2,500 preservationists came to Buffalo 10 years ago. It was a turning point for the city

Some 2,541 people, from all 50 states, converged on Buffalo for the National Trust for Historic Preservation's annual convention. Over the course of four days, the attendees visited historic buildings and raved about the region's late-19th and early 20th-century architecture.

The swoon-fest was heralded at the time as a major turning point for the city. But was it?

Those working in development, preservation and tourism say it was. The conference, they say, accomplished everything hoped for and more.

Since the National Trust convention, dozens of preservation projects – in downtown and in surrounding neighborhoods – have been completed.

The use of federal and state historic tax credits, which help make it easier to finance the redevelopment of historic buildings, were in occasional use before the conference, but are now commonplace. Public-private development partnerships are more frequent.

A proliferation of flattering stories in major newspapers and architecture magazines in the years since the conference have borne out Buffalo's status as a repository of stunning historic architecture. 

Hook and Ladder Development emerged among a number of developers fulfilling the promise of the conference. The company, since 2015, has redeveloped eight classic neighborhood buildings in South Buffalo, most of them on Seneca Street.

"What was happening on a large scale downtown gave us the confidence to wonder why it can't happen in smaller communities throughout the city," said co-owner Pete Scarcello. "And it can."

The conference also helped change Buffalonians' perceptions of the importance of preserving historic buildings, said Bob Skerker, who co-chaired the conference with Catherine Schweitzer.

"Prior to the conference, people complained about putting money into projects like the Martin House and the Richardson," Skerker said, referring to the Darwin Martin House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Richardson Olmsted Campus, whose buildings were designed by H.H. Richardson.

"The conference helped people understand that historic architecture had value to us and value to others," Skerker said. "It ended that argument about putting money into historic assets."

The conference's effect on Buffalo's psyche was huge, said Ed Healy, Visit Buffalo Niagara's vice president of marketing.

"So many people in Buffalo were amazed and pleased that all these people had come to Buffalo and were so taken by our community," Healy said. "I think it gave people a kind of pride and confidence that had been in short supply for a long time. I don't think you can overstate how important that is."

Healy said in his 20 years at the city's travel and tourism bureau, the conference did more than any single event to change how people perceive Buffalo.

"The cultural press recognized the cultural richness of Buffalo and picked up stories after that event," Healy said. "Pitching stories became easier, and the press took our phone calls more readily than they once did, and were more curious than they once were."

"Buffalo went from a place I didn't think about, ever, to somewhere I would consider moving," Jada Yuan wrote in the New York Times in her "52 Places To Go in 2018." 

Moving forward 

Redevelopment of historic buildings was well underway leading up to the convention, but the use of historic tax credits wasn't widespread. Developer Rocco Termini, an early proponent of their use in Buffalo, called the tax credits the single biggest reason for the increase in projects over the past 10 years.

Statistics from New York State's Historic Preservation Office support that.

About 90% of all of the tax credits used on commercial projects completed in Western New York have come since the conference. The tax credits have been used on $853.2 million worth of projects in the region, with new projects projected to cost $429.3 million currently in the pipeline.

"Every developer knows about historic tax credits now, but before the conference it was just a few," Termini said. "There was a lot of resistance using them because everyone thought it was just too much trouble. The conference opened everyone's eyes to a program that would help a city like Buffalo, where it was so hard to make the numbers work."

"It is not a stretch to say that the historic tax credits are the most successful economic development tool we have in Western New York," said Jessie Fisher, executive director of Preservation Buffalo Niagara.

An example of the public-private partnerships that have become more common is the conversion earlier this year of a giant brick warehouse at Doat and Genesee streets in the Genesee-Moselle neighborhood. The building is now home to Monarch Knitting Co. apartments and Jericho Road Community Health Center. It was developed by Regan Development Corp. of Ardsley in collaboration with New York State's Department of Housing and Community Renewal. 

As developers were forced to move outside the downtown core to find available buildings, their interest broadened into the city's stock of century-old industrial buildings, including lofts and warehouses. 

"I think it was inevitable," said Tim Tielman, the Campaign for Greater Buffalo's executive director and one of the people who lobbied the National Trust to come to Buffalo.

