Category: RBCoYP

A Guide To Local Breweries in Buffalo, NY.

By Bernice Radle – Buffalo’s Young Preservationists

Do you like our “Local Brews on Tues” series? Taste it for yourself!  Join us on April 8th – 10th to taste the finest beers from around the Rust Belt. To kick off our weekend in PGH, we will be doing a “BYOB” Friday night opening event where everyone brings a six pack or growler of local beer with them. Thanks to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, we will also be able to serve some of the finest Pittsburgh foods drink, talk and meet so many cool young preservationists from across the Rust Belt!!!  YES, you heard that right. Regional. Beer. Potluck. #BYOBrustbeltbeerparty

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program….

If there is one thing that is even better than beer, it’s when breweries open and make good beer inside historic buildings. Buffalo just happens to do this extremely well.

Buffalo is known for many things including chicken wings, snow and our 4am bar closings. 4am bar closings? Yes you read that right! We know how to drink beer. A mayor once said “Stay inside, grab a six-pack and watch a good football game,” when a giant snowstorm was coming. We have a grain elevator wrapped to look like a six pack of beer and Labatt Blue moved their headquarters to Buffalo because we drank the their beer the most out of any area. I won’t even begin to talk about our awesome ability to kayak down a river filled with grain elevators and bar crawl at the same time! (Editor’s note: Bernice, don’t lie. You’re totally going to do that in a future post. You’re too excited about it not to.)

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Summer in Buffalo means kayaking to Riverworks where you can drink and hang out with grain elevators wrapped to look like a Labatt Six Pack.

On top of that, it is no secret that BYP got its start by getting together to drink beers in local historic taverns and talking about preservation battles. Our happy hours are fairly infamous because they tend to attract 50 – 100 very passionate preservationists from around the area. Another reason why we love local taverns and breweries!

We have something we like to call “Beer Oriented Development” here in Buffalo, NY. Coined by Buffalo City Planner Chris Hawley, BOD is defined as “the ability of local craft brewing and distilling to attract people, dollars, and development.” Basically that means, when a brewery or cool craft tap house opens in a typically underserved area, it kickstarts attention and development in that area. BOD, much like TOD (transit oriented development), is a great way to help grow communities and increase the excitement needed to begin a rebound.

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Big Ditch Brewing Co. (Photo Courtesy of Big Ditch!)

Let’s explore the brewing scene in Buffalo!

Pearl Street Brewery:

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Pearl Street Brewery. (Photo Courtesy of Visit Buffalo Niagara)

Perhaps our oldest brewery, Pearl Street opened in the late 80’s in Downtown Buffalo where saving buildings and drinking locally-made beer was pretty much unheard of. Pearl Street decided to set up shop downtown, saving an incredible set of brick row buildings from the wrecking ball for their brewery! Rumor has it that the owner of Pearl Street has some serious ties in Colorado with Breckenridge Brewery, which is a Denver staple. Try the Lighthouse or Trainwreck – two of Pearl Street’s classics!

 

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BYP at Resurgence Brewery in 2014

Resurgence Brewery:

This brewery decided to land inside one of Buffalo’s very few saw tooth buildings on the West Side of Buffalo. Resurgence is known for their Sponge Candy Stout, giant Jenga and their large patio. Before Resurgence, houses were selling for $1, if they dodged the demolition. Now? Two art galleries and a local fitness company have opened and a wood fired pizza place on the way.

 

Community Beer Works: cbw_logo.jpg

CBW wins the “first in” award. In 2012, these guys took the
plunge in Buffalo when very few would. They serve delicious unfiltered beer and do it very very well. They teamed up with Hydraulic Hearth to create a satellite brewery so Hydraulic could serve the freshest beer to their customers. CBW is nearing a big change – soon enough they will have a large tap room inside of a historic building located on the lower west side in an area that is ripe for BOD.

Big Ditch Brewing Co. :

Big Ditch Brewing Co. champions our Buffalo history all day, every day. “Strength, Pride and Ambition, the history of the Erie Canal” is a mural that looks over the brewery and happens to be one of the most highly instagrammed photos of 2015 in Buffalo. Well, Big Ditch took over a nondescript warehouse and turned it into an epic brewery equipped with meeting spaces, garage doors for the summer and a second floor. Located in Downtown Buffalo, Big Ditch helped to inspire others to invest in what now is known as “restaurant row” along Ellicott Street.

