Corpus Christi Catholic Church will receive $450,000 from the state to replace the church’s slate roof and make extensive repairs to the twin steeples of the East Side landmark.

The grant, which is being made available through the state’s Environmental Protection Fund, is part of $25.3 million in funding that Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer this week announced was being awarded to communities and organizations across the state to assist them with waterfront revitalization projects and historic preservation efforts.

“This vital funding helps make cultural and recreational opportunities available to all New Yorkers and countless visitors, and contributes to the economic revitalization of our state,” Spitzer said in a statement.

Last month, the New York Landmarks Conservancy offered Corpus Christi a $45,000 challenge grant toward the cost of restoration work on the church’s towers and roof. That grant required the caretakers of the church at Clark and Kent streets to raise $65,000 in private funds.

The church, which celebrated its 100th anniversary Nov. 1, was recently designated a New York State Landmark and was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The church was slated to close in 2003, but was taken over by the Pauline Priests and Brothers in 2004, following the departure of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, who no longer had enough priests available to staff the parish they founded in 1898.

Construction of the Romanesque Revival- style church began in 1907 and was completed in 1909, at a cost of $200,000, according to church records. It was built of Onondaga limestone and faced with red Medina sandstone.

Corpus Christi is only the third Catholic church in Western New York to be listed on the National Register, joining Blessed Trinity on Leroy Avenue and Our Lady Help of Christians chapel on Union Road in Cheektowaga.

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Nov 1, '07 5:00p

100th anniversary of the laying of the church cornerstone

J. Winthrop Aldrich, the state’s deputy commissioner for historic preservation, will be on hand Nov. 1 for the presentation of the official landmark designation certificate on the front steps of the church following a Mass.

Corpus Christi Catholic Church to hail landmark status

East Side church also plans to celebrate anniversary

By Jay Tokasz NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 10/22/07 8:58 AM

Now parishioners of the Romanesque revival-style church at Clark and Kent streets plan to celebrate.

They figure the 100th anniversary of the laying of the church cornerstone would be as good a time as any.

J. Winthrop Aldrich, the state’s deputy commissioner for historic preservation, will be on hand Nov. 1 for the presentation of the official landmark designation certificate on the front steps of the church following a Mass.

Corpus Christi is only the third Catholic church in Western New York to be listed on the National Register, joining Blessed Trinity on Leroy Avenue and Our Lady Help of Christians chapel on Union Road in Cheektowaga.

The state and federal recognition confirms the significance of churches such as Corpus Christi, not just to their members, but also to the larger culture of the region, said the Rev. Anzelm Chalupka, pastor.

“It’s important that people know on the East Side we have beautiful diamonds,” said Chalupka, part of the Pauline Fathers and Brothers community that runs the church.

The Paulines took over its operation in 2004, following the departure of the Conventual Franciscan Friars, who no longer had enough priests available to staff the parish they founded in 1898.

Construction of the current church, built of Onondaga limestone faced with red Medina sandstone, began in 1907 and was completed in 1909, at a cost of $200,000, according to church records.

“You’re never going to see a building built like this again, in terms of a church,” noted Bill Koch, a local preservationist and past president of the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier. “The artwork on the inside really stands alone. It’s magnificent.”

Members of the traditionally Polish parish have long admired the rendering of Raphael Santi’s famous Disputa in the sanctuary apse and highly decorative stained-glass windows fashioned by the Franz Mayer Works in Munich, Germany.

Church members and preservationists began pursuing the state and federal designations last year — in part to open new doors for obtaining restoration grant funding.

The church is trying to raise money for masonry work on its towers and for a new roof.

The designations site the entire Corpus Christi Church campus, which includes a rectory, school building, convent and parish hall.

State officials added Corpus Christi to the list of state landmarks in June. A month later, the buildings were named to the National Register of Historic Places.

jtokasz@buffnews.com