Birmingham could soon turn a historic school building, the site of the city’s early battles over desegregation, into affordable housing for seniors.

The $27 million renovation of the former Graymont School across the street from Legion Field is a major component for redevelopment in the neighborhoods in the area.

The city council’s budget and finance committee last week endorsed a proposal to lease the city-owned building for 30 years at $1 a year to developers who intend to create 101 rental units for seniors. The city will also provide $3.5 million in funding to bolster the project, if the plan is approved by the full council.

“The opportunity to build more single-family homes and the opportunity to repurpose space, this goes to the heart of neighborhood revitalization,” Mayor Randall Woodfin told AL.com Wednesday. “We’re just grateful for this partnership and relationship, not only with HUD but with our local community and the chance to make a positive impact that could change lives for the better.”

Construction is expected to begin in late October with completion in early 2026.

Built in 1908, Graymont School served as an elementary school until 1989. It was the first school to be integrated in Birmingham.

“How everything looks on the outside will be preserved, but the interior will be fully gutted to accommodate the elevators that need to be replaced and the new walls,” Cory Stallworth, Birmingham’s senior deputy director of community development, told the council committee last week.

“We’ll preserve that building,” he said, “but then there will be a new building constructed alongside it which would still bring homage to the architectural elements in the neighborhood, but it would be a newer, more modern looking building to complement the rich history.”

Birmingham resident James Armstrong, a black barber, sued the board of education to enroll his sons Dwight and Floyd Armstrong to enter the school in 1963. The grounds were filled with law enforcement, protests against integration and civil rights. The students were escorted inside by their father and the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth.

The integration occurred just five days before the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church that killed four girls.

Today the reuse of the Graymont School is a major component of redevelopment spurred by the federal Choice Neighborhoods grant that the city was awarded in July 2023.

City leaders said the Choice Grant would leverage a $294 million investment in the Graymont, Smithfield and College Hills neighborhoods. That includes providing 1,000 subsidized, affordable and market-value homes and replacing the 900 units at Smithfield Court.

About 50 apartments will be built inside the historic building with the other homes located in the new construction.

A child early learning center will also open on the first floor of the existing building in space formerly used by the Jefferson County Committee for Economic Opportunity. The now-dissolved JCCEO provided similar services.

“As the first of many exciting developments planned to implement the HUD Choice Neighborhood grant, not only does it address critical needs for families and seniors, but it also brings new life to an important structure and opens the way to redevelop the Smithfield Court site,” Councilwoman Carol Clarke, whose district includes the school, told AL.com Friday. “Taken together, all of the investment planned as part of this grant will create a much-needed revitalization catalyst for the whole area.”

The project will be developed by Integral Partners and Rule Enterprises, both of Atlanta. Integral also manages Park Place downtown.

“This development was one that really caught HUD’s attention because it is an intergenerational development,” Stallworth told the committee, recalling the city’s application for the highly competitive grant. “They were very pleased to see that this would be our first phase of development for choice.”

Funding for the project will include the city’s $3.5 million in ARPA funds, along with assistance from the Housing Authority of the Birmingham District and additional cash from the city as the project develops. Developers will also seek assistance from the Alabama Housing Finance Authority, Stallworth said.

“We are seeking to subsidize that so we can bring down the rent,” he said.

“We said that we would provide funding for each development as it comes on line to be able to help subsidize it, so it is mixture of HUD funding from the Choice Neighborhood, city funding, housing authority funding, as well as state, so it is really stacked with different sources to makes these developments available.”

The school building in more recent times was the headquarters for the JCCEO from 1996 until it dissolved in late 2021.

“We want to preserve the former Graymont School because the history is important,” Stallworth said.