File:Nazareth Lutheran Church, Buffalo, New York - 20221212.jpg

English: Nazareth Lutheran Church, 265 Skillen Street at Wiley Place, Buffalo, New York, December 2022. A work of local architect Louis Greenstein, the design of this modestly proportioned brick church is a simplified take on the Gothic Revival whose streamlined forms look forward to the incipient trend of Modernism. Note the relative austerity of the façade: the frontal window, much smaller than normal for the style, is framed by a window hood and angular yet smooth cut-stone trim that imitates a Gibbs surround, while the main entrance is recessed under a bluntly pointed compound arch and flanked by stone ornamentation similar to that described above. However, the rectangular, archless windows lining the side of the sanctuary dispense with the Gothic pretense entirely, as does the thoroughly Modernist educational wing seen at right. Established in 1913 as an outgrowth of Calvary Lutheran Church serving as a mission to the then-rapidly growing Riverside neighborhood on the city's northwestern outskirts, Nazareth's perennially small congregation worshiped in a temporary frame chapel until ground was broken for this current building in June 1949. The $85,000 construction process was remarkably rapid, the building being complete before the end of the year. Nazareth Lutheran Church held its last service in July, 2023