THE YOUNG PRESERVATIONISTS
Flickering with candlelight on brick and stone, the basement of a seemingly ancient church in Buffalo evoked a catacomb — yet with a bar gleaming and a hipster presiding, it felt very much of its moment, too. The creative-reuse site was called Babeville, a former church turned into an unexpected concert venue (with backing from the music star Ani DiFranco, a Buffalo native). Bernice Radle, barely 30 and stylish in her long hair and thick-framed glasses, was convening a happy hour for Buffalo’s Young Preservationists — and their more senior counterparts — not long ago.
She waved around the space, describing how the building had been headed for demolition until preservationists banded together. Retired academics and longtime activists half-circled her in a mix of support and fascination, as if a black-necked swan had glided in among them. Radle named the passions driving her generation to retain and reuse Buffalo’s turn-of-the-century urban core. “People love to complain about millennials, but we love community, and we love old things, and we love bringing people together,” she said. “We’ve had friends literally getting tattoos on their body to help save old buildings.”
“People love to complain about millennials, but we love community, and we love old things.”
In Rochester, another upstate
