St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Church

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April 2007
Photo credit: David Torke fixBuffalo

1066 East Ferry Street, Buffalo NY 14211

Owner

  • Currently: Quran & Science Tutorial Center LLC
  • Ownership history:
  • ST MATTHEW'S RC CHURCH, 1/27/1910
  • WORLD WIDE BIBLE DELIVERANCE CHURCH, 4/6/1998
  • CITY OF BUFFALO, 9/22/2006
  • RE/DEAL PARTNER LLC, 4/13/2007
  • BEARD, FRANK, 10/9/2009
  • THE WAY CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY, 3/18/2014
  • CHOUDHURY, EBADUR, 11/14/2017
  • QURAN & SCIENCE TUTORIAL CENTER LLC, 12/4/2018

Physical Description

  • Romanesque style church (170'x80') built with Ohio sandstone.

Current Condition

  • Abandoned.

History

  • 1908 - Rev. George Sellinger founds the parish. A small church/school combo was constructed (at what appears to be a different unspecified location).
  • June 1910 - An extremely rare tornado destroyed the original building.
  • 1911-1923 - The nunnery, rectory, and school where built, while early parishioners worshiped in the basement until the necessary funds were raised to complete the church.
  • 1928 - The church was completed for $225,000.
  • March 3, 1993 - The last mass was held at St. Matthew’s .
  • 1998 - Catholic Diocese split the property and sold the church building for $22,000 to World Wide Bible Deliverance Inc., a religious group that also failed to maintain the building.
History courtesy BuffaloAH - James Napora, Houses of Worship

Recent Events and Actions Taken

  • 2006 - Church acquired at public tax auction by Scott Weinstein and David Serotta of Williamsville as RE/DEAL PARTNER LLC for $3,500 and quickly listed on eBay. Photographer/blogger David Torke alerted the City's anti-flipping Task Force, which persuaded the owner to halt the listing.
  • 2009 - Frank Beard acquired the property (at what sounds to be no cost) for a community center.
  • 2011 - Without a job, Beard fell thousands of dollars behind on taxes. He scrapped the radiators to cover the cost of paint and lights. He also stripped the copper flashing from the roof, which can result in thousands of dollars in damage for just $50 in scrap value.
  • 2013 - The church fell back into the tax auction process and was acquired for $4,000 by Keith Ware of The Way Christian Community.
  • 2016 - The church was again listed in the city's yearly tax auction, but went unsold.
  • October 2017 - Church is currently listed as an available property at this year's tax auction (list is subject to change until auction begins).
Recent Events courtesy Buffalo Story Project, Buffalo Rising, & PRS

Other Pertinent Facts

  • St. Matthew’s is modeled after the Cathedral of Aachen in Aachen, Germany.

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