Found a nice post on the Forgotten Buffalo website about “The Bells of St. Ann’s”…the above video is great!

Check out the full post by clicking here…

Plans are underway for the second annual St. Stanislaus School Alumni Association Reunion/Homecoming on Saturday, September 13 with 4:00 p.m. Mass in church followed by 6:00 p.m. dinner in the Msgr. Adamski Social Center.

Cost per person for the dinner reservation is $35.00. Checks are payable to St. Stanislaus Parish, 123 Townsend Street, Buffalo, NY 14212. Ads are also available for the program booklet. Deadline date for ads and dinner reservations is Monday, August 25.

For more info call 716-854-5510

Saint Adalbert’s
Saint Stanislaus
Corpus Christi

It was just very cool to see all three at the parade on Sunday in Cheektowaga…especially cool to see St. Adalbert’s!

I may have missed something, but the only churches in the parade were from Buffalo’s Historic Polonia…if I am wrong, please correct.

Never too late to COME HOME TO AN ALIVE CHURCH!

Most everything at the Great Corn Roast is home made. Come and taste delicious freshly grilled hot dogs, homemade salad, delicious desserts, and of course, the corn. This corn is grill roasted and quite possibly the best corn you have eaten in a long while. It is definitely the culinary star of the event. All proceeds benefit St. Luke’s Mission of Mercy.

Here are the specifics:

• Date: Tuesday, August 19 2008
• Time: 3:00 PM - 8:00 PM
• Location: Donald Spoth Farm (2715 Tonawanda Creek Road, Amherst, NY)
• Price: $15.00 per person, children under 12 eat free.
• Price includes
  • Food: Hot dogs, Salad, corn
  • Beverages: Pop / Coffee / Tea
  • Dessert: cakes / pastries / cookies
  • It’s All You Can Eat!
  • Entertainment:
    • Music by the Voices Of Mercy
    • Fiddlers
• Activities Include:
  • Basket Auction
  • Games
  • Tractor Rides

http://www.stlukesmissionofmercy.org/Corn_Roast.html

Finding Zawadzki…

I have become fascinated with the Broadway-Fillmore work of architect Wladyslaw H. Zawadzki. His designs represent some of the most beautiful and significant buildings in the neighborhood.

After looking into more of what he had done, I decided to start photographing his buildings and put together a series of slideshows to highlight the various B-F structures he created.

His legacy touches many different parts of B-F and Polonia…it is amazing…the variety of buildings is amazing as well.

Some of the buildings in the slideshow definitely need some TLC, but nonetheless, are representative of his body of work.

Please share your thoughts.

The following biography on Zawadzki was extracted from the ”Intensive Level Historic Resources Survey of Broadway-Fillmore Neigborhood” completed by Clinton Brown Company Architecture in August 2004.”

Architect W. H. Zawadzki (1872-1926) was the most important Polish-American architect in Buffalo. 11 He designed a number of buildings in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood that as a group constitutes his best work. The current survey identified 18 buildings attributed to Zawadzki in the neighborhood; the largest concentrated collection of his work, known to date. He designed a variety of buildings for a wide range of uses such as religious, residential, social, commercial, and industrial. During his career, Zawadski employed different materials and styles of the period for his designs. Born in Poznan, Poland in 1872, he immigrated to Buffalo with his parents as a young man. His education background included private study with Mr. Schmidehuazena. He later attended architectural school in Buffalo. Before opening his own practice in the neighborhood, he worked for the American Bridge Company and then at Lackawanna Steel Company for six years. In 1898, he married Stanów Zjednoczonych. Zawadzki served in World War I. The prominent East Side architect purchased the house at 798 Fillmore Avenue (1895) for his own residence and office, where he remained until his death in 1926.

(more…)

I drove past Transfiguration a few days ago and was surprised to see a new sidewalk in place.  The church building itself has not looked as “secure” as it does now in a long…long time.

I have a call in to property owners to find out what is next.

Without getting my hopes too far up, I must admit I like the progress.

As Mike Miller wrote about last week, the Polish Union Hall on Fillmore (notice Zawadzkiesque chimneys) is getting a new roof…amen.

The below video is from the original fire in 2006…very lucky the whole building didn’t go.  THANK YOU BFD!!!

In a move which will hopefully get me 60 miles to the gallon, I had the trusty ByrdMobile blessed at Corpus Christi this past Sunday…Father Anzelm made sure every vehicle was indeed blessed. 

The blessing was done in honor of Saint Christopher is the patron saint of travelers, and there are several legends about him, including the one in which he was crossing a river when a child asked to be carried across. When Christopher put the child on his shoulders he found the child was unbelievably heavy. The child, according to the legend, was Christ carrying the weight of the whole world.

Hmmm…Christopher…what a great name!

Two more vendors at the Broadway Market have closed in the past week, and a third tenant warned Thursday her business might not survive.

Meanwhile, city leaders have told the market’s board they want to see lease revisions before a check-cashing company is permitted to rent space vacated by Key- Bank, becoming an anchor tenant at the East Side retail icon.

[read full story in Buffalo News]

An award-winning girls’ song and dance group from Poland will visit Buffalo July 24 and 25 with performances at Corpus Christi Church. The name of the ensemble is Ychtis (from the Greek word for fish). The group specializes in religious songs. Among their repertoire are songs based on the poetry of the late Fr. Jan Twardowski, one of Poland’s beloved poets.

The group will sing at Corpus Christi Church on Thursday July 24 at the 11:30 Mass and give a performance on Friday July 25 at 7pm. Admission is free.

The group has been in existence for 13 years and is based in Katowice. Ychtis has appeared on Polish Television and toured Europe where they have won first place in a number of contests. This is their first visit to the United Sates.

The group’s performance in the beautiful sanctuary of Corpus Christi Church, promises to provide an uplifting experience.

Corpus Christi Church is located at 199 Clark St.-one block from the Broadway Market.

For further information, please call 896-1050.

http://corpuschristibuffalo.org