The last mass at St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church, Emslie and Seymour streets, was held on December 27, 1981. The “mother church” of Irish Buffalo stood for 90 years before the Buffalo Diocese closed and subsequently demolished the church, shown here in 1982. When the cornerstone was laid in 1891, the Buffalo Express called the C. K. Porter & Son-designed structure “an ornament to the city and a credit to the people of the church.” The 165- and 130-foot-high towers and 60-foot-high gable were skyline landmarks of the Hydraulics neighborhood. The site is now home to the St. Patrick Village Apartments.