File:Former St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute dormitory; former Bishop Fallon High School - Buffalo, New York - 20200917.jpg

English: As seen in September 2020: the three-story brick building tucked behind the Delta Sonic gas station at 1238 Main Street in Buffalo, New York is the only building remaining from the period in which St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute - the oldest institute of secondary-level Catholic education in the Diocese of Buffalo, founded in 1849 - occupied the site. With the splayed lintels scrupulously crowning each window, the bracketed cornice and dentil course at the roofline, and the modest yet handsome Tuscan portico framing the front entrance, it's beautifully exemplary of the Colonial Revival style of architecture that was then all the rage. It was in 1897 when the Diocese purchased the plot of land at the northwest corner of Main and Barker Streets as the school's new home, and three years later when classes began to be held in the ornate mansion formerly home to Major General Bennet Riley, one of the finest in the city at the time. The building seen here was erected in 1903 and served as a dormitory for students. Increasing enrollment led to plans for a larger facility further from the center of town; the Kenmore Avenue site on which the present-day school is found was purchased in 1924, but construction was delayed by the Great Depression and the Second World War and the school did not vacate the Main Street site until 1950. The Riley House was demolished in 1951, but the former dormitory building remained in use by the diocese for secondary education purposes as the home of Bishop Fallon High School, which closed in 1975. The building is now home to offices, including those of the Delta Sonic gas station and car wash that occupies most of the rest of the site.