TOUR OUR SANCTUARY

The button below will propel you into an amazing virtual reality – the interior of First Church in all of its visual splendor and remarkable architectural detail.  At your own pace, and choosing your own tour “itinerary”, this 360-degree, 3-D exploration allows you to linger over points of deep meaning and historic significance throughout the church.  Popping up along the way are icons that, when clicked, open up even more multimedia detail and background.

This is the ingenious work of Peter Schiffmacher, the founder of iTours 360VR, a Buffalo-based firm specializing in virtual reality products.  Navigating the First Church video is easy and adapts to whatever device you have at hand – laptop, desktop, tablet, or smartphone. 

Give it a try…we hope it will inspire you to visit us in person!

In addition to serving as a house of worship and inclusive community hub, First Church is one of the city’s most important and majestic architectural treasures.

The church was built in the 1880s and 1890s to serve as a new home for the First Church congregation, which was then outgrowing its home in the city’s busy downtown commercial district. A parishioner donated the land for its construction at the corner of Pennsylvania and Wadsworth Streets, and E. B. Green designed the entire building. His firm, Green and Wicks, was awarded the contract after a lengthy design contest publicized in the leading Buffalo newspaper at the time.

The building’s overall architectural form is Romanesque with rounded arches and thick walls.

Chapel

In keeping with an Anglican country tradition, Green designed the ceiling of Hindman Chapel to simulate the interior of the hull of a ship. There is a story that the wood was actually taken from a Great Lakes freighter, but that cannot be authenticated. The original design had the pews facing the organ with the communion table and pulpit next to it. The pews were turned around in the late 1940s and pickled to lighten the dark oak finish. The altar was installed, and the original windows were replaced with the Willett windows that depict a portion of First Church’s history in Western New York.

Willet used a medieval approach to his window design, resulting in figures that are more one-dimensional but with interesting mosaics of color developed through single layers of hand-blown pot-metal glass and Norman slabs.

Sanctuary & Narthex

One of the features of a Romanesque church was a low front portico called a narthex. It feels very earthbound by design, as a way to remind worshippers of the lowliness of mankind. As you move from the narthex into the nave, notice that the sudden expanse of the barrel-vaulted ceiling causes your eyes to focus upward toward heaven. Thus, the architecture reinforces the emphasis of worshiping God, moving our thoughts away from the earthbound to the heavenly. And in this instance, the focus is toward the central cross at the edge of the apse.

As mentioned earlier, the Romanesque style has very thick walls—probably three-feet thick—to support the roof. The rounded arches give additional support to the walls. At the four corners of the crossing or arms of the cross, you can see what appear to be four lanterns with arches built into the walls. These support the central dome. The steel medallions and rods are fastened into the structural steel in the ceiling and keep the walls from spreading outward from the weight of the dome and roof. The barrel-vaulted ceiling is actually suspended from the roof through a system of hinged steel beams so that the building “breathes” with the wind and outside vibrations. That’s why the chandeliers rattle when heavy trucks go by outside.

The sanctuary portion of the building was completed in 1891. The congregation held its first worship service there in December. The windows were not installed yet, so it was probably a little chilly.

Decorations

With its heavy symbolism, the sanctuary’s architectural style has been called Byzantine. A member of the congregation and close friend of E. B. Green’s, William C. Francis, designed the décor in nod to that style. What looks like mosaics are actually stencils that Francis created and installed over a period of two months in the mid-1920s.

Click image for more detail

The stencils around the edge of the main dome depict a crown with its points and bands heavily jeweled. The pendentives leading to the dome are covered with stars and snowflakes. This design is an adaptation of the artistry in the Galla Placidia chapel in Ravenna.

The three Tiffany chandeliers are miniature copies of the great candelabra in Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. These were originally designed for electric light bulbs but have a small cup under each bulb to simulate the oil well in the original candelabra.

Sanctuary Windows

There are three stained-glass companies represented in the sanctuary: Tiffany, Tillinghast, and Ford.

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West Transept

The lancets in the gallery (balcony) were made by the Ford Company of Boston and installed in 1892. “The Ascension” is an excellent example of mercury mosaic windows. The design features many small chunks of glass set in copper foil and an amalgam of mercury. The technique is particularly obvious in the upper portions of the windows. This type of design was popular for about 10 years until it was discovered why the artisans did not live long after creating the windows! Notice the faces. You will want to contrast them with the faces of Tiffany and Tillinghast in the other windows. On the ground level, there is a Tiffany under the gallery staircase. Installed in 1912, it features mottled glass combined with layers of glass to achieve the color effects and lifelike depiction of the faces. The three lancets under the gallery—"The Resurrection”—were made by Mary Tillinghast in 1894. A pupil and one-time partner of Le Farge, she was a talented painter and glass artisan in her own right. Notice the use of layered glass to achieve the dark, rich colors and the exquisite faces of the figures. Again, very typical of her work.

East Transept

The “New Jerusalem” window in the gallery is one of Tiffany’s finest. Designed by Fredrick Wilson Tiffany and installed in 1916, it is one of the most popular windows in the sanctuary. Again, there is a great deal of layered glass—six layers in some cases—to produce the desired color effect. He also used jewel glass (large chunks of glass) to achieve a very heavy effect for the base of the lancets. The changing daylight has an interesting effect on this window. With the morning sun, it is brilliant and clear. But in the afternoon, the city almost vanishes into the clouds with nothing left but the trees and the cross at the top. On the ground floor, under the stairs, is the figure of Christ the King. Again, matching the window in the west transept, you’ll notice the details of the face, the layered glass, and the mottled effect. The three windows under the gallery are symbolic depictions of communion with the face of Christ in the center window. The other windows depict vines, branches, and a chalice. All of these are from Tiffany studios and may date back to 1916, as well.

East Aisle

The east aisle contains three more windows from Mary Tillinghast. Forming a unit, “In My House Are Many Mansions” was ordered from her studio in 1894. Notice how the layered glass gives the figures an almost three-dimensional effect. Tillinghast’s signature is barely visible in a fold of the robe in the lower right-hand corner of the right lancet.

West Aisle

These three windows have not been identified with a specific studio. They are somewhat typical of Tiffany’s pastoral scenes, depicting nature with impressionistic use of small pieces of glass and clearly painted figures of animals. They were installed in 1912.

Choir Gallery (behind the organ)

This window is an excellent example of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s use of color and favrile glass to create a mosaic effect. The rich combination of blue, deep red, yellow, and gold is particularly beautiful in the late afternoon. There is a large cross formed by the yellow and gold spread throughout the window. Tiffany’s signature can be seen in the bottom right-hand corner of the second lancet from the right. The window was erected in 1925.

Organs

The current Schlicker organ in the chapel replaced the original Roosevelt organ in 1958.

The Noehren organ is the third organ in the sanctuary. The original Hilborne Roosevelt was replaced by an Austin in 1915, and the Noehren was installed in 1970. Robert Noehren was a Buffalo native, who grew up in a house on Main Street next to what is now the Anchor Bar (the home of the Buffalo wing).

Touring First Church

*To arrange for a private or group tour of the church, contact the church.

*Church tours are currently suspended due to the COVID pandemic.