Saint Joseph Cathedral, seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, faces you at 50 Franklin Street inside the Joseph Ellicott Historic District. This is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Buffalo. The story here begins when Buffalo's first bishop, John Timon, established St. Joseph's in 1847 as the seat of the new diocese.
Timon traveled to Europe to raise funds; the cornerstone was laid on February 6, 1851. During construction a storm moving in from Lake Erie destroyed several nearby homes, and Bishop Timon opened the cathedral's walls so residents could set up tents there for several weeks. The building was usable, though unfinished, when it was dedicated on July 1, 1855.
The south tower was completed in the summer of 1862, and Bishop Timon consecrated the completed cathedral on August 21, 1863. Later, in 1902, Bishop James Quigley determined the diocese required a new cathedral and began buying property at Delaware Avenue and Utica Street. An Italian architect, Aristide Leonori, designed a new Gothic Revival cathedral constructed between 1912 and 1915.
Picture the storm off Lake Erie that once forced Bishop Timon to open these walls as shelter for displaced neighbors.