St Martin's De Porres Parish Center sits next to the historic St. Bartholomew's church which now remains idle due to the parish center moving to Durham St. The church at one time ran the parish next door as a school, bingo hall and many other things such as for the scouts. Four parishes were formed to create St Martin De Porres. The 4 parishes were named St Boniface, St Mathews, Our Lady Of Lourdes and Of Course St Bartholomew Church to erect this new parish. Perhaps due to the size that may be why the Old St Martin's De Porres has been closed since 1993. The building has written 1956 on the bingo hall area so we have to assume this parish was at least 50 years old. Most of the parish members were that of the African American culture and as you walk up to this place you can almost imagine at one time what it looked like in operation. Its a very tall building all the stain glass in the front is missing and covered with boards and much of everything still remains the text books, chairs, desk, kitchen ware. There are 3 floors most of the inside is very old wood work and at one time you could tell that coal heated this place as the furnaces are very old and have incinerator doors on them. The 2nd and 3rd floor were the classrooms still many lockers have student names on them and out the window you can clearly see St. Bartholomew's church which was made in the 1930s of Buffalo's Cobblestone roads as the stones were removed. One thing that stood out is that in the basement were all the organs, drums, alter and stage stood it looked like the stage was incomplete as far as construction. As if the entire place quickly moved and left everything. This place looked more like a castle tower then a parish center with barbed wire fencing and metal grates surrounding the lower floors. We have to assume that this building is haunted after all when you consider the many folks who played bingo, the children who attended area, the priest, nuns that taught school ect death was a part of life and this was at one time a happy place where people could go in and feel safe therefore of course there would be some spiritual connections. The St Martin De Porres parish was formed as a main church/parish community for the roman catholics of central Buffalo area. In a way its very sad to see that this parish just abandoned one parish for another and now all that remains is a building without students, teachers, organ music playing, hot soup in the kitchen. What spirits roam these dark halls at night and still an abandoned building very much alive by the unseen.

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AngelOfThyNight-Rick