HOUSTON -- The fenced-off remnants of a gutted Fourth Ward church are about to become the centerpiece of a new Houston park.

The Houston City Council voted Wednesday to buy the land and what’s left of the Bethel Baptist Church, which caught fire in 2005. Now, the Parks Department and city engineers will examine the building to see if ambitious plans for the park’s development can take shape.

Since the fire, Pastor Robert Robertson has struggled with vandals and the weather—the two forces that often knock down the barbed-wire fence surrounding the property.

“African American slaves built this building,” he said. “We are hoping and praying that the history of this building can be saved.”

Robertson says members of his congregation struggled to decide whether to sell the property to the City, but ultimately decided the Church would not be able to raise enough money to restore the crumbling building. “The congregation got together after a lot of prayers and a lot of thinking,” Roberts said. “We had to come to the decision that it was a dangerous building.”

Descendants of slaves completed the Bethel Baptist Church in 1950, on a plot of land in the Fourth Ward that had belonged to the church since 1896. Now its four walls stand without a roof to connect them, in the shadow of downtown skyscrapers. The weeded lot is surrounded by sleek condominiums and an apartment complex in what is now known as Midtown.

“The history of this community is important,” Robertson said. “I hope and pray that the history of this community will remain.”

A “TIRZ,” or “Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone” has come up with roughly $360,000 to buy the property and build a park there. The plans call for three of the church’s four walls to be reinforced and serve as stand-alone borders for an outdoor garden.

Houston Mayor Bill White says the park will be a monument to the old Fourth Ward, a section of Houston settled by former slaves. “Houston has turned a corner in recognizing that historic preservation is worth it,” he said.