A long-vacant church building across the street from Jones Valley K-8 school has landed back in front of Birmingham City Hall, where its new owner is pleading for time instead of a wrecking ball. The former Powderly 32nd Street Baptist Church at 3012 Dowell Ave. SW was placed on the city's public nuisance list on September 22, and while the Birmingham City Council has already voted to condemn the structure, owner Nathan Thompson is asking leaders to hold off and let him try to save it.
Thompson only became owner of the property through his father's estate on September 18, just four days before the council's nuisance listing. According to WBMA, Thompson returned to Birmingham City Hall to request more time, telling the council he has already spent significant time and money cleaning up the property since taking title. The 1956-built facility includes a 1,000-seat main sanctuary and 20 Sunday school classrooms that have sat empty since bank foreclosure proceedings in 2009, according to Wisevoter.
An Estate Battle Five Years in the Making
The building's decay traces back further than the foreclosure. Thompson's late father, Harold Thompson, bought the church property for $64,000 in 2016, but his death in 2021 triggered an estate battle that left the building unmaintained for five years, Wisevoter reports, until title formally passed to Nathan Thompson last month. That gap in ownership helps explain why the structure has reached its current state of disrepair, with failing roof sections and broken glass creating what Wisevoter describes as immediate public safety concerns for neighborhood schoolchildren, given the building sits directly across Dowell Avenue SW from Jones Valley K-8.
Thompson is now proposing a different future for the site. Per the station's report, he floated pursuing funding for a STEM center serving Jones Valley students, along with alternative ideas like a farmers market or a community garden on the property. Thompson described Jones Valley K-8 as a struggling school in making his case, the same account notes.
Council President Pushes Back on Involving Students
Birmingham City Council President Wardine Alexander pushed back against drawing Jones Valley students, parents and staff into the debate over the condemned building, according to the same WBMA report. Alexander said city leaders should improve and revitalize the community without making the school's students and families responsible for the property's condition, rejecting the notion that students and faculty should be the ones cleaning up places like the condemned church. Alexander represents Birmingham's District 7, where Powderly is located, and previously served two terms as President of the Birmingham Board of Education before joining the City Council in 2018, according to Ballotpedia, a background that colors her protective posture toward the school.
Notably, Thompson sits on the City Council in Clay, Alabama, a separate municipality roughly 20 miles northeast of Birmingham, according to the City of Clay. That raises a point of context: in August, the Clay City Council reviewed a draft municipal budget that allocated $100,000 specifically for tearing down unsafe structures within Clay's own borders, as reported by The Trussville Tribune.
What Alabama Law Allows — and What Thompson Is Asking For
Birmingham has broad legal authority here. Under Alabama municipal law, incorporated cities can order the demolition of unsafe, vacant structures deemed public nuisances and attach a municipal tax lien against the property to recover city costs, per Justia Law. Birmingham's own code enforcement guide outlines a multi-step process, with inspectors issuing 15-to-30-day notice of violation orders before presenting public nuisance declarations to the council, which can then authorize third-party contractor demolition if hazards go uncorrected, according to the City of Birmingham. The city has demolished 77 properties since the start of 2025.
Thompson's ask, per WBMA, is specific: 120 days to secure the building, obtain a structural evaluation and submit a repair plan. He has committed to providing progress updates and allowing city inspections while any repair work moves forward. For now, the former church remains on Birmingham's public nuisance list, even as the council weighs whether Thompson's vision for a STEM center or community space can be squared with the urgency of a condemned building sitting across from an elementary school.
