File:The WELL Ebenezer Campus - fmr St. Bonaventure RC Church, St. Nicholas Anglican Church - West Seneca, New York - 20220610.jpg

English: The WELL, 2784 Seneca Street, West Seneca, New York, June 2022. Situated near the corner of Harlem Road in the heart of the neighborhood of Winchester, this building was originally home to the Roman Catholic church of St. Bonaventure, whose history traces back to December 2, 1918. On that date, Rev. Henry Schnur, the former pastor of St. Joseph's Church in Varysburg whom Buffalo bishop Dennis Dougherty had enlisted to help found a new parish for the incipient suburban neighborhood of Winchester, held Mass for the first time inside a converted dance hall on the property of a local shopkeeper. St. Bonaventure is notable as one of very few parishes in the Buffalo diocese that, over the entire course of its existence, never worshipped in a purpose-built church (plans for the construction of one emerged soon after its founding but were derailed by Ren. Schnur's sudden death in 1927, and the slower than expected growth of the surrounding neighborhood, thanks to the economic effects of the Great Depression and the halt in new home construction during World War II, largely obviated the need for one), hence the building's rustic look and lack of any particular architectural style or distinction. Nonetheless, a spate of construction in the 1950s and '60s resulted in the dedication of a large parochial school building, a convent to serve as home to the Sisters of Mercy who staffed it, and a thorough renovation of the church sanctuary. In 1997, St. Bonaventure became affiliated with the Congregation of Jesus and Mary (also known as the Eudists), and was notable as a local nucleus of that order's activity which comprises mainly retreat ministry, spiritual direction, and counseling. This arrangement continued until its 2008 merger with the neighboring parish of St. William (the combined church, now known as St. John XXIII, remains in operation at the former St. William campus on Harlem Road). In later years, the building was briefly leased to St. Nicholas Anglican Church (now located on Main Street in the former Covenant Methodist Church), and is now one of two area locations of The WELL, a nondenominational congregation.