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Saint Joseph’s New Cathedral

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.

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