BUFFALO, N.Y. —  Photographs echo the life of Rev. J. Edward Nash. Sharon Holley is the president of the Board of Directors for the Michigan Street Preservation Corporation and volunteers to give tours of this historic house. But who exactly is Rev. Nash?

"Rev. Nash was born in Virginia in 1868, but he came to Buffalo to pastor the Michigan Street Baptist Church in 1892," Holley explained.

The Nash House is where Rev. Nash lived with his wife and son. Now. it’s turned into a museum with lifelike figures of the family, which makes you really feel like you’re in their house. Holley says not only was he just a pastor, but he was also an advocate for the people in the neighborhood and in the community, a community that was in need of housing and jobs.

"I think he saw part of his mission as not only to feed his church spiritually, but to be able to feed them with wisdom, and with understanding, and to try to give them some sort of hope," Holley said.

Rev. Nash worked to better the community. He had access to people in government and heard cases of discrimination in the community. He brought well-known figures such as Adam Clayton Powell Sr. and Booker T. Washington to Buffalo to speak. Yet, even locally, Holley believes not enough people have heard about Rev. Nash. 

"It’s kind of up to us to remind people of his story, to tell people about the work he has done in Buffalo and to spread the word about who he was," she said.

It helps that Rev. Nash saved almost everything from his life intact, from correspondences to sermons to furniture. When it was decided that there would be a museum in the area, Rev. Nash’s son, Jesse Nash, offered the house to the Michigan Street Preservation Corporation. Holley says it’s not rare to find a house with so much information in it.

"I think what is beginning to happen in an African American community, most people don’t feel or don’t seem to know the value of what they have. Most people look at national figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. or something and they say, 'oh he’s important, the things that he has are important, let's keep that.' But you don’t look at your own family," Holley said.

Now, Holley says you probably shouldn’t save everything, but she does caution people about stripping a person’s house after they die. Those belongings tell a story and it’s important to tell that story, like Rev. Nash’s story is told through his house. 

"I think knowing about Rev. Nash’s story is also the story of the African American community in Buffalo, New York," Holley said.