Preservation is not about saving buildings.  It is about saving communities.  We recognize that the old adage "they don't make them like they used to" is true and communities who are able to maintain their history are better communities.  Preservation is not always easy and not always possible.  We expect this as an unmovable fact.  Some structures are beyond repair.  Preservation is an especially controversial issue in Rochester, New York.  Once known as America's first boom town the city has fallen on hard times.  The Erie Canal, once a major shipping route, is now considered obsolete.  The city's biggest employer, Kodak, is now bankrupt.  Major businesses have either downsized, moved out of town or both.  When a new company takes an interest in the city the red carpet is rolled out and tax breaks are doled out.  Incentives statistically shown to damage communities and yet the city goes through the motions hoping that their bad luck will change.  Preservation often gets caught in the middle of such debacles.

In the heart of Rochester is a small church undergoing just such a fight.  A local developer purchases a historic building in the hopes of demolishing it.  He can make more money if he replaces the church with a strip mall anchored by a dollar store.  These businesses are shown to blight communities with poorly-made goods and attract crime.  To make the matter a sure thing the developer guts the building's plumbing and fails to maintain its basic structure.  No matter how hard you try you cannot preserve a historic building once it has been knocked down by a couple long Mid Atlantic winters.  Did I mention the church had a famous neighbor by the name of Susan B. Anthony and some of its parishioners would go on to create Bausch and Lomb and the Genesee Brewery two thriving local companies?  Yet this building may fall under the wrecking ball for a couple minimum wage jobs with no advancement prospects.  Preservationists may already be too late in this instance, only time will tell.

Historical preservation often gets a bad reputation.  In many instances we come in at the last moment to save a building on the brink of collapse.  Our goals are often contrary to the property owners  and the local government.  Due to this we lose most of our fights.  There may be an opportunity to change that track record.  If not in the rest of the world then at least in the city of Rochester.  A short distance from the building I spoke of earlier is the Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church.  The activities that took place in this church gave birth to the American Civil Rights Movement.  In the church's early history, Harriet Tubman used the building as a way station in her position as conductor of the Underground Railroad.  Later, Frederick Douglass used the church basement to set up his printing press and publish 'The North Star'.  Douglass was also an advisor to President Lincoln and encouraged him to emancipate slaves in the rebel states and end slavery through constitutional amendments.  Douglass also spoke at the first women's rights convention and encouraged the right to vote to be a part of the organization's platform.  By all who study the subject, he is considered the grandfather of the Civil Rights Movement.  Douglass' good friend Susan B. Anthony would spend the rest of her life fighting for that right to vote and was famously arrested for voting in 1872.  Her show trial made her a figure of national importance.  She would give her last speeches at the Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church before retiring from public life.  During her days the church would grow and prosper.  The initial wooden structure would give way to a beautiful brick building using portions of the original materials.  The current congregation has grown old and found the building hard to maintain with its dwindling membership.  They have recently placed the building up for sale.

Will this building be the next casualty in the preservation fight?  I hope not.  There is an opportunity to save this historic church before a preservation battle even begins.  Bread & Water Theatre, an organization I represent, wants to purchase the building and use it as an arts and cultural center.  As Rochester suffered under hard economic times so did its people.  Working class and poor families are in a worse economic position than they were six years ago.  They lack the means to influence politicians and protect their communities from higher crime, drugs and urban blight.  Their children go to schools with 50% graduation rates and do not have access to arts and cultural programming that is shown to improve their grades and ability to contribute to society in a positive manner.  This community is at the heart of Rochester's history yet it lacks one of the basic necessities for a decent life.

Historic preservation is not about saving buildings.  It is about saving communities.  This church is a symbol of Rochester's rich civil rights legacy.  If it decays so does the rest of Rochester.  When it prospers so does the rest of the city.  We have a golden opportunity to preserve this church and offer the community something it desperately needs.  An arts and cultural center would also bring economic prosperity to the area.  For ever one dollar a patron spends on a ticket to the theatre they will spend seven times as much in the community whether that is on dinner, transportation or some other frill.  That money goes back into the community and allows it to further benefit from preservation efforts.

I cannot advance these goals alone.  I need wide ranging support from everyone who reads these words.  Help Bread & Water Theatre purchase this building thereby preventing a preservation fight before it occurs and save it from a developer who may try and destroy it.  The world needs more historic structures and less dollar stores.  To obtain information on donating contact Bread & Water Theatre at info@BreadandWatertheatre.org or call 585.271.5523.  All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law.  To donate directly via the internet visit the following link: http://www.breadandwatertheatre.org/support/donate.htm.

"I freed a thousand slaves.  I could have freed a thousand more if only they knew they were slaves" -Harriet Tubman

"Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe." -Frederick Douglass

"Failure is impossible" -Susan B. Anthony