Image: First Trinity Lutheran Church, Tonawanda, New York - 20210308

Description: First Trinity Lutheran Church, 1570 Niagara Falls Boulevard at Glenalby Road, Tonawanda, New York, March 2021. One of the most architecturally striking Midcentury churches in the Western New York area, the main worship space was dedicated in 1964 and, in the words of a Buffalo Courier-Express article marking the occasion, typifies "modern architecture for a feeling of spaciousness and welcome". With a wedge-shaped footprint that's offset diagonally from the street, the building boasts a pair of asymmetrical arrowhead-shaped roofs that peak over the southeast and northwest corners of the structure, respectively, and slope gently downward towards the middle. The architecture employs glass, both clear and stained, in innovative ways as well: a trio of tall, narrow colored windows extending alongside the pews and behind the altar (seen in this photo on either side of the brick portion of the façade with the block-glass crosses) furnish simultaneously a sense of warmth and reverent majesty. As well, though the main entrance has been moved to a newer portion of the building facing the rear parking lot, the original design had it surrounded by a large expanse of clear glass panels that bathed the interior in an aura of airy spaciousness. Matching the impressiveness of the architecture is that of the church's history: one of the oldest congregations in the area, it traces its origins to modern-day Germany, where King Frederick William III of Prussia forcibly merged the Lutheran church in that country into the Reformed Church and persecuted those congregations who resisted. First Trinity was founded by the union of two groups of religious refugees, from Silesia and Alsace respectively, who crossed paths in 1839 while in Hamburg awaiting onward passage to America. The Alsatians seceded from the congregation soon after its arrival and went on to found Trinity Old Lutheran Church; the Silesian remnant took on the name First Trinity and put down roots in the Near East Side of Buffalo, then the region's main nexus of German-American settlement: their first church (no longer extant) was erected about 1840 on William Street, then, after welcoming back to the fold a faction of dissenters from the Alsatian congregation, they moved to their longtime home on Michigan Avenue at the north end of what's now Buffalo's African-American Heritage Corridor. First Trinity went on to become among the most prominent Lutheran churches in Buffalo, giving birth through schisms in the congregation not only to Trinity Old Lutheran but also Emmaus, Calvary English Evangelical, and Gethsemane Lutheran Churches. As the century wore on, the demographics of the surrounding neighborhood changed, and many of the church's congregants moved to new homes in the suburbs; accordingly, in March 1954, First Trinity began planning its own move to a suburban location. The first building on the present site, a chapel, was dedicated in August 1955; though not visible in this photo (it would be off the left-hand margin) it's still extant and is now used to house First Trinity Preschool. The rest of the complex was built in stages: as mentioned, the main worship space was dedicated in 1964, while the auditorium and event space in the rear, along with the brick corridor between chapel and worship space, were added in the early 2000s.
Title: First Trinity Lutheran Church, Tonawanda, New York - 20210308
Credit: Own work
Author: Andre Carrotflower
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0
License: CC BY-SA 4.0
License Link: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0
Attribution Required?: Yes