10. St. Joseph’s Cathedral
50 Franklin Street
 In contrast to Richard Upjohn's highly picturesque and historically accurate Gothic design for St. Paul's, Patrick Keeley's design for St. Joseph's represents the more symmetrical and generalized Gothic common to mid-nineteenth-century Catholic churches.
Although A. W. N. Pugin, the father of the ecclesiastical Gothic Revival and the reputed teacher of Keeley, was a Catholic convert, the Roman church never fully embraced the British Gothic Revival. More concerned with accommodating large congregations than with expressing the true principles of ecclesiology, Catholic churches like St. Joseph's had deeper affinities with Continental cathedrals than with English rural parish churches.
Especially French in the design of St. Joseph's is the facade with its twin towers (the north spire was never built), rose window, and triple portals.
Keeley, an Irish immigrant architect whose office was in Brooklyn, enjoyed a flourishing practice as a designer of Catholic churches. A number of early cathedrals in eastern cities were built from his plans, including the immense Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston (1865), for which St. Joseph's seems to have been the prototype.
Text courtesy Francis Kowsky. Photo courtesy of Chuck LaChiusa
Credits
Scripts: Denise Prince and Jane Kwiatkowski
Voice: Christopher Jamele of Jamele Freelance Services
Audio production: John Davis of Eclectic Electric
This project was made possible in part with funding from the New York State Council on the Arts.
Tour content courtesy of Buffalo Tours.
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