English: Nativity United Church of Christ, 1530 Colvin Boulevard at Thorncliff Road, Tonawanda, New York, January 2023. This U-shaped complex was built in two discrete phases: the original portion, which lies to the north off the right-hand margin of this photo, dates to 1949, while the larger, newer and now main section, comprising a 500-seat sanctuary (left), tower (center), and education building with Sunday school classrooms (right), is a 1956 work of the Buffalo-based architecture firm of Shelgren & Whitman. In an article on the unveiling of the architect's rendering, the Buffalo Evening News described the design as "a contemporary adaptation of Colonial architecture" (a description that functions equally well for the firm's house style in general): the red brick façade offset by white trim, careful symmetry, and small-paned windows testify to its traditionalism, while smooth surfaces, abundant right angles, and austere ornamentation bring a touch of the Modern. The tower, with its openwork belfry that would quickly become a Shelgren & Whitman hallmark, is the most forward-looking element of the design. Among the first new churches established in the Town of Tonawanda after the end of World War II - the time in American history when the move of white middle-class families from inner cities to suburbs, which began as a trickle in the 1910s and '20s, became more of a flood - what was originally called the Congregational Church of the Nativity was founded in 1947 by the Rev. M. Huyett Sangree, who in the earliest days of its existence held services in the chapel of Elmlawn Cemetery for 34 charter members. The astonishing scale of the era's changeover to suburban living is reflected in the rapidity of Nativity's growth: by the time construction of the original portion of the present building was complete just two years later, the flock numbered 221, a figure that had tripled again by the time expansion was first envisioned in 1953. Ground was broken in October 1954 for the $175,000 structure seen here, whose construction process lasted sixteen months. Nativity became an affiliate of the newly merged United Church of Christ in 1960.