The former St. Ann’s School on Emslie Street, Buffalo, taken about 1945. To the right is a photo of what remains of the former school building after a four alarm fire the night of January 15-16, 2026.
What remains of the former school building after a four alarm fire the night of January 15-16, 2026.
In the aftermath of the recent devastating four-alarm fire which ravaged the former St. Ann’s School building, From the Archives thought it would be interesting to take a brief look at the building’s history and its integral connection to our sisters dating from the first to come to Buffalo in 1874.
The first sisters from Germany opened classes that first September at both St. Michael’s and at St. Ann’s. In the history of the parish we can read that the first church was built in 1858 on the approximate site of the school building with which most of us are familiar. The second church building facing Broadway was completed in 1886.
The first religious teachers were the Daughters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, famil-iarly known as “the Miss Nardins.” After the Jesuit installations in Buffalo were detached from the New York-Canada Mission of the French Province and put under the jurisdiction of the German Province, the stage was set for a change in teaching personnel as well and our sis-ters then remained at the school until its closure as a parish school in 1988.
The building which burned dates from 1895 and was the third school building. The first had quickly outgrown its quarters in the combined church-school-rectory built in 1858 as well as a new separate school put up in 1863 between the original church and Broadway. At first this second school housed all classes, but upon completion of the second church in 1886 the girls’ classes were moved into the old church and the boys’ classes remained in the school building. By the mid 1890s the population of the parish had again outgrown the availa-ble school facilities and the demand for a new school was urgently expressed. On April 26, 1895, work was begun on tearing down the old church and then the 1863 school. Pupils fin-ished out the school year in improvised classrooms in the church. Although the new school was erected with remarkable speed (first-floor classrooms ready by October 1895), it was not ready for the beginning of the fall term and classes continued for two months in the church. The building featured light, airy classrooms with 15-18 foot ceilings, an auditorium/gymnasium/roller rink on the top floor, and multiple rooms for offices, etc. At one time St. Ann’s was the largest elementary school in the country with over 1500 students (some sources say 2200)!