Martin Luther King Jr and Coretta Scott King moved into this home on Sunset Avenue in 1965. The home was built in 1933 in a racially mixed neighborhood. As whites began to leave the neighborhood, many prominent Black Atlantans like Alonzo Herndon and Julian Bond called Vine City home.
Mrs. King continued to live in the home until 2004. It was here where she founded the King Center. The King family continued to own the home until the property was purchased by the National Park Service in 2019. It will eventually be opened as a house museum like his birth home.
The swing set is one of the many original items left on the property.
Before it became the Hanley Funeral Home, the building initially served as the District Grand Lodge No. 1 of Georgia of Independent Benevolent Order. Built in 1915, the building became the Hanley Funeral Home in 1925. The location handled two of Atlanta’s largest funerals, boxer Tiger Flowers in 1927 and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
White Oaks was completed in 1926 for the Bolling and Dorothy Jones family. At the time, this area was considered in the country and far from downtown Atlanta. This West Paces Ferry Road home was designed by architects Pringle and Smith. When stopped in traffic, the home on the hill provides for one of the more beautiful views on West Paces.
Dorothy Jones lived in the home until she passed in 1996. Since then, White Oaks has been listed for sale a few times. Each time, the new owners updated or added to the home. Property photos from the last sale can be seen here.
This Craftsman-style home is tucked into a corner at the back of Crestlawn Cemetery. For the number of times I have visited this cemetery, I have managed to miss it until recently. Tax records indicate the home was built in 1910. Crestlawn Cemetery wasn’t established until 1916.
The original owners were the Allen family, Cora and Frank and their sons, James and Horace. Frank Allen served as the sexton for Crestlawn Cemetery until his death in 1946. Both James and Horace lived in the home after their parents passed. Horace was the last Allen to live here when he passed away in 1975.
This is the view through the one window that was not boarded up. Sadly, the home is in horrible condition.This is the storage shed in the yard. I just loved the light with the fall colors.
Credits to Archive Atlanta for the initial information on the house.
The Green Book was an annual guidebook for Black travelers created by Victor Hugo Green (1892-1960). Originally known as The Negro Motorist Green-Book, Green, a New York City mailman, published the first book in 1937 when Jim Crow laws around segregation made it difficult for African-Americans to travel around the United States. While travel was especially difficult in the South, Black travelers faced challenges across the United States and internationally. Each year, the book added more businesses and tourist homes where Black people were welcome.
The Travelers’ Green Book: 1960: Guide for Travel & Vacations (Courtesy of the New York Public Library)
Unsurprisingly, Atlanta had several listings centered around Auburn Avenue and Hunter Street (now MLK) since Jim Crow Atlanta laws limited where Black businesses could exist. The Paramount Grille appeared for the first time in the 1960 edition. The display ad provides the address of 810 – 812 Hunter Street. Today, the address is a small shopping center that includes the Busy Bee Cafe, an Atlanta institution since 1947.
December 25, 1951 advertisement in The Atlanta Daily World
Bertrand McMillan (1914-1986), who initially worked for a construction company, began the Paramount Grill in 1948. I haven’t been able to determine the last year it was in business. The Paramount Grill(e) was listed in The Green Book until its final pressing in 1967.
This is the home of Bertrand and Bessie McMillan on East Avenue. Their address was accidentally listed in some volumes of The Green Book. When I first decided to see which extant Greek Book buildings were still in existence, I happened to look at one of the years where the Paramount Grill was listed at this address. I immediately knew there was a mistake because I knew a popular restaurant could not be here. I was able to determine the actual address of the restaurant, but I didn’t know what was at this address. I had wondered if it was meant to be listed as a tourist home. While researching, I finally found the name of the owner of the Paramount Grill, Bertrand. He and his wife called this their home for several years.
Ida Bennett Bass was the daughter of prominent Atlantans, Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth Bennett. She married Charles Bass, who was from a prominent Rome family. They had four children, but only one lived past infancy. During her third pregnancy, she died during childbirth while giving birth to twins. The son, Edward, died the next day, and her daughter Miriam lived another two months.
Ida’s parents refused to bury their child in Rome and brought her to Atlanta to be buried in Oakland Cemetery. One story about Ida is that her ghost will travel from Atlanta to visit her children and husband who are buried in Myrtle Hill Cemetery in Rome.
Edward Bass in Myrtle Hill Cemetery.
Another story about Ida is that when the house she lived in caught on fire, one wall was untouched. When workers went to remove a mirror, they found an image of a mother holding two infants.
Charles Bass and his second wife, Marjorie, are buried in Myrtle Hill Cemetery.
The daughter Miriam is buried in Oakland Cemetery.
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