Buffalo Rising Online

Jan 21st 2008, 10:46am By STEEL

This story started out as just another "look at this great building" story. My recent one-day journey through the East Side had brought me past many magnificent structures, many of them possibly facing sad futures as the Catholic Church embarks on a massive consolidation. The Sunday I was there, this church, St. Luke's was locked up with no one around. I assumed at the time that this was simply another grand Catholic church facing closure (if it had not already been shuttered). As I researched this piece I quickly realized that the story I needed to write was much bigger than architecture. The story became so big that it demanded two chapters.

Chapter 1: Architecture

St. Luke's Church at Sycamore and Miller Streets is truly one of Buffalo's real masterpieces but it is not well recognized among the city's treasure trove of great buildings. It was not long ago that I first encountered this beauty in a cloudy photograph. When I saw the picture I thought it must have already been torn down. How could I not know about this great building? The quickly growing St. Luke's congregation started planning for the church in 1927 with construction completed by 1930. Its renaissance revival styling is highly detailed, but at the same time the building has a minimalist sense of discipline and restraint. Its simple red brick walls are pierced by a series of tightly framed windows. The red tile roof lends a romantic Italian flavor to the complex of buildings, which includes a former school rectory and convent. The church entry is formed by a very unusual (for Buffalo) arcade of arches that form a portico carved from the main body of the building. By far, the most beautiful feature of the church is the very fine and colorful terra cotta decoration. Decorative trimming and medallions are very intricately crafted in a vaguely Byzantine style. Most interesting and unique among these decorative features is a multi-colored frieze band above the entry arcade. Colorful terra cotta like this is very rare and it is very finely crafted in this piece of artwork. It is a true gift to the street.

As the familiar story goes this neighborhood began to decline by the 1960's and virtually collapsed by the 1980's. Membership in the St. Luke's congregation quickly declined as the neighborhood changed. The school was closed in 1985 followed by the church in 1993. With no plan for its future this building faced certain destruction, as just another of those quaint but expendable old remnants of Buffalo's former might. But this building did not follow the familiar story. The story written here is like the alternate ending to a movie - the ending preferred by the director but never shown.

Chapter 2: Faith and the power of human will

After the church closing, many wrote off the building and the neighborhood as a lost cause. But as the Diocese packed up to leave the scene two individuals, Norm Paolini and Amy Betros stepped up to the plate with their strong faith in God, a determination to succeed, and nothing but hitting a home run on their minds. These two people had a vision and the will to use the St. Luke's complex as a resource for their mission to help the needy. Prior to co-founding the St. Luke's Mission of Mercy, Norm was a cancer research scientist at Roswell Park. Amy was the popular owner of Amy's Place on Main Street across from the UB South Campus. The two met while on a pilgrimage in Europe and quickly realized that they had a calling to help the needy. Norm took early retirement and Amy sold her restaurant. They pooled all of their personal resources to form the mission and purchased the St. Luke's complex from the diocese in 1994. Since then the mission has grown into an anchor for this extremely distressed part of the Western New York community.

A side bar: While I was in architecture school at UB back in the 80's Amy's Place Restaurant (still in operation under new ownership) was a favorite hang out. We were in there almost every day and often more than once in a day. We went for the great Middle Eastern food… but more so for Amy. She exuded warmth and love and everyone adored her and it seemed like she knew everyone on campus.

The mission is 100% volunteer operated. St. Luke’s is run completely by volunteers, the majority of them laypeople. No one working at St. Luke’s receives any salary. It receives no funding from the government or the dioceses. It describes its mission as follows:

Together let us work toward a fullness of life, for all people, of all ages, of all cultures, of all social status, and of all faiths. Let our tools be unconditional acceptance, peaceful understanding and loving forgiveness in order to restore human dignity to the lonely, the broken-hearted, and the mentally and physically oppressed.

The scope and accomplishments of this organization are simply astonishing. Knowing that its work is done 100% by volunteer effort is beyond description by any word available in the English language. Some of their mission work includes sheltering battered women, housing the homeless, and feeding the hungry. These interior images here show the church pews completely filled with food donations. This scene was photographed during the 2007 Thanksgiving food drive. More than 2000 families received three full bags of food each (6900 bags of food followed by another 6000 bags at Christmas ! !). The shear mass of food in these pictures is extremely powerful, stealing the show from even this grand architectural space. The mission currently occupies the entire St. Luke's campus using the school, convent, and rectory for shelters, a community center, mission work, and housing. The mission has also rehabilitated several donated area houses for use by homeless families. The church is also used daily for worship. Running a program like this is not cheap. It most certainly takes constant effort to raise the funds needed to continue. They are currently looking for money to replace the boiler, a mundane but oh so important item. Work is also expected to progress on restoration of the church interior. This work will be carried out on an entirely volunteer basis with local artisans donating their time to restore murals and other delicate details. If you would like to find out more about the St. Luke's Mission of Mercy, check out their extensive web site. If you are not impressed with what they are doing you are a tough nut. Interior images courtesy Denis Gilhooley