St Paul’s Cathedral

Shelton Square (Niagara, Main, Church, North Division, South Division, Erie)

architect: Richard Upjohn
Robert W. Gibson (1890s Repairs)

owner: Episcopal Diocese of Western New York

years built: 1870

demolished: N/A

Upon his completion of Trinity Church in New York, which established his reputation, the leading contemporary architect, Upjohn, was called to Buffalo. The triangular site encouraged a more than usually picturesque composition. This counteracts a certain coldness in the academically correct fourteenth-century English forms. Upjohn considered this his masterpiece. It has been burned and several times restored along the original lines.

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(Post Fire)

Before the fire St. Paul’s had one of the finest of Upjohn’s open, wooden roofs, unusually but appropriately associated with wooden nave arcades. The diaper-painted walls make up for the rather restricted lighting, and the effect is more cheerful and structural than in most Gothic Revival interiors.