Blessed Sacrament Campus on Twilight Tour of Mansions

The parish council of Blessed Sacrament Church in Buffalo is pleased to announce that the Blessed Sacrament Campus will be featured as one of the stops on Explore Buffalo’s Twilight Tour of Mansions on Delaware. This popular tour will take place on Wednesday, June 11, from 5-9 p.m. Tickets are required to participate on the tour and they can be purchased at Explore Buffalo’s website.

The tour is a step back in time to Buffalo’s Gilded Age, with an opportunity to see unique craftsmanship and architectural detail in each mansion on the tour. This tour is also an opportunity to see the various ways in which these mansions are being used today.

Participating locations include the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site; the Clement Mansion, home to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; Cellino Law at the Knox Mansion; OWM Integrative Wellness at the Foster Mansion; and the Himalayan Institute, plus Westminster Presbyterian Church and Temple Beth Zion and the Saturn Club.

The Blessed Sacrament campus tour features three historic buildings.

The rectory is the former Seymour H. Knox I Mansion designed by noted architect, Edgar E. Joralemon in 1903-1904. This stunning example of the Beaux Arts style features Classical symmetry, grandeur and decorative flourishes. The 13,700 sq. ft. Knox mansion features 27 rooms and 11 fireplaces. It is a hallmark of Buffalo’s Gilded Age opulence.

The carriage house is a 7,200 sq. ft. Beaux Arts inspired structure built in 1903-1904 as an adjacent structure to the main residence. Functionally, the building housed the horses and the carriages of the Knox family. The second floor was designed to accommodate the communal quarters for a gardener, housekeeper and a coachman.

The church, built in 1887, was designed by Aldolphus Druiding in the Gothic Revival style. Built with Medina sandstone and red brick, the structure was built as the chapel for Bishop Stephen V. Ryan, the second bishop of Buffalo.

Over the next 28 years the “chapel” had a number of status changes due to the population growth of the city’s Catholic population. It went from chapel to church to cathedral to chapel. When the New St. Joseph Cathedral was demolished in 1976, the chapel was once again designated a “church.”