St. Paul's - Table of Contents

2003 Photos
Nave, Transepts, North Porch
St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral
128 Pearl Street, Buffalo, NY

Nave: The central aisle; the part of a church located between the chief entrance and the chancel, and separated from the side aisles by piers or columns.

"Nave" comes from the Latin "navis" which means "ship," an early symbol of the church.

In 1850, the old frame church (erected in 1819) was sold to the German Evangelical Church. The 1851 replacement church was designed by Richard Upjohn. That church was almost entirely destroyed by fire caused by a natural-gas explosion in 1888. The restored church was designed by Robert W. Gibson. In Gibson's design, two transepts were added, as well as a stone vestry room and porch on Church Street.

Transepts are the part of a cruciform church, projecting at right angles to the main building. In St. Paul's, the "transepts" are somewhat artificial in that they are an extension of the side aisles separated from the nave with a 32' distance between end columns instead of a 24' distance between the nave columns.

Window, other than the Ascension window above the altar and the memorial windows, were designed by J. and R. Lamb of New York.

Caption sources:

• Historic American Buildings Survey
• "St. Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo 1817-1967," by George E. DeMille
• "Visitor's Guide to St. Paul's Cathedral"
• Vocabulary - Churches