{"nrhp_refnum":"79001579","name":"Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic Church Buildings","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"317 LeRoy Ave","address_restricted":false,"city":"Buffalo","county":"Erie County","state":"NY","lat":42.932646532000035,"lon":-78.83385540999996,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1979-08-03","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Education","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A Roman Catholic church complex at 317 LeRoy Avenue in northeast Buffalo, New York, made up of a Lombard-Romanesque church (1923-1928), a connecting cloister, a parish house (1914) and a former church-school building (1907).","why_significant":"The church is presented as one of the purest examples of twelfth-century Lombard-Romanesque architecture in the United States and the only pure example in Buffalo. It is notable for its handmade medieval-style unmolded brick, extensive colored terra-cotta decoration and a comprehensive Christian iconography plan with over two thousand symbols and pictures.","narrative":"Blessed Trinity Roman Catholic Church Complex sits in a residential neighborhood of northeast Buffalo, fronting LeRoy Avenue. Its centerpiece is a church built between 1923 and 1928 to designs by Chester Oakley and Albert Schallmo, inspired by the churches of northern Italy. The building follows the twelfth-century Lombard-Romanesque style, with an octagonal clerestory, ribbed and barrel vaulting, and a terra-cotta tile roof. Its walls are handmade, unmolded brick laid in herringbone patterns, produced in New Hampshire with medieval methods. Colored terra-cotta decoration and more than two thousand symbols, paintings and sculptures form a plan of Christian iconography devised by Reverend Thomas Plassman. A cloister links the church to the 1914 parish house, and the 1907 church-school building with its mansard roof stands nearby. The complex was listed for its architecture, its craftsmanship and its richness of detail, unusual for a working-class parish and unique in Buffalo.","period_of_significance":"1900-","architect_builder":"Chester Oakley and Albert Schallmo (church); Schmill and Gould (church-school); Lansing, Bley and Lyman (parish house)","architectural_style":"Lombard-Romanesque (church); late Victorian with mansard roof (school)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied, privately owned and in religious use; the former school became a community center in the 1970s, and a 1960s garage is noted as non-contributing.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:50:39.887902-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_NY/79001579.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001579/682f834151-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/79001579/682f834151-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Pubdog (talk)","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blessed_Trinity_Roman_Catholic_Church_Dec_09.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Pubdog (talk)</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blessed_Trinity_Roman_Catholic_Church_Dec_09.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75317550","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blessed_Trinity_Roman_Catholic_Church_Buildings","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3585846"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/new-york/erie-county/blessed-trinity-roman-catholic-church-buildings-79001579/"}