Our History
A young organization such as PBN typically has less of a history than a vision. Preservation Buffalo Niagara has both. Preservation Buffalo Niagara considers itself to be a new organization, but one that is building upon the 30-year history of its predecessor organizations, the Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier and the Preservation Coalition of Erie County.
Preservation Buffalo Niagara was envisioned and created during 2008. A consultant’s report (.pdf) was issued calling for an improved preservation movement in Buffalo and a Transition Committee created a Vision and a Case Statement (.pdf) on how to create a professional, more substantial preservation organization for the Buffalo region. Below outlines the creation of Preservation Buffalo Niagara:
- The memberships of both organizations voted to join forces, October 2008.
- Three local foundations (The John R. Oishei Foundation, the DB Trust, and the Baird Foundation) made multi-year investment of resources as a strategy to enable Preservation Buffalo Niagara to quickly become a substantial organization.
- As its first official act, Preservation Buffalo Niagara successfully applied to become a Local Partner, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
- An Education Coordinator was hired as the first staff person dedicated to advancing Buffalo Tours and additional educational programming. Additional office staff hirings followed.
- Henry McCartney was appointed Interim Executive Director.
- PBN was awarded a three-year Partners in the Field grant by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, with matching funds for year-one provided by the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo. A Preservation Specialist was sought to staff this effort; Andrea Rebeck started in September 2009.
- Michael Miller started work as PBNs Executive Director in July 2009; tragically, he unexpectedly passed away that August.
- In October 2009, Henry McCartney assumed the position of Executive Director.
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