The Langston Hughes Institute Center has purchased the 40,000 sq.ft. Dellenbaugh Block as the site of its future home. The properties at the southeast corner of Broadway and Michigan Avenue were built in the 1880s. Sankofa Community Dev. Corp. purchased 163-167 Broadway and 60 Nash from Joseph Violanti for $400,000.
After selling its High Street building to an affiliate of Ciminelli Development in 2010, the arts and cultural organization temporarily set up shop in the Elsinghorst Building at 136 Broadway. Plans for the Dellenbaugh Block call for gallery space, a rooftop garden, meeting spaces, and a café. Watts Architecture and Engineering has been retained to design the $8 million rehab project.
The move to Broadway and Michigan is a boost to The Michigan Street African American Heritage Project. The Heritage Area commemorates the African American experience in Buffalo. The district is bounded by Broadway, Elm, Eagle and Nash Street. It encompasses the expanding Colored Musician's Club, the Michigan Street Baptist Church and the Edward Nash House Museum which includes 50 years of Pastor Nash's letters, sermons and a collection of local memorabilia.
The Langston Hughes Institute Center for Cultural History and Arts Education has been a catalyst for the development, preservation and promotion of African American heritage in the City of Buffalo since 1968.
What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it purchase bad real estate?