ATLANTA — After it closed months ago, the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is now set to reopen.
The home on Auburn Avenue in northeast Atlanta shut down this past summer to do some much-needed repairs.
The fix is now done and visitors are eager to get a peek inside.
"This is our first stop,” said Yvette McNeil, who is visiting from Virginia.
It’s been more than 30 years, but McNeil said she just had to return to King’s birthplace.
"I've not been here since I was 10, and I wanted to return as an adult,” she said.
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McNeil last visited the home on a church trip. She says the group got lost after seeing the home and stopped at a store, where they were not welcomed.
"The owner came out of the store with a shotgun and said clearly you're lost and get off of my property,” McNeil told Channel 2’s Audrey Washington.
That experience is a reason why McNeil, and so many like her, came out to honor Dr. King and to see the big brown house on Auburn Avenue, now that it is reopening.
"We went ahead and re-stabilized the first floor, which gives us an opportunity to allow more people to come on into the home,” Director Judy Forte said.
Friday, crews were trimming the hedges and power-washing the siding, all in preparation for the reopening Saturday morning.
"It's important to understand the history,” said Ana Bezeaara, who is visiting from Brazil.
People are asked to arrive early Saturday for the tour. Right now, people can only see the first floor. The second floor of the home is still off-limits.
"We're doing a condition assessment of the second floor to make sure there's no damage done to that,” Forte said.
Either way, McNeil says she feels honored to be here and to walk along the same street as Dr. King.
“Never forget our history. To never forget what the people before us marched for,” she said.
Cox Media Group
