distance of my office, convenient for Ash Wednesday services, etc. ) As kids we were under the impression that the model for St. Louis was the beautiful Strasbourg Cathedral, which looks much more like St.Louis than the much larger, twin-towered Cologne Cathedral. ( check out pictures of Notre Dame De Strasbourg at http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/strasbourg-cathedral.htm ... and you'll see what I mean. ) The Strasbourg Cathedral has a single tower, is high Gothic in style and has the distinction of having been the tallest structure in Europe from the mid-17th through the mid-19th centuries.

As for the comment about St. Louis being considered for the new diocesan seat in replacement of the the demolished (New) St. Joseph's Cathedral, I believe that option was actually considered, but if I am not mistaken, St. Louis, as the mother church of the diocese, enjoyed a certain degree of independence from the local diocese/bishop, and the St, Louis parish council declined the honor ( and the loss of their independence ! ) Again, just a great article....please do more Buffalo churches.