Biography | Martin Luther King Jr. — 501 Auburn Avenue, the House Where He Was Born at Noon

People treat Sweet Auburn as a memorial street laid out after 1968. The first address was this porch. 501 Auburn Avenue NE is a two-storey Queen Anne house built in 1895. Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church one block west, bought it in 1909 for $3,500. He and Jennie Celeste Williams raised their daughter Alberta Christine here. Alberta married Michael Luther King at Ebenezer on 25 November 1926. The couple moved into an upstairs bedroom instead of leaving the house. Their second child was born in that room at noon on Tuesday, 15 January 1929. The birth was registered as Michael Luther King Jr. The family later changed both father and son to Martin. Willie Christine and Alfred Daniel were also born in the house. The family lived here until 1941, when King was twelve, then moved to 193 Boulevard. The Auburn house stayed in the family as a rental and was later split into a duplex. Atlanta slated the block for demolition in 1967. After April 1968, Coretta Scott King and Christine King Farris restored the rooms to their 1930s plan. They dedicated the house as a museum in 1975. The National Park Service has run the tours since 1980, from the visitor center at 450 Auburn Avenue. The pin is this porch. Ebenezer, the reflecting pool, and the tomb sit a short walk west. Those are later rooms in the same life. Photo: National Park Service / Historic American Buildings Survey, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons