Tourists coming to Atlanta next week for the holidays will have to skip that visit to the birth home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
An official with the National Park Service said the house, which has been closed for repairs since August, will remain closed for the remainder of the year.
Judy Forte, superintendent of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site, said while there is a slight possibility that the Auburn Avenue home could re-open in January, in time for King Week, a more realistic goal seems to be to get the 121-year-old house stable and refurbished in time for 2018.
That would be the 50th anniversary of King’s death.
Significant events from the civil rights leader’s life — such as the anniversary of the March on Washington (Aug. 28) or his birthday (Jan. 15) — tend to attract more tourists, Forte said.
Forte said the home was initially closed for safety reasons after structural damage was found in the floors.
“We had some floor damage by the weight of all the people who come through,” Forte said. “But a complete stabilization of the house needs to take place.”
Forte said the complete cost of the repairs has not yet been determined.
This is not the first time the Park Service has closed a structure for major repairs within the King National Historic Site.
In 2007, they embarked on a $4 million project to renovate the inside of the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, restoring it to the visual condition it was in during the 1960s, when King served as co-pastor with his father.
The restorations kept the Late Gothic Revival-style church, which opened in 1922, closed to the public for two years.
In 2012, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the King Center was planning a "dramatic renovation and expansion." The King Center is in the historic district, across the street from the King National Historic Site, but it is run independently by the King family.
King’s birth home, a two-story frame house built in the Queen Anne style, is the heart of the King National Historic Site and generally attracts between 700,000 and a million visitors a year.
Built in 1895 at 501 Auburn Ave. for a white family, the house was purchased for $3,500 in 1909 by King’s maternal grandfather, the Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, who was the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church.
King was born in the house on Jan. 15, 1929.
Alveda King, the daughter of King’s youngest brother, Alfred Daniel, wrote about the home in her recent book, “King Rules.”
“There are so many generations of Kings who have lived in the home,” said Alveda King, who lived there from 1951 through 1962 and was one of the original tour guides when the house opened to the public. “It is our home and it still feels like home. We still take great joy in visiting it ourselves. A lot of times, we will gather as a family and sit on the porch and enjoy the twilight. It just feels very comfortable and I am looking forward to it re-opening.”
While the home remains closed, all is not lost.
Tourists can still visit the other attractions within the King National Historic Site, including: the Visitors Center, Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, the World Peace Garden, Historic Fire Station No. 6, and the crypts of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.
