Asbury Delaware Avenue Methodist Church / The Church - Table of Contents
2000 Photographs
Asbury Delaware Avenue Methodist
Church
339 Delaware Avenue, Buffalo, NY
Completed: |
1876 |
Style: |
Gothic Revival |
Architect: |
John H. Selkirk |
Original stained glass windows: |
Booth and Riester of Buffalo |
TEXT Beneath Illustrations
Click on photos for larger size
Delaware Avenue front entrance |
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Gabled front entrance: multi-foil tracery |
W. Tupper (north) side entrance |
Buttresses on W. Tupper side (north) |
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Quatrefoil tracery in a round window on the right hand (south) spire |
This imposing Medina sandstone church was the last and most important work of John H. Selkirk (1808-1878). Born in Litchfield, Connecticut, Selkirk came to Buffalo in 1825 and enjoyed a long career as a builder-architect. He erected many houses, churches, and commercial buildings, including the famous Tifft House, a hotel on Main Street long since demolished, as well as the simple Romanesque facade (1859) of the old Illuminating Gas Co. behind City Hall.
Like many Gothic Revival buildings for low church denominations, Selkirk's church was designed with side galleries, old-fashioned features that high-church congregations had long since abandoned as uncharacteristic of medieval interiors. The original stained-glass windows -- now removed -- were done by Booth and Reister, a local firm.
Buffalo churches being built about this time were beginning to be influenced by the Romanesque style of H. H. Richardson's great, towered Buffalo State Hospital, begun in 1870. However, this imposing Medina sandstone house of worship continued to follow the Gothic Revival trend of Upjohn's St. Paul's ( 1849-1851). The chapel was built first at the rear of the lot; then several years later the sanctuary was constructed.
Unusual features of the church are its Edgar Allan Poe-like catacombs beneath the building and its old-fashioned side galleries in the nave. The altar and trimmings on the backs of the pews are rosewood.
Originally called the Delaware Avenue Methodist Church, the name was changed in 1917 at the time of the merger with the Asbury Methodist congregation
In 1929, internationally known "human fly" George A. Deon was brought in from New York City to clean the belfry and bells. Deon was said to be the only man in the country trusted with the cleaning of the Statue of Liberty and was under contract to clean the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The chimes, silent since the death of President McKinley at the Pan-American Exposition in 1901, were unusable to the accumulation of eight tons of pigeon droppings.
Sources:
- "Buffalo Architecture: A Guide," by Francis R. Kowsky, et. al. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1981
- "Church Tales of the Niagara Frontier : Legends, History & Architecture," by Austin M. Fox, et. al. Pub. by Western New York Wares, 1994
- "Designated Landmarks of the Niagara Frontier," by Austin M. Fox. Buffalo: Meyer Enterprises, P.O. Box 733, Ellicott Station, Buffalo, New York 14205. 1986. OUT OF PRINT.
- "Asbury Delaware Methodist Church," by Chris Andrle. Pub. in Art Voice, August 2, 2001