School Service Center
The City Board of Education School Service Center is a 2-story brick building located at 2312 Reverend Abraham Woods Jr Boulevard (formerly 2320–2326 8th Avenue North), on Block 3, immediately behind the former Phillips High School.
It was constructed in 1922 as the business offices for the Birmingham Board of Education. The building also housed a carpentry shop, steam plant and warehouse for the new high school, to which it was connected by a 5-foot by 6-foot utility tunnel below the street to the school's basement.
The plant, occupying the northern part of the building, was equipped with five 125hp coal-fueled boilers vented through a single tall brick smokestack. The area behind the building was used as a coal yard, accessed by a spur from the nearby Frisco Railroad tracks.
In 2021 a proposal from Legacy Group of North Carolina to redevelop the site was announced, but the $1.1 million sale of the property never closed.
In 2023 the Birmingham City Council approved the sale of the property to Jeffery Riddle's Riddle Property Group of Atlanta, Georgia for $1.9 million. RPG has proposed a multi-use development called "The Tower at Uptown" which could include condominium and hotel units along with retail and restaurant space, as well as an "A. G. Gaston Center for Entrepreneurship" co-working center, patterned after the Russell Innovation Center for Entrepreneurs (RICE) in Atlanta.
References
- Parker, Illyshia (May 17, 2023) "Local entity considers purchasing former board of education building." Birmingham Business Journal
- Michaels, Ryan (May 31, 2023) "AG Gaston Center For Entrepreneurship Planned for Birmingham." The Birmingham Times
- Parker, Illyshia (June 6, 2023) "Former Birmingham Board of Education building future site of mixed-use development." Birmingham Business Journal