What ever happened to that Buffalo church being moved to Georgia??

Last updated on: July 29, 2015 at 1:52 pm by Deacon Greg Kandra

What ever happened to that Buffalo church being moved to Georgia?? 2015-07-29T13:52:12-04:00 Deacon Greg Kandra

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A friend dropped me a line to ask if I’d heard anything more about this unusual undertaking.

I posted on it a few years back, when The Deacon’s Bench was still at Beliefnet:

Instead of building a neoclassical church, Wilbur’s growing parish wants to buy classical-style St. Gerard’s, take it apart and ship it 900 miles from Buffalo’s depopulated east side to Norcross, Ga., for reassembly at Mary Our Queen parish. The parish has the endorsement of the Catholic archdiocese of Atlanta, the diocese of Buffalo and St. Gerard’s former parishioners. All it needs is an additional $10 million.

That was in 2009. And since then?

The Preservation Buffalo Niagara website says the church — still standing in Buffalo — remains on the market:

In 2009, a congregation in suburban Atlanta, Georgia announced plans to move St. Gerard’s brick by brick from Buffalo to their city. Although still interested, they have not raised the funds necessary to do so and the church continues to stay on the market. Any local buyer is welcome to put in an offer. There are restrictive covenants to be aware of. Hopefully St. Gerards will continue to contribute to the history of the area in which it was intended.

Another website, Buffalo Rising, has put a price tag on the property:

Have you ever contemplated what it would be like to own a historic church? Maybe for adaptive reuse purposes – residential, educational, town hall, or event space? Well, Preservation Buffalo Niagara (PBN) is looking for a responsible buyer for St. Gerard’s Church located at Bailey and East Delavan in Buffalo. The church is currently being listed at $130,000, and according to PBN the purchase price includes the rectory, which has a ton of potential for housing.

Only 130K?? That’s a steal.

Meantime, down in Georgia the parish website for Mary Our Queen is still touting the long-hoped-for relocation of the Buffalo basilica, and directing people to a special website dubbed Moved By Grace:

The central fact of the relocation will always be that this beautiful building will continue to exist for the worship of God in a way that transcends the limits of time and space – even the 900 miles between Buffalo and Atlanta.

With your help, an American monument will continue life as a center of spiritual vitality and growth, a symbol of love for God and the unflagging human spirit.

Without your help, the church will sit vacant at the corner of Bailey and East Delavan in a fading neighborhood which Catholic residents have largely departed. The church’s almost certain fate there, amid the harsh elements, is deterioration, decline and, eventually, destruction.

It’s unclear just how far along this relocation process has gone—or whether it’s ever going to be realized. The last news entry at the Moved By Grace website was in 2011.

I’ve sent emails to people in Atlanta to see if they could give me any more information. Stay tuned.

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