The Rev. Maynard H. Jackson Sr. and his wife, Irene Dobbs Jackson, had a vision.
Coming out of World War II, as Atlanta’s Black colleges were gaining momentum, they dreamed of creating an intellectual community where faculty and staff could live and work together.
Credit: Constance Jackson Carter
Credit: Constance Jackson Carter
So, in the neighborhood that housed what would later become known as the Atlanta University Center, they built an apartment building.
Known as 220 Sunset Ave., the Jackson family — including a future mayor — occupied the entire top floor. Below them were two apartments, which were home to families of Spelman College faculty members.
In their free time, when they weren’t playing in the basement, the six Jackson children would sneak downstairs to learn piano or play chess.
“It was a beautiful, miraculous home,” said Constance Jackson Carter, 78, who was two years old when her family moved into the building. “My father and mother wanted an environment where the family could be uplifted. They envisioned this not only as a residence for the family, but also as an opportunity to provide affordable apartments for faculty and staff in the Atlanta University Center.”
On Monday, after years of sitting empty and partially collapsed — nearly demolished — 220 Sunset Ave. will reopen with a ribbon cutting by the Westside Future Fund (WFF).
In 2020, the WFF purchased the Sunset Avenue property to restore it and pursue historic designation on the National Register of Historic Places.
Now fully refurbished in partnership with Spelman College, the 76-year old building is a 6,000-square-foot modern, high-end affordable apartment complex with five units that will be rented to faculty and staff.
“This is amazing, and I have an enormous amount of gratitude,” said John Ahmann, president and CEO of the WFF. “It brings together our mission of honoring the history and heritage of the Westside while helping those who have a historic connection to the neighborhood. I am happy that we get to be the catalyst to this change.”
In a statement, Spelman officials said the partnership “honors the enduring legacy of a trailblazing family and the Westside community.”
“We are excited about the opportunity to be part of a transformative effort that supports our faculty and staff and strengthens the historic neighborhoods that have long shaped Atlanta’s identity,” the statement read.
Although he wasn’t born in the building, Maynard Jackson grew up there until enrolling at Morehouse College in 1952 at age 14.
Credit: Special to the AJC
Credit: Special to the AJC
Twenty years later, he would become Atlanta’s first Black mayor.
The Vine City home sits next door to the house that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. moved his family into in 1965. Down the block is the former home of civil rights leader Julian Bond.
“All of us have things that define us,” said Ahmann, an Atlanta native who moved to Sunset Avenue in 2019. “You think of how these families defined our city. This is declaring that. This is what represents our city and our story.”
In 2019, the King family sold their residence at 234 Sunset Ave. to the National Park Foundation for $400,000. The home will eventually become part of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, and is expected to open to the public around 2029.
The expansion of the park into the Westside and the restoration of the Jackson home — just down the street from Mercedes-Benz Stadium — are major steps in revitalizing the neighborhood ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
But it almost didn’t happen.
Over the years, the Jackson property changed hands and was eventually owned by the King Center, which applied for a demolition permit for the deteriorating building.
Community activist Bishop John Lewis raised concerns about the building’s historical value, prompting the King Center to withdraw its permit.
Though the National Park Service showed interest in acquiring the property, the WFF purchased it in 2020 for $250,000, intending to offer affordable housing.
The renovation cost approximately $3 million.
Brothers Johnnie Cannon and Derrick Cannon, owners of DJR Construction and third-generation builders, led the restoration. Their goal: to return the building to its 1949 glory.
“We wanted it to look the way it did when all of those great people walked through it,” said Johnnie Cannon.
When the project began, the left side of the building had collapsed, the roof needed replacing, and the entire structure had to be stabilized.
The Cannons admit that while the structure has historical significance, it also has deep cultural relevance.
When Jackson became Atlanta’s mayor in 1973, he pushed for racial equity in public contracting.
“It was an honor for us to do this, because Maynard built Atlanta to what it is today,” Derrick Cannon said. “This is huge for the next generation as a building of hope.”
When the Jacksons lived in the building, their top-floor apartment featured four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a dining room, and a living room large enough to hold Irene Dobbs Jackson’s Steinway piano.
Rev. Jackson, who was pastor of Friendship Baptist Church, died in 1953. In her grief, Irene Dobbs Jackson moved to France with her three youngest children to pursue her doctorate degree at the University of Toulouse.
Credit: Special to AJC
Credit: Special to AJC
She rented their apartment to the chair of the Spelman drama department, planning to return. In 1959, she returned home after accepting a teaching position at Spelman. That was the same year she integrated the Atlanta-Fulton Public Library System by demanding a library card and equal borrowing privileges for Black patrons.
In 1969, a year after King’s assassination, the Jackson family sold the building. The following year, Southern Rural Action Inc. purchased it on behalf of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, founded by Coretta Scott King, who initially operated it out of her basement next door. The building later housed visiting scholars studying King’s legacy.
Ahmann said WFF is working closely with Spelman to identify future tenants. Rents will be below market value, and WFF plans to help tenants eventually transition into homeownership.
That, Carter said, fulfills her parents’ vision.
Credit: Constance Jackson Carter
Credit: Constance Jackson Carter
In 1964, Carter broke a long-standing family tradition by attending Duke University. Carter’s mother, all of her aunts and each of her sisters graduated from Spelman.
“It is like we are fulfilling the destiny. This is what my father and mother wanted to do,” Carter said about the home as it prepares to house Spelman staff. “To create affordable housing and an environment where people could harmoniously share and grow.”
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