The old Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Temple on Auburn Avenue has seen better days.
Closed since the pandemic, lodge members have been trying for five years to raise millions to renovate the 86-year-old building that once housed the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Today, they got one step closer.
The Trust for Public Land has secured a $2 million donation from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation, as part of a planned $4.5 million campaign to complete the funding for the restoration, permanently protect the lodge and ultimately incorporate it into the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park.
With the $2 million donation, the lodge has raised more than $11 million since 2018.
“We are 95% toward finalizing our goal,” said Ed Bowen, a member of the lodge and the attorney for the Prince Hall Masons. “Getting that support from the TPL was a godsend.”
Bowen said state tax credits require that the Masons start the renovation process by the fall. They are working with the Trust for Public Land to secure the remaining funds needed to do so.
Eventually, the Trust for Public Land will purchase the building from the lodge and plans to donate it to the National Park Service.
“We approach this work with a sense of urgency, as the building envelope is compromised, and the building continues to deteriorate,” said George Dusenbury, vice president of the Southern region for the Trust for Public Land. “The support from the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation is a vital investment to ensure that this piece of history is preserved.
“Raising an additional $2.5 million will allow us to fully restore this incredible piece of history and allow the Park Service to more deeply share the story of Dr. King’s work with the SCLC.”
The SCLC was organized in Atlanta in 1957 by King, Ralph David Abernathy and others as their organizational base to fight racism, with its roots tied to the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, where the two men were pastors.
Credit: contributed
Credit: contributed
The Masons started working on the three-story building in 1937, just as the country was crawling out of the Great Depression and barreling into World War II.
John Wesley Dobbs, the grandfather of Atlanta’s first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, oversaw the construction and initial fundraising as the grand master of the Prince Hall Masons. Founded during the Revolutionary War by freed African slaves in the colonies, the Prince Hall Masons is the largest and oldest Black fraternal organization in the nation.
Credit: SPECIAL TO AJC
Credit: SPECIAL TO AJC
Over the years, the 16,000 square-foot building housed the Masons, a Madam C.J. Walker Beauty Shoppe and WERD, the nation’s first Black-owned and directed radio station.
But most famously, the building was the physical home of King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, establishing an organizational presence in the heart of Atlanta on one of the country’s most important and recognizable Black streets — Auburn Avenue.
Credit: Daniel Varnado
Credit: Daniel Varnado
The SCLC maintained an office in the building until 2007, when the group built its own building down the block on Auburn Avenue. Up until the pandemic, the Masons and several other lodges were still holding meetings there.
Bowen said the lodge has been able to retain its original character due to its uninterrupted use and maintenance by Masonic leadership.
But the building has fallen into disrepair, and Sheffield Hale, president of the Atlanta History Center, has identified it as one of the two most historically significant but unprotected buildings in metro Atlanta.
Credit: Daniel Varnado
Credit: Daniel Varnado
The renovation project will restore the SCLC offices to their historic character, with National Park Service exhibits and educational signage. As part of the restoration and conservation of the lodge, the Atlanta History Center partnered with the Masons to catalog the papers and other artifacts that were located there.
The National Park Service is also collecting oral histories from people who played important roles with the SCLC headquarters and WERD Radio.
“Black history is American history,” said Jocelyn Imani, TPL’s Black history and culture director, “which is why it is so critical that we ensure authentic stories of Black history and excellence — like the history and heritage behind the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge Temple — and are protected and enshrined for future generations.”
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