St/ Stephen's  / Elk Tree  - Table of Contents

 HISTORY - St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church  / Elk Tree Gardens & Castle



National Register of Historic Places, 2018.

Church names:

1888 - St. Stephen
1991 - Shrine of St. Jude
1995 - St. Stephen
2007 - St. Clare Parish after the Catholic Diocese merged five parishes
2016 - St. Clare's closed (merged with St. Teresa)
2017 -
Elk Tree Gardens & Castle

School names:

1896 - St. Clare
1970 - school closed
2018 -
McDermott Lofts




St. Stephen RC Church
Wikipedia: List of churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo  (online November 2020)

The second Catholic parish to be established in the First Ward, St. Stephen was sited in the eastern part of the neighborhood for the convenience of those who heretofore had to walk long distances to get to St. Brigid.

The current Gothic Revival-style building, erected in 1888, had an open-plan interior without pillars and once contained an organ built by the Garrett House Organ Company of Buffalo. Its steeples were removed c. 1932 due to concerns about their structural integrity.

As part of the diocese's "Journey in Faith and Grace" consolidation program, St. Stephen's parish merged with those of SS. Rita and Patrick, St. Valentine, Holy Apostles SS. Peter & Paul, and Precious Blood, taking the name St. Clare and continuing to use the building for worship until 2016, when St. Clare itself merged with St. Teresa. Building was sold in 2017 to a local sound engineer [Brian Wantuch] who plans to turn it into a recording studio and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.





Partial reprint


Big Deal: St. Clare Church Sold

By  WCPerspective
Buffalo Rising, November 6, 2017  (online November 2020)

A Valley community church was purchased today. Brian Wantuch's Elk Tree Holdings LLC purchased the St. Clare Roman Catholic Church at 197 Elk Street for $200,000. The purchase includes the 11,414 sq.ft., circa-1891 church and a 5,498 sq.ft. rectory building.

The site appears to have an artistic future. Wantuch created Brian Wantuch wasteland studio (online November 2020) located at 700 Main Street in the Theater District. He has provided original sound and compositions for local theaters, toys, video games, and radio/television commercials. He also works with local bands as an audio engineer and producer. Buffalo Rising profiled him here in 2010.

Adjacent to the church, Savarino Companies is renovating the former St. Clare school at 169 Elk Street. Plans call for 11 market-rate apartments and first floor commercial or community space. It will be named McDermott Lofts, after the founder of what was once St. Stephens Church, Father Eugene McDermott. Savarino also paid $200,000 for his part of the St. Clare campus.




Partial reprint

McDermott Lofts Open in Former St. Clare School in Buffalo's Valley Neighborhood
By Jonathan D. Epstein 
Buffalo News Dec 13, 2018  (online November 2020)

A vacant former Catholic school in Buffalo's Valley neighborhood reopened Thursday as a new mixed-use development with apartments and a new office for the Western New York Land Conservancy, after Savarino Cos. completed its conversion of the former St. Clare Catholic School.

The developer spent $1.6 million to transform the 15,376-square-foot stone school at 169 Elk St. into the new McDermott Lofts, named for the Rev. Eugene McDermott, who founded the church next door, which was originally called St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church when it opened in 1875.

Designed by Abstract Architecture, the four-story facility includes 11 market-rate residential apartments and a modern industrial-style commercial office space on the first floor for the nonprofit environmental organization.

Built in 1896, the school building was part of the larger St. Clare Parish, which included a church with a rectory, and is located at the intersection with Euclid Place, near the Niagara Thruway interchange with Smith Street. It's a rare example of an existing school that was built before 1900, and its mostly stone facade features narrow-slit windows and a cylindrical tower topped by a conical dome.

Originally St. Stephen, the church complex was renamed Shrine of St. Jude in 1991, then changed back to St. Stephen four years later, and then renamed as the St. Clare Parish in 2007 after the Catholic Diocese merged five parishes. The school closed in 1970 but the building was used as support space for parish functions and activities for the church until St. Clare's closed in 2016.

Savarino bought the school building in March 2017
for $200,000 and launched his redevelopment, which was approved by the city and funded with state and federal historic tax credits, as well as a loan from Bank of Akron.

Work included "painstakingly" restoring or replacing the historic windows, retaining classroom shapes that were then turned into apartments, and incorporating the hardwood floors and barrel ceiling of a former gymnasium on the top floor into the apartments and tenant activity space. Chalkboards were reused, framed with reclaimed hardwood, and mounted in each unit and in common areas. Aside from the windows, no major changes were made to the exterior.





Special thanks to Brian Wantuch for his cooperation in 2020
Page by Chuck LaChiusa in 2020
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