Gene McCarthy’s :

Perhaps my all-time favorite chicken wing spot is also a brewery! Gene’s has done a lot for the old first ward over the last 100 years. Despite the fact that it hasn’t changed much over the years, Just recently, there have been proposals for a new cafe and their first shipping container house. If you go here, order the McCarthy’s wings – they are delicious!!

And there’s so much more! Including Flying Bison, Ellicottville Brewing Co., 42 North and many others… I feel like I could write forever but luckily for us, someone already did! You can read this powerpoint equipped with some of the best beer quotes I’ve ever seen. And if you’re thirsty for more, click here for the official buffalo beer guide. 

Cheers!
Bernice

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What’s Happening in 2016: Wheeling, WV

What’s Happening in 2016: Wheeling, WV

By Stephanie Wright – Wheeling Young Preservationists

Who are the Wheeling Young Preservationists?

WYP logoWe are skilled tradesmen/women, social service workers, stay at home dads, young couples restoring their dream home, bankers, political science majors, archivists, entrepreneurs, developers, local historians…we just about have it all! WYPs may come in many forms, but we have one common thread: Our passion and determination to maintain positive momentum as we usher in Wheeling’s new era of rust-belt resilience.

WYP has several ongoing projects from years past that we are excited to continue and expand upon in 2016.

Education

WYP- wood epoxy consolidation workshopLast year, WYP launched a monthly hands-on workshop series geared towards equipping young, DIY-minded preservationists with the knowledge to tackle some of their own restoration projects. Our workshops included a 3-part plaster restoration workshop, a wood epoxy consolidation workshop and a lead safety workshop. The 2016 workshop series will run from June – October; more information will be released on WYP’s Facebook page soon!

Mt. Wood Cemetery

Preservation efforts began in the summer of 2012 when a grassroots movement of several local organizations and volunteers began meeting on Mt. Wood’s behalf.

Incorporated in 1848, it is resting place for many of the area’s prominent and hardworking citizens and offers breathtaking views of the city and the Ohio River. Volunteers come together monthly to participate in the physical restoration of long-neglected headstones and monuments, and to survey, document and research each grave.

Information on the progress at Mt. Wood Cemetery can be found here.

WYP mt. wood cemetery inventory

New in 2016

WYP is excitedly planning a month-long celebration for May. This fun and education-filled Preservation Month will kick off with an Instameet on the 1st that will encourage the use of the National Trust’s #ThisPlaceMatters campaign as well as our own local version, #WheeLove. Additionally, we will be featuring local preservation success stories on our blog throughout the month, organizing community service days at The Blue Church, participating in First Friday festivities with a Plein Air-style paint and sip, and releasing a printed walking tour of Centre Market, Wheeling’s historic shopping district.

To follow our events in May, get up-to-date information on upcoming workshops and service days, please check out our website and follow us on Facebook.

A Beginner’s Guide to Pittsburgh, Part 1

By Mike Panzitta – Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh

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So you want to learn a little about Pittsburgh before you make your big journey to the first meeting of the Rust Belt Coalition of Young Preservationists in April? I don’t blame you…the City of Steel can be intimidating for a first- (or even fortieth-) time visitor. There are formidable obstacles like rivers, bridges, and tunnels, and more neighborhoods with the word “hill” in them than you can shake a fist at. Let’s start with two of the basics: Rivers and Neighborhoods.

Rivers

Pittsburgh is defined by its rivers. Our rivers are the reason Pittsburgh was able to grow from Fort Pitt in the mid-18th century to an industrial giant in the mid-20th century, and they shape a singular topography that confuses even the most geographically-inclined residents. There are three of them, so repeat after me – Allegheny (“al-uh-GEY-nee”), Monongahela (“muh-non-guh-HEEL-uh”), and Ohio (“Ohio”).

Hydrologically, the Monongahela (colloquially known as “the Mon”) flows into the Allegheny to form the Ohio. If you want to know more about the rivers, ask me (Mike)…I’ll bore you to death with both fun and less-than-fun facts.

Vocab word of the day: “Confluence.” It’s the meeting of two or more bodies of water. In Pittsburgh, we call our confluence “The Point,” and it’s the home of Point State Park. Point State Park was the site of two of Pittsburgh’s original structures – Fort Pitt and Fort Duquesne – and was declared a National Historic Landmark just one year after the Park was built in 1974. It’s also home to a much-loved and recently renovated fountain, the marketing campaign for which is one of our favorites (“If there is no fountain, what’s The Point?”).  Fun fact – one of the alternate plans for the park was designed by some guy who went by the name Frank Lloyd Wright. The plan was rejected by the city…sorry, Frank!

