Our Lady of Victory Basilica

Our Lady of Victory Basilica, known in short as OLV Basilica, is located on the corner of Ridge Road and South Park Avenue in South Buffalo. Completed in 1925, Father Baker, the buildings founder and patriarch helped to build this magnificent piece of architecture. The most incredible part is it was debt free after it was built. Father Baker reached out to the community and asked people to buy a brick for $10.00 each. And it worked!

Besides the incredible architecture on the exterior, the interior is even more impressive. Detailed painting, vivid stained glass and white statues that seem to oversee the church and its visitors.

A gas well was found on the site of the Basilica. Local legend has it that Father Baker told the drillers where it would be and even though it was a difficult drilling process the gas well was tapped at an unusual depth. The gas well continues to produce still today and helps to offset the heating costs of the building.

Father Baker didn’t stop with this incredible shrine. He also built a home for unwed mothers and an orphanage for parentless youth. He was often called the “Padre of the Poor” according to many sources, including the OLV website. Tours can be scheduled, but a public tour is held every Sunday at 1:00pm. The building is open from 7am to 7pm and visitors are welcome for free. Call (716) 828-9444 for more information.

Other locations near by the OLV Basilica are South Park and The Buffalo Botanical Gardens. A visit to this area is an entire day of sight-seeing and inexpensive too!

Niagara Square

Courtesy of Bing Images

In the center of downtown Buffalo is Niagara Square. It was designed in 1804 by Joseph Elliot and is the intersection point of four main Buffalo streets, Delaware Avenue, Niagara Street, Court Street and Genesee Street.

Buffalo’s City hall overlooks Niagara Square, along with other government buildings. In the center of the square is a monument to President William McKinley. He was assassinated in Buffalo during the 1901 Pan Am Exposition.

Shot twice, McKinley died several days later from gangrene. Theodore Roosevelt was the Vice President at the time and came to Buffalo to be sworn in as President upon McKinley’s death. This historical site is known as The Wilcox Mansion on Delaware Avenue. Visitors can tour the museum that is now there and full of information on the McKinley/Roosevelt story.

The assassination was in the Temple of Music, but, like most of the buildings used in the expo, it was torn down after the fair was over. There is a marker at the shooting site, but the Temple of Music was not located near Niagara Square.

According to Buffaloah.com, the Niagara Square site was an unplanned space that was lacking direction. The idea to construct an obelisk monument surrounded by fountains was commissioned and in 1907, six years to the day McKinley was shot, the monument was dedicated to the fallen President. That was  September 6^th 1907 and the monument still graces Buffalo today, after more than 100 years.