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Irvin Henderson, an official involved in redevelopment projects for some of Birmingham’s most historic buildings, died Aug. 7 at Duke University Hospital in his native North Carolina.
Scores of people have taken to social media, telling of Henderson’s impact on the communities he served. But a striking number of condolences have come from national institutions, institutions in which he played significant roles.
Take this, from a posted statement by Main Street America, of which Henderson was a founding board member: “Dedicated, generous, loving, and loyal, Irvin pushed us to be better and helped us get there … His expertise in community development and historic preservation ran deep, and he was incredibly generous of his time and talents. Irvin’s legacy lives on in the countless lives and communities he touched throughout his life.”
Henderson’s firm, Henderson & Co., was a partner in Ensley District Developers, which is working to build a 30,000-square-foot building on the former site of the Ramsay-McCormack Building.
Henderson was a trustee emeritus for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a group that has worked to highlight the importance of preserving Birmingham’s Civil Rights and African-American history.
Henderson was also involved in the revitalization of the Prince Hall Masonic Temple on Fourth Avenue North in Birmingham. This seven-story structure was built in 1922 by renowned architect Robert Robinson Taylor, and it is now part of the footprint of the Birmingham Civil Rights Monument, a National Park.
According to the National Park Service, “The building served as a physical testament to the resilience, determination, and grit of Black people in Birmingham, Alabama. Besides leasing to notable African-American professionals, the Temple also housed the offices of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), an institution instrumental in the fight against racism.”
Henderson attended a summit at the temple last year as leaders discussed plans to renovate the building, which has sat vacant since 2011.
“We will continue to build local supporters throughout the Southeast for the restoration and rehabilitation of the building,” Henderson told The Birmingham Times during the event.
Ivan Holloway, president and CEO of Urban Impact Inc., said he met Henderson as part of the Preservation Leadership Forum in 2018, and it was obvious that Henderson had a wealth of knowledge and connections in the historic preservation community.
“We really wanted him to become a part of our long-term vision for investment and opportunity in and around this part of downtown Birmingham, Fourth Avenue and the Civil Rights District. And, so we really developed a good relationship with him from that 2018 experience,” Holloway said.
Henderson was born in Vance County, North Carolina. He attended college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and founded Henderson Financial Services, a small firm in Henderson, North Carolina.
In addition to his work with Main Street America and the National Trust, Henderson was a founder and former president of the nonprofit Gateway Community Development Corp. in North Carolina.
Between 2010 and 2020, Henderson was involved with development projects in Pittsburgh, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. That included the National Economic Justice Center in Washington, D.C., just four blocks from the White House.
Holloway said that in Birmingham, Henderson brought “a sense of structure around historic preservation for the work that we were doing.”
“The movement of preservation is not only preservation in terms of physical preservation but preservation of culture, preservation of stories, and I think he and his work with us has led us to be more focused on how we begin to tell smaller stories in a bigger way.”