Neighborhoods

This section title is a bit misleading since there are something like 92 neighborhoods in Pittsburgh city-proper, and even some of those are questionable (I’m looking at you, Hays). But I’ll run you through a few of the areas you’d expect to encounter on this visit so you can act as cool as an old pro.

The Golden Triangle is what we call Downtown (pronounced “Dahn-tahn”). It’s sandwiched between the Allegheny and the Mon, which determined the original triangular street grid of the city. It’s home to incredible architecture, and is currently experiencing a boom in residential occupancy like many downtown areas across the country. The tip of the Golden Triangle is the Point!

The North Side is what we call pretty much all the neighborhoods north of the Allegheny. Formerly a separate entity known as Allegheny City, it was annexed by the City of Pittsburgh in 1907 (think: Brooklyn). The North Side has an abundance of historic buildings and neighborhoods. It’s where most of you will be staying, so you’ll get to know it really well!

Mount Washington, formerly “Coal Hill,” is technically not a mountain. It’s at the elevation the land was at before the rivers came through and made it really tough to bike around, probably on purpose. If you look at a photo of Downtown Pittsburgh, there’s like an 86% chance it was taken from Mount Washington. The riverside slopes of Mount Washington are also home to these funky things called “inclines” that take you directly from the waterfront to the top of the mountain, which will afford you one of the best-known views of Pittsburgh and surrounding areas (more on what inclines are and why they exist in future posts).

The South Side is sandwiched between Mount Washington and the Monongahela and is known for a crazy high concentration of bars and restaurants. It’s a pretty common place for newly-minted 21-year-olds to go out, but there’s a lot of great less-frequented places, and the residential section is full of beautiful intact sets of historic row houses. Our row houses are one of our pride and joys! The South Side Slopes, though they sound like a ski resort, also have some of the best views of the city.

The East End lies…wait for it…east of downtown and is home to probably the greatest variety of neighborhoods. Oakland, the Hill District, Lawrenceville, and East Liberty are all prominent neighborhoods in the East End, some of which are experiencing a lot of gentrification. YPA has advocated to preserve more and more sites in the East End in recent years, and we have also seen some great examples of adaptive reuse (such as the Union Project) and some disappointing demolitions (like 6012-6018 Penn Ave).

Well, that’s enough to digest for now. See you next time, when I cover the Inclines and City Steps!

Preservation + Pints (Or Shots)

Preservation + Pints (Or Shots)

By Sarah Marsom – Young Ohio Preservationists

Craft breweries and distilleries have swept Ohio by storm. Many breweries are hoping to revitalize the state’s history as a beer capital, and many distilleries are using historical beverages to inspire their contemporary palates. Here are a few places you should try!

Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus – Columbus, Ohio

Both a popular bar and eye catching building in Columbus, Elevator Brewery’s history dates back to 1897. Located in the Bott Brothers’ Billiards building, this contemporary bar thrives on its historical elements—the billiards tables from the 1800s, stained glass entry, tile floors, decorative ceilings, and a well preserved bar. The Elevator Brewery and Draught Haus is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Columbia Building. You can go to www.elevatorbrewing.com for more information.

elevator breweryImage source: elevatorbrewing.com

Rhinegeist – Cincinnati, Ohio*

Rhinegeist means “ghost of the Rhine”, and bringing a ghost back to life is exactly what this beer company did! Located in the historic Over-the-Rhine brewery district, Rhinegeist is revitalizing the beer industry, which, with the area, thrived in the late 1800s. Prohibition put 38 breweries out of business and left countless German immigrants unemployed. In the recent past, developers have been revitalizing the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood, and Rhinegeist has sparked new life into Christian Moerling Brewing Company’s old bottling plant. Want to learn more about the building’s history and Rhinegeist? Take one of their guided tours. You can learn more at www.rhinegeist.com.

