Martin Luther King, Jr. Historic Resource Study

Boundary Justification

Historic district boundaries for the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site closely follow the bounds authorized in the 1980 federal legislation that established the National Historic Site. These bounds define areas of high integrity with significant concentrations of historic resources. The Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Center plaza, located on the north side of Auburn Avenue opposite Ebenezer Baptist Church, is excluded from the district. Its open grassed court is a visual disruption and lacks the historic integrity of the more closely spaced structures that characterize much of the Site.

On October 30, 1992, the boundary of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site was expanded in an effort to acquire and preserve Ebenezer Baptist Church and provide parking for the increasing number of visitors to the Site. The boundary expansion area includes approximately 14 additional acres north of the Community Center plaza between Jackson Street and Boulevard. Many of the expansion area's fifteen early-twentieth-century commercial and industrial buildings are currently unoccupied and in disrepair. The interior alleys are no longer discernable, and streetscapes are defined by the vacant lots separating most structures. Only part of one building remains on the north side of Cain Street, for example, where construction of the Presidential Parkway has hastened the destruction of buildings on that side of the street.

The boundary expansion area was excluded from the original district nomination because its integrity was compromised by the earlier removal of period structures, leaving discontinuous remnants intact. None of the expansion-area properties was found to meet the minimum requirements for National Register eligibility under Criterion C. Three properties do not meet the 50-year requirement. No structure is the work of a master and none possesses high artistic merit. The structures also do not embody distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, because all properties have problems of integrity relating to design, setting, feeling, or association. The boundary expansion area is excluded from the district.