Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birth home has been sold. The National Park Service bought the home in Atlanta for an undisclosed sum last month, according to a National Park Foundation statement.
The home will remain a national historic site and will be maintained and preserved by the foundation.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the foremost civil rights activists in American history. He lived a life dedicated to equal rights and is remembered as an American hero. He was assassinated at the Lorraine Hotel in Mississippi in 1968. He was just 39 years old.
The home King was born in is on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta and was built in 1895. King’s maternal grandfather bought the house in 1909 for $3,500, according to an Associated Press report. It was inherited by King’s mother, who gave birth to him in the home in 1929. King’s younger brother A.D. King lived there with his family after his mother. No other members of the King family have lived in the home since, but the home remained in the family until last month’s sale.
Although the National Park Service now owns the home, it’s been open for tours since 1980. It was assigned National Historic Site status in 1980 by an act of Congress. Tours will continue.