How to Spend 3 Hours in Atlanta: Sweet Auburn and the King Legacy
Updated October 3, 2026
Three hours is enough to walk Sweet Auburn, the street where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born and preached. Try for a ranger tour of his birth home, sit in the church where he served as co-pastor and pause at his tomb, then eat lunch in the old municipal market.
Auburn Avenue was the center of Black business life in segregated Atlanta, and Fortune magazine once called it the richest Black street in the world. Dr. King grew up a few blocks east of downtown, was baptized at Ebenezer Baptist Church and later preached from its pulpit. The National Park Service now looks after the church, the blocks around his birth home and a visitor center. The King Center sits beside the church on Auburn Avenue, and the 1924 market is a short walk back toward the hotels.
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The 3 hour plan, stop by stop
Stops and travel: 1 hr 43 min to 1 hr 48 min of 3 hours
The park covers the blocks where Dr. King was born, worshipped and is buried. At Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, he was baptized as a child, and from 1960 until his death in 1968 he served as co-pastor beside his father; his funeral was held there too. The church and Freedom Hall are open daily. Rangers lead free tours of his restored birth home in small groups, first come, first served, so put your name down as soon as you arrive. Each tour lasts about half an hour.
Tip: Start at the temporary visitor center in Historic Fire Station No. 6, on Boulevard by the birth home, to sign up for a birth home tour and get the day's Church Talk times at Ebenezer. If you come by car, the park has a free visitor lot on John Wesley Dobbs Avenue.
- Time here
- 1 hr to 1 hr 5 min
- Website
- nps.gov
NaviTime to head out from Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park for The King Center, Auburn Avenue. It's a 2 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
Coretta Scott King established this center in 1968, and in 1970 Dr. King's remains were moved here from Southview Cemetery. Since 2006 the crypt, built of Georgia marble, has held both Dr. and Mrs. King, set in a long reflecting pool near the Eternal Flame. Inside Freedom Hall, the second floor shows exhibits on the Kings, Mahatma Gandhi and Rosa Parks. Admission is free, and the grounds are open seven days a week.
Tip: In the Freedom Hall foyer, look at the art from Africa and Georgia and the staircase paneling of Sapele wood from Nigeria. Outside, the Coretta Scott King Peace and Meditation Garden is a quiet place to sit.
- Time here
- 15 to 15 min
- Website
- thekingcenter.org
NaviTime to head out from The King Center, Auburn Avenue for Sweet Auburn Curb Market. It's an 11 minute walk if you leave now. Here's the link
After the Great Atlanta Fire of 1917, farmers sold produce under a tent here, and a fireproof brick hall opened on the site in 1924 as the Municipal Market of Atlanta. Black vendors were made to sell outside along the curb, a history behind the nickname it adopted in the 1990s. About thirty businesses now trade inside, from butchers and produce stands to lunch counters. It is open Monday to Saturday and closed on Sundays.
Tip: The Atlanta Women's Club raised the money for this brick hall, designed by A. Ten Eyck Brown, so look up at the building as you walk the aisles. Some merchants keep different hours from the market itself.
- Time here
- 15 to 15 min
- Website
- municipalmarketatl.com
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