ATLANTA — A new chapter has been added to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The building where King had an office during the early days of the civil rights movement in Atlanta was restored.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen was in northeast Atlanta’s Sweet Auburn Community where the past was honored through the restoration, and supporters looked to the future.
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When Ed Bowen, Prince Hall Masonic Lodge restoration advisor, walked into the newly renovated “Yellow Brick Building” on Auburn Avenue, he said he was stunned.
“I was just as proud as I could be!” Bowen told Channel 2 Action News. “I’m glad we had a good team and I had good partners.”
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The partners have now fully restored the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge. The building was constructed nearly 90 years ago and was home to the Free Masons, and the burgeoning civil rights movement.
“I remember coming here when I was five or six with my siblings from time to time to visit my dad,” Martin Luther King III, civil rights leader and son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said.
The famed civil rights leader had an office at the lodge. Now, the National Park Services will work to replicate the building as a historical display.
“They have the pictures and conference room table in their research,” Bowen said. “So they know how to lay it out.”
Walking through the building, Petersen could see how everything was completely restored.
The $14 million project is now officially part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Park, which attracts more than one million visitors every year.
“It’s gonna be a beautiful space and give people another place to visit,” Bowen said. “Not just the King Center and Ebenezer Church. Walk a block and see the fabric of the civil rights movement.”
The building officially opens to the public for tours starting in April.
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