Buffalo Religous Art Museum – Preserving the Diverse Buffalo Culture

BUFFALO RISING
By Brett DeNeve

NEW YORK---Mary Holland, founder of The Buffalo Religious Arts Museum located at 157 East Street of the “Black Rock” community in Buffalo, opened the paper in 2007 to see a two page article on local churches closing down. “If I could only save one piece, I would,” she thought. The Museum, purchased in 2008, was formerly known as “The St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic German Church.” The parish itself was founded in 1849 primarily due to the parents of German-speaking children wanting a school. And then it clicked; this building would no longer be a church, but a museum. Buffalo has lost approximately fifty churches. In recent years, the total count could top a thousand closed doors from Northeastern cities alone: Chicago, Boston, Albany, and Columbus Ohio to name a few. [link]