Buffalo's uniqueness and authenticity can't be re-created, Tielman said. A sign of that, he said, was an event his organization hosted in the cluster of grain elevators known as Silo City, which drew a large crowd.

"It showed people would come there and that the grittiness was a feature and not a liability," Tielman said. "It demonstrated our industrial architecture is a good calling card."

The years since the convention have seen historic buildings redeveloped near Larkin Square, with public spaces and businesses centered southeast of downtown along Seneca Street, and more recently, along Chandler Street in Black Rock.

Major renovations in the city that are completed, underway or planned include the Statler, Richardson Olmsted Campus and the former Pierce-Arrow Administration Building, along with smaller projects such as the restoration of Parkside Candy.

Since the conference, seven neighborhoods have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the Fargo Estate Historic District, Hamlin Park Historic District and the University Park Historic District. 

Homeowners living in the historic districts, including Broadway Fillmore, have also taken advantage of historic tax credits to refurbish their homes. 

Since 2011, 568 rehabilitation projects have totaled $24.1 million in Buffalo, according to New York State's Historic Preservation Office. 

Convincing the Trust

It took a concerted effort to bring the nation's preeminent preservation organization, based in Washington, D.C., to Buffalo. It also required raising $350,000 to host the conference, achieved with the help of local philanthropies.

"The National Trust didn't jump at first at the prospect of bringing its annual convention to Buffalo," Healy said. "They had the perception of us as a downtrodden, depressed city. They had to be seriously convinced that Buffalo was a city worth considering."

A turning point prior to the decision to come happened when 425 people turned out in June 2007 to hear a talk by then-National Trust President Richard Moe at Kleinhans Music Hall's Mary Seaton Room.

"To come here and in one day see the best of Upjohn, Sullivan, Richardson, Wright, Saarinen and Olmsted – nowhere else, nowhere else in the United States, with the possible exception of Chicago, do you see the rich array of 19th and 20th century architecture that you have here in Buffalo," Moe told The News during his visit.

"We blew them away with our enthusiasm and passion," Healy said. "We helped our case immensely that night." 

The City of Buffalo, working with Visit Buffalo Niagara, Buffalo Place and Erie County, rolled out the red carpet for the out-of-town guests with a major cleanup effort along downtown streets. Welcoming signage, including architecturally themed banners, went up in Niagara Square, and the volunteer Buffalo Ambassadors helped visitors with questions and directions. Redevelopment projects were fast-tracked with the conference in mind.

The 284 planned activities included 46 tours that allowed people to visit the Richardson Olmsted Campus, step inside Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin Martin House and the Walter Davidson House, marvel at the Guaranty Building and the Central Terminal and appreciate the craftsmanship in the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum in North Tonawanda and the Roycroft Campus in East Aurora.

The tours included churches, museums, African American sites, schools, parks, grain elevators and neighborhoods.

"The historic building resources in the Buffalo region are just incomparable in the United States," said convention attendee Andrew Potts of Washington, D.C.

Patsy Herrington of Orange, Texas, said: "I have waited for years for this conference to be in Buffalo so I could see all the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings and structures here. I read everything I can on Buffalo, I'm doing the 'City of Light' tour and I've read (Lauren Belfer's) book four times. It really and truly is a dream come true."

Alex Pacheco, then a graduate student at Tulane University in New Orleans, was particularly enamored by Louis Sullivan's Guaranty Building.

"Oh my God, it's beautiful," he said. "I really like Sullivan's work, and it's so ornate and so detailed."

Mayor Byron Brown, who gave an opening night speech at Shea's Buffalo Theatre, said the conference validated preservation efforts.

"The National Trust conference created a broader appreciation throughout our community of the value of Buffalo's historic assets," the mayor said. 

The high-profile event helped residents realize art and culture are an economic engine, Skerker said, which has helped the city reinvent itself with assets that had been hiding in plain sight.

Jason Clement, a Buffalo resident who directs the National Trust's marketing campaigns, said Buffalo was on the move before the conference, but the attention put it on a whole new level.

"I see the conference as a turning point that put the city in the national spotlight, and allowed Buffalonians to talk proud about how historically rich and deserving the city is," Clement said.