*Cincinnati is also home to underground brewery tours! This town’s beer history is deep!

rhinegeist Image source: rhinegeist.com

Homestead Beer Co  – Licking County, Ohio

While the brewery is not in a historic building, Homestead Beer Co has its headquarters in the very historic community of Granville, and the name evokes wonderment of the original farm settlements, which created a thriving Licking County in the 1800s. Homestead Brewing does not use modern yeast strains, instead preferring yeast which could have been used by grandfathers of the past to brew. With brew names such as 1805, Five Points Irish, and Barnraiser, one knows the people behind Homestead use the past as inspiration to create contemporary drinks. Go to www.homesteadbeerco.com to learn more.

homesteadImage source: homesteadbeerco.com

E.S. Distillery – outside Fremont, Ohio

Located in a 120-year-old barn, the Ernesto Scarano distillery is also worth a visit. This craft distillery is supposedly the smallest legal whiskey distillery in America. Visit www.esdistillery.com for more information.

What are some of your favorite bars, breweries, or distilleries in Ohio with historic elements?  Add your favorites to the list in the comments section below.

Heart Bombs Across the Rust Belt

We Young Preservationists believe in doing simple projects that engage the community in fun and creative ways. Sooo…enter the Heart Bomb!!

What is a Heart Bomb? Well, it is a piece of paper with a cute phrase pasted onto vacant buildings to show it some love. Many cities have taken on the Heart Bomb and given it their own spin. From Heart Bombing historic taverns in the midwest to celebrating texas courthouses in the south, the Heart Bomb has traveled far and wide and has saved many buildings from the wrecking ball.

If you’re looking for a guide on how to Heart Bomb, it exists here! And let us know how your Heart Bombings go…we love pictures and stories!

Let’s dive in and see how we do it!

Muncie, Indiana

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In Muncie, Preserve Greater Indy Heart Bombed with the Muncie Historic Preservation and Rehabilitation Commission and students from Ball State’s historic preservation program. Our goal is to see all of the Heart Bomb sites be preserved, adapted, and repurposed as part of broader revitalization efforts in Muncie.

Heart Bomb sites included the endangered Kitselman Mansion, which is looking for a new owner and use that will cherish this architectural marvel. The Rainbow Cathedral previously served as Muncie’s first LGBT church, but is now vacant and for sale.  Just a block from the heart of downtown Muncie, the Rainbow Cathedral could be a great asset for Muncie if rehabbed and adapted for a new use. Next, we headed over and shared some love for the brick pavers on Powers Street, as the City of Muncie may pave over this important part of Muncie’s heritage.

Our last Heart Bomb stop was the darling Mid-Century Modern gas station on South Madison Street – the last of its kind in downtown Muncie. At the modest size of 1,400 square feet, we could dream up a variety of new uses for this gem currently for sale. 

Ohio, Just About All of It!

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The Young Ohio Preservationists launched our first Heart Bomb campaign, and partnered with 13 Main Street Programs and the Columbus Landmarks Foundation to bring attention to Ohio’s invaluable historic districts and historic structures.  

In Columbus, we at the YOP Heart Bombed Columbus Railway Power & Light (1915), Macon Hotel (1888), and Bellows School (1905).  The Columbus Railway Power and Light structure is all that is left of Columbus’s long-forgotten rail system.  Privately owned, this building has infinite redvelopment potential due to its proximity to the Short North Arts District. Neglected, the Macon Hotel was once a hub for jazz music performances.  Today the building sits vacant and accumulating code violations.  Bellows School is slated to be demolished in 2023, as part of an ODOT project expanding I-70/71 even though the structure was found to be eligible for the NRHP as part of a 2006 study!  

Heart Bomb events were also done throughout Ohio, in Van Wert, Greenville, Troy, Marietta, Cambridge, Painesville, Mount Vernon, Chardon, Lebanon, Delaware, Defiance, and Cleveland’s Gateway and Warehouse districts.  #HeartbombOhio was made possible thanks to our sponsors: Greater Columbus Arts Council, Designing Local, and Igloo Letterpress.

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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The Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh was excited to launch our very first Heart Bomb Campaign this year. All of the buildings we bombed (with love!) have been featured on one of our Top Ten Preservation Opportunities in Southwestern PA lists, which we’ve released annually since 2003. 

On Saturday, YPA heart bombed the Old Stone Tavern, the Allegheny Commons Pedestrian Bridge, and the Drover’s Hotel.

