Constructed in for over seven decades between and the house at No. 309 South Jackson Street was home to a succession of twelve pastors for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church (Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church since From late through early Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King lived in parsonage with their growing family.2 On January 30, after previous threats to Dr. King in response to his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott an unknown person threw a bomb onto the front porch while King, a friend, and daughter Yolanda were in the house. The bomb exploded, shattering the front windows and causing significant damage to the north side of the porch and the garage; fortunately no one was hurt in the blast. Dr.
King was out of the house at a meeting and quickly rushed home where he diffused an angry and armed group of supporters with a speech emphasizing the need for non-violence even in the wake of violence. The bombing brought national attention to the Montgomery Bus Boycott as well as Dr. King s leadership and dedication to the ideal of non-violence as a key feature of the struggle for civil rights. No one was ever arrested for the crime. The house was restored in and presently function as a museum. 1 Ellen Mertins and Mary Ann Neeley, National Register of Historic Places nomination form for Pastorium, Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church & The Dexter Parsonage Museum: History, accessed online, 9 Jun.
< >. 2 For the history of the Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, including Dr. King s time there while pastor, see: James A. Jacobs, Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church, HABS No. AL-994, Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior, PARSONAGE, DEXTER AVENUE KING MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH HABS No. AL-997 (Page 2) Description: The parsonage is a spacious one-story house topped by a tall hip roof and fronted by a full-width porch; its form is typical for early-twentieth-century domestic architecture in the South. The house is sheathed in weatherboards.
Its decorative details are limited mainly to carved rafter tails under the eaves of the main roof and porch roof that, from a distance, resemble classical dentils, and four simple, unfluted Doric columns on the front porch between which run sections of railing with turned balusters. The columns and rafter tails of the otherwise vernacular house are a nod to Colonial Revival styling, which was rising in popularity for domestic design during the first decades of the twentieth century. The fa ade is further embellished by a central door surrounded by sidelights and transoms, and a small cross gable featuring a round-headed attic window positioned above the two southernmost bays (of five). This pair of bays also steps out from the rest of the wall plane under the porch.
Historic photographs of the house after the bombing document that a gable was once positioned over the northern two bays, a frame garage had been appended to the north side of the house by the and the full columns were once half columns set on square brick plinths. ADDENDUM TO: HABS AL-997 DEXTER AVENUE KING MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH HABS AL-997 PARSONAGE (Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Pastorium) 309 South Jackson Street Montgomery Montgomery County Alabama REDUCED COPIES OF MEASURED DRAWINGS FIELD RECORDS HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S.
Department of the Interior C Street NW Washington, DC ADDENDUM TO: HABS AL-997 DEXTER AVENUE KING MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH PARSONAGE HABS AL-997 (Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Pastorium) 309 South Jackson Street Montgomery Montgomery County Alabama DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHS WRITTEN HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior C Street NW Washington, DC ADDENDUM TO: DEXTER AVENUE KING MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH PARSONAGE HABS No. AL-997 (Page 3) HISTORIC AMERICAN BUILDINGS SURVEY DEXTER AVENUE KING MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH PARSONAGE (Dexter Avenue Baptist Church Pastorium) This history is an addendum to a 2-page history previously transmitted to the Library of Congress.
The Parsonage is significant as the Pastorium of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, in which capacity it served as the home of Dr. Martin Luther King, during his ministry in Montgomery and his leadership of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in The Bus Boycott launched both the Civil Rights Movement and King's highly successful career as its foremost advocate. Through its associations with King and the Bus Boycott, the Pastorium also reflects the role of the Black church in the struggle for equal rights for black citizens. Description: The house is an unpretentious, spacious clapboard cottage with a truncated pyramidal roof and a south front gable ornamented by a round-arched light inset with slender muntins.
A shed roof porch with Tuscan columns spans the front and is ornamented with small modillions. The modillions are repeated on the eaves of the main block of the house. The central entrance, surrounded by diamond-paned sidelights and transom, has a glass light outlined by egg and dart detail and has its original hardware. Windows on either side of the door are one- over-one-light. The house rests on a high brick foundation and the front porch floor, originally wooden, was replaced with concrete which bears a scar from the bombing. The interior was remodeled slightly in but much of the original remains. The living room has a handsome mantel with beveled glass mirror and an over mantel supported by Doric colonnettes.
Narrow crown molding, 8 baseboards, and doorways with simple block facings attest to the restrained tastes of the builder. The original floors have been replaced by narrow strip hardwood. Doors throughout are of horizontal panels with the exception of a pair of French doors, outlined by sidelights, which lead from the entrance room to the living room. All walls are plaster. During the remodeling, the back porch was enclosed to create a second bathroom and the kitchen modernized. DEXTER AVENUE KING MEMORIAL BAPTIST CHURCH PARSONAGE HABS No. AL-997 (Page 4) Much of the furniture in the eight-room house was that used by the Kings during their occupancy. The study holds many mementoes of the Civil Rights leader and his family.
Furniture in the Pastorium used during the ministry of King includes: dining room- dining suite; living room - three tables and two lamps; bedroom - bedroom suite, rocking chair; study - table and chair. The house is in a neighborhood of small frame cottages dating from about the same time. Structures are spaced closely to each other and to the street. History: The house was constructed about and was acquired by the members of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church congregation in a forced sale at the Court Square Fountain in for use as its pastorium. This small one-story frame cottage is representative of the type of housing available for upper and middle-class blacks in Montgomery during the first decades of the twentieth century.
It is located in Centennial Hill, an area which developed in the late as a significant black neighborhood. It was, and still is, the home of blacks who have attained prominence and distinction as community leaders. Alabama State University, which moved to Montgomery in is at the southernmost end of Jackson Street, some eight blocks from the pastorium. For over seven decades between and it was home to a succession of twelve pastors for the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. Dr. King assumed the pastorship of the Church in October and occupied the house until his move to Atlanta in early Dr.
King's occupancy of the house brought it onto the national scene when, on the night of January 31, it was bombed during the arrest provoked by the Bus Boycott and King's leadership of the first concerted effort for Civil Rights. A bomb, thrown about ripped a hole in the south side of the front porch about two feet from the steps (the scar is still in the concrete). The explosion, caused by either a hand grenade or a half stick of dynamite, shattered windows on the south front and sent glass into both the den and the living room and caused significant damage to the north side of the porch and garage. The bombing helped focus national attention on the movement in Montgomery, and paradoxically, on King's firm stand on non-violence. The house was restored in and presently function as a museum.
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