Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic Church

Completed in 1928, Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic Church is considered one of the finest examples of Lombard-Romanesque architecture in the country. It features many elements of this style including thick walls, round arches, a semi-circular apse, a single-gable spanning the front of a building, and ribbed and coffered barrel vaulting. In the center of the roof is an octagonal clerestory topped by a lantern structure and then a cupola. Blessed Trinity was built of handmade, Harvard (unmolded) brick set in various patterns and features what might the largest amount of colored terra cotta ornamentation in an ecclesiastical building in the country. The ornamentation, most of which is in the interior, depicts a wide range of over 2,000 Christian symbols and pictures (there are statues and paintings as well). The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

Rev. John Pflueger established Blessed Trinity in 1906 and its members first met on the third floor of an apartment building at the corner of Dewey Avenue and Sanford Street. The next year, the parish was incorporated and erected its first building, a combined church and school structure, on this property which at the time was surrounded by quarries and farmland. In the coming years, the parish grew and by 1911 it had 400 families. The rectory was built next to the church three years later. By 1919, school attendance rose to 308 students.

The second pastor led the effort to build the current church building and was inspired by the churches in northern Italy after he visited the region. Construction began in 1923 but the work was not finished until 1928. The workers who built the church were taught the medieval techniques use to make the bricks, which were regular and irregular shaped. The construction cost was double the estimated amount which forced the parish to take out two mortgages. The church struggled financially in the 1930s but recovered by 1945 and finally paid off the building debt in 1953. A new school and social annex was built in 1958.

Due to a variety of social factors, church membership and school enrollment declined in the 1960s and 1970s. The school closed in 1975 but was soon occupied by an organization called Filmore Leroy Area Residents, which worked to improve the local housing situation and offered programs for youth and senior citizens. In 1993, the parish merged with two others and the new parish was located at Blessed Trinity. In 2005, several parishes in the diocese closed and Blessed Trinity merged with two parishes again.

"History." Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic Church. Accessed June 28, 2022. https://blessedtrinitybuffalo.org/welcome/history.

Ross, Claire L. "Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic Church." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. August 3, 1979. https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/79001579.pdf.