Birmingham Churches and Their Cornerstones 57

Thirty-Second Street Baptist Church was designed by the pioneering African-American architect Wallace Rayfield and erected in 1924 at 518 32nd Street South. At the time of its erection, the eastern section of Birmingham’s southside neighborhood was an African American residential neighborhood. In 1996 it was documented with photographs and measured drawings for the Historic American Buildings Survey. By the end of the twentieth-century, it had long since become predominately commerical and the congregation moved to west to Powderly. For years, the church was vacant. Then it suffered a fire. Rejuvination plans included making it into luxury condomiums or a small private school. But the building remained vacant for years.

I saw it frequently, not only on my weekend bicycle rides (when all most all photos in this series are taken), but also when we had our automobiles serviced at Tire Engineers across the street. In July 2021 the building was taken down and the lot sits vacant. The cornerstones and went with it.

For photos from before it went into disrepair see the entry at Historic American Buildings Survey. For additional historical information see the entry in Bhamwiki.com.

Read this first post for more on this series on Birmingham churches and their cornerstones.

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