Ninth Ward At Babeville

Built during Buffalo’s Golden Age—the era when Mark Twain, Grover Cleveland, and Frederick Law Olmsted were all making their mark on the city—Babeville is located at the crossroads of three National and Local Historic Districts. Boasting one of downtown’s most recognizable steeples, a magnificent exterior of Medina sandstone, and a roof of Vermont slate, it is the last known surviving example of the work of architect John Selkirk.

Babeville is in fact two buildings: the sanctuary, which faces Delaware Avenue, and the parish house, which faces Tupper. Viewed from outside, they appear to be a single entity—which is not a bad metaphor for the way that Babeville brings together past and future, art and commerce, private and public funding.

Transforming a 19th century house of worship into a 21st century multi-purpose venue was fraught with complications, as you might imagine. But many times the difficulties lead to innovative solutions; take the state-of-the-art geothermal heating system, for instance, which employs wells 300 feet below the surface of the earth to heat and cool the building with minimal reliance on fossil fuels. It’s one of the first such systems of its kind in the area.

Today, the building houses several separate entities, among them the performance venue Asbury Hall (accommodating 300 in a banquet configuration and up to 1,000 in a concert setting), the headquarters of Righteous Babe Records, the gallery and screening room of Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, and a small bar/lounge. Many events are presented by Righteous Babe and/or Hallwalls, but the space is also available for rental by outside groups and is flexible enough to be transformed to meet almost any need. It’s a safe bet to say that something—more likely several somethings—are always going on at Babeville.

While it’s taken years to get this far, there is still much more to be done. Major construction may have drawn to a close, but the real story is just beginning. As each successive phase of the project is completed, exciting new possibilities will present themselves—because Babeville is no longer simply a static reminder of Buffalo’s bygone glory, it’s a promise of things to come.