Larkin District - Table of Contents  .............  Hydraulics District, History - Table of Contents

Sacred Heart RC Rectory / Larkin’s Men’s Club
696 Seneca Street, Buffalo NY   
Bordered by Seneca and Swan Streets

1875 church demolished by Larkin Company in 1937.  The replacement church building was located at 200 Emslie Street.                        Note building at right:  the Sacred Heart Rectory

The Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church was founded on Seneca Street in 1875, and was purchased by the Larkin Company in 1911 to be used as an auditorium. Sacred Heart also constructed a rectory in 1890 among other buildings on the property. The main church was demolished in 1937. p. 10 Constructed in 1890, this symmetrical, 2-story hipped-roof brick [Rectory] building features slightly projecting central pavilion with gable supported by corbeled brick detail. Central entry features round arched masonry detail; upper floor windows feature bracketed sills and decorative hood moldings. It is designed using Italianate and Romanesque details. -  The Hydraulics/Larkin Neighborhood - Nomination for Listing on the State and National Register of Historic Places

Larkin Development has acquired the former Larkin Men’s Club Building at 696 Seneca St., a two-story, 15,000-square-foot brick structure that has had a number of uses since it was constructed in 1890. The building was originally constructed as a rectory for the Sacred Heart Church. The Larkin Co. bought it in 1915 to make way for a planned factory expansion, but ultimately kept the building and made it a private men’s club. By 1940, the building was renovated into a tavern after the Larkin Co. was liquidated. As recently as 1999, the building was used as a boarding house. It has been vacant for the past few years. Bordered by Seneca and Swan Streets, the building is just north of the Larkin at Exchange Building. - James Fink, "Larkin Group Buys Century-old Building," Buffalo Business First (February 3, 2011)

... the building [Sacred Heart RC Church] was dedicated on 25 June, 1876.  For the next thirty years the congregation prospered, peacefully coexisting with its industrial neighbors which included the Larkin Warehouse across the street. But the construction of the Larkin Administration Building in 1905, on the lot adjoining the church, signaled an impending change in the life of the congregation. In 1912, the Larkin Company, planning for future expansion of its operations, offered to purchase from the congregation its church, school and rectory... sale for $135,000. ... the Larkin Company converted it [the former church] into an auditorium for its administration building next door.  With the company downsizing in the 1930s, it demolished the building for a parking lot in May, 1936. - James Napora, Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church   ESSAY HAS MUCH MORE INFORMATION

2014 photos Sacred Heart RC Rectory / Larkin’s Men’s Club What seems to be a separate building behind 696 is another pavilion in the same building                   Building at far right is the back of the neighboring firehouse. "Constructed in 1890, this symmetrical, 2-story hipped-roof brick building features slightly projecting central pavilion with gable supported by corbeled brick detail. Central entry features round arched masonry detail; upper floor windows feature bracketed sills and decorative hood moldings. It is designed using Italianate and Romanesque details." - The Hydraulics/Larkin Neighborhood - Nomination for Listing on the State and National Register of Historic Places                            Right: 700 Seneca Street (Buffalo Firehouse Engine 32 Ladder 5). 4  terra cotta chimney pots Romanesque Revival style gable gable supported by corbel table Brick  corbel tables                 Voussoirs ... Keystones Does the newer brick indicate that the building at some point had a firehouse door here with a second door to the right of the entrance? Main entrance Background neighbor:  688 Swan Street (former St. Matthew’s German Evangelical Church)                        Right: 700 Seneca Street (Buffalo Firehouse Engine 32 Ladder 5). View from Swan and Hagerman streets                      3 details below: #1 of three Swan St. north elevation details: Hipped roof dormer                      Stone lintels and sills #2 of three Swan St. north elevation details: Medina sandstone  lintel #3 of three Swan St. north elevation details: Onondaga limestone basement

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Color photos and their arrangement © 2014 Chuck LaChiusa
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