Feds will demolish Brown Funeral Home on Flint’s east side

Brown Funeral Home

The former Brown's Funeral Home in Flint is shown in this Flint Journal file photo.

FLINT, MI -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will begin demolishing the former Brown’s Funeral Home on Davison Road starting next month, saying a series of fires there have made the property a danger to the public.

EPA announced its involvement in the demolition and removal of asbestos-contaminated debris in a news release Tuesday, March 23, and it it expects the job will be completed this summer.

“We’re demolishing Brown’s Funeral Home so Flint residents won’t need to worry about being exposed to asbestos,” Acting EPA Region 5 Administrator Cheryl Newton said in a statement released by the EPA. “Getting this abandoned building out of the community will further help the people of Flint by setting the stage for returning the property to productive use.”

EPA said the federal government’s assistance in the demolition was requested by the Genesee County Land Bank Authority, which owns the property, after a series of fires damaged the structure.

The agency said it is necessary to secure the property during the project, restricting public access to the site as part of its cleanup plan.

In addition to the demolition, plans call for the EPA to transport and dispose of contaminated waste from the site at an approved facility and to monitor air to protect workers and the public.

“In addition to helping to transform the Davison Road corridor and creating a new opportunity for redevelopment, this demolition will eliminate a hazard to surrounding residents and businesses,” Land Bank Executive Director Michael Freeman said in the EPA release.

Before it closed in 2007, Brown’s was one of Flint’s best-known funeral homes. The facility merged with three suburban funeral homes at the time of its closing.

Praise House Deliverance Ministries was most recently located in the Davison Road building, where the Rev. General Tyler staged “The Hell Experience” as what he dubbed “an awareness program” to have people think about their life decisions, according to MLive-The Flint Journal files.

Read more on MLive:

Flint funeral home closing June 9

Fire damages former church, funeral home site

See which commercial properties top Genesee County’s 2018 foreclosure list

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