On January 15, 1929, Martin Luther King Jr. was brought into this world in this very home at 501 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, GA. It was a place he called home for nearly 12 years and was just down the street from the renowned Ebeneezer Baptist Church where he shared a pulpit with his father. While today we celebrate what Martin Luther King Jr. has done, we thought we should take a look at the place he called home.

The two-story Queen Anne style house is located in a neighborhood known as “Sweet Auburn” within Atlanta. The house has a one-story partial front and side porch with scroll cut woodwork trim, two porthole windows, a shingled gabled end, and a side bay. The home was actually owned by his maternal grandparents and was the dwelling place of not just Dr. King’s immediate family, but often other relatives and even boarders as well.

The house is open for tours and visitors are given a guided look through the place where Dr. King was born which is now a national historic site. The home has been wonderfully preserved and tours of the home often reveal a very different side of this historic figure than one might think. Details of his everyday life growing up and even the pranks he would pull on siblings is shared through the tales told to his sister.

While Martin Luther King, Jr. only lived here for 12 years, he has even remarked that these for formative years for his life. For a great look at some rare photos of Martin Luther King Jr. at home check out this amazing gallery from Time.

For more details on the birthplace of Martin Luther King, Jr., visit nps.gov.

Header image courtesy of Flickr user by eli.pousson