St Ann’s Church & Shrine

St. Dan’s is a church to honour Captain Dan from Forrest Gump. He of no legs and great spirit, as instilled by Hanksy Panksy, was always going to end up as a Saint.
I used to live just a couple of blocks from this church. I was at Broadway & Gatchell. We’d walk here in all sorts of weather just because it was a beautiful place to visit. Neither of us were religious. I feel very closely connected to this church and if it was ever razed to the ground as I will mention it might be, it would be a travesty and tragedy.
In fact this church is one of the most stunning buildings in Buffalo (and one of the most underrated, too). Drive by and see it while you still can, because it may not be here much longer. There has been an on-​again off-​again campaign to level it to the ground.
We can only hope this does not happen because it is one of the most stunning structures in the area, and a city should never demolish such artistic and historical beauty.
Here’s an article on the plans to possibly bulldoze it.

Bishop John Timon was a driving force behind this church in the 1850’s. The other was real estate developer Steven Van Rensselaer. Steven agreed to give the land to the Bishop to build a new church on it, as that would increase the value of the land around in, which Mr Van Reensselaer would be developing into housing. People would come if there was a church. While the Bishop hoped to build a college on the site as well, that did not materialize.
Buffalo was a growing city and many of the new «Buffalonians» were Catholics who needed more places to worship. It started as a Jesuit parish, the second of Buffalo. It really was a German parish, the congregation mostly spoke German and many masses were in German.
By 1870 the area had grown so much that the church was no longer large enough. The congregation themselves actually built the larger church. They had gotten estimates from architects from as far away as NYC, but they were deemed too costly. After a few years, they worked out a plan, rented a quarry in nearby Lockport and built the place themselves. Only building as much as they could pay for along the way. So the church was debt free when it officially was dedicated in 1886. Its in the Gothic style, very European in feel.
This church was also the «mother» of a number of other parishes:
*1870 — St. Mary of Sorrows, Genesee Street,
*1875 — Sacred Heart, Emslie Street
*1883 — St. Agnes, Ludington Street
*1890 — St. Mary Magdalene, Fillmore Avenue,
*1896 — Holy Name of Jesus, Bailey Avenue
*1905 — St. Joachim’s, Titus Avenue.
Note — I have not attended services here. I have been a guest and visited on occasion.
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