And rebuilding the cabin is not without its complications; the wood is so dry that bark has fallen off the logs in many places.

“There’s been worry from everybody,” the church’s pastor, Drew Ludwig, said of the renovations. “The congregation. The neighborhood. The preservationists. The people who worry, rightly do. Change produces anxiety. But the path we were on meant a closed building.”

The Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church was built in 1896 in an area of Buffalo that was once a streetcar suburb, but is now a coveted neighborhood in the heart of the city. About 30 years later, Troop 2 was allowed to construct a free-standing log cabin inside the church.

Malinda Dokey, a scout parent, said she thought the cabin was merely a cute name for what the scouts called their meeting room. “Then I saw it!” she said. “If I was a young guy and wanted to be a scout, this would be the icing on the cake. I’d be all about this!”

When Mr. Ludwig got to the church in 2007, there were about 40 regulars at worship, down from the estimated 1,700 who came to Sunday services in 1925. The church was forced to draw on the principal of its endowment, and then the market crashed.

The plans to repurpose the church, the pastor said, were born of “a perfect storm of hope and fear.”