On Sunday, we partnered with the Student Conservation Association to introduce conservation in a whole new way to a group of high school students to Heart Bomb three buildings in Pittsburgh’s historic Hill District. In the early to mid 1900’s, the Hill District, often called “Little Harlem,” was home to over 600 clubs, the crown jewel of which was the Crawford Grill. Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Louis Armstrong performed here, and it was where notable Pittsburgh jazz musicians such as Leroy Brown and George Benson cut their teeth. The New Granada Theater was built in 1928 by Louis A.S. Bellinger, Pittsburgh’s first black architect. We also stopped down the street to the first home of August Wilson, whose ten plays known as The Pittsburgh Cycle are considered to be a great American triumph. Two of his plays, “Fences” and “The Piano Lesson”, have won Pulitzer Prizes.

Located very closely to downtown Pittsburgh, the Hill District and its residents never rebounded from the loss of industry in Pittsburgh like other communities have, and many of its historic buildings, and more importantly its history and identity, are severely threatened by demolition either from neglect or for new development. There are no national historic districts in the Hill District.

You can read more about Pittsburgh Heart Bombs and the history of the sites on our blog.

Wheeling, West Virginia

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When the Wheeling Young Preservationists formed in the fall of 2012, a Heart Bombing campaign was one of our first orders of business. The founders of WYP initiated the “All We Need Is Love” campaign to highlight historic buildings in downtown Wheeling that were vacant and/or architecturally significant to the fabric of our city.

The next two years members of WYP and other young (and young-at-heart) preservationists continued what we now refer to as “Lovescaping” in February to bring attention to our city’s historic (and most importantly, available) properties in downtown.
So far, WYP’s Lovescaping campaign has, directly and indirectly, played a role in successfully transferring six buildings out of the demolition radar and into responsible ownership.

In 2015, WYP took Lovescaping to a new level by creating #WheeLove to encourage everyone in the community to post photos to Instagram and Facebook of local structures that they #WheeLove and share why that structure is important to them- a sort of Valentine for their favorite building. #WheeLove is used throughout the year to promote preservation efforts and aid in the discussion of the building’s importance to our city.

The steering committee of WYP decided not to Lovescape in 2016. Instead we will focus on creating a full line-up of events for the whole month of May, to help celebrate and draw attention to National Preservation Month.

Buffalo, New York: Home of the Original Heart Bomb

We Heart Bomb. It’s pretty cool. Once we put a giant 2 story Heart Bomb that said Buffalove on a warehouse that could be seen from Canada! Our goal is to highlight our favorite vacant buildings every year.

This year we Heart Bombed the following buildings:

204 High Street: A vacant Italianate that is steps from our growing medical campus. It has been vacant for nearly 20 years and is a demolition by neglect project that deserves a new life. Check it out: http://www.preservationready.org/Buildings/204HighStreet

The Bachelor : The oldest apartment building in downtown Buffalo, built in 1886. It was originally built for bachelor men moving into the city! Such a cool building with a great history! It is currently up for demolition for a 20+ story hotel, which is odd because its demolition is paired with a SHPO approved restoration of the Christian Center which is a block away.

BYP is currently working to landmark the building and also has had SHPO reconsider the historic tax credits for the project! You can read about it here.

The Crosby Complex: This brick industrial complex has been neglected for 40 years or more. The owner was ready for demo but thanks to the efforts from the entire preservation community, they are now looking into stabilization!

 

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View from the City Steps

By Mike Panzitta – Young Preservationists Association of Pittsburgh

With the fantastic weather this weekend, a couple buddies and I decided to climb up some of the City Steps here on the North Side and take in the views of Pittsburgh. We ended up climbing much higher, but I don’t want to use up all my best material this early. You can read more about the Pittsburgh City Steps on YPA PGH’s blog.

Excited to show Pittsburgh off to everyone at the RBC Pittsburgh Summit in April!

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Major Label Debut: Rust Belt Coalition of Young Preservationists!

United we stand together as a group of young preservation organizations from around the rust belt to bring you the following:

  • Many awesome rust belt weekend trips where we sleep on couches, go to all the historic bars we can and explore the weirdest parts of the city on bike.
  • A friend when you need a hug because someone evil knocked something historic down.
  • Advice, wisdom and love when you’re advocating to save a building in your area.
  • Advice on starting up young preservation organizations across the rust belt. (Warning, this may require us to come there to explore and help!)
  • Affirmative action when needed. Why? Because that is what we do for our friends.

Who is this crazy RBCoYP team? People from Buffalo, Indy, Pittsburgh and Columbus… so far. Stay tuned for more info.

xo!