Educational Fun: Visiting Historic Sites
Educational Fun: Visiting Historic Sites – I recently traveled to Atlanta with my nieces and nephews to see an NBA game, which was a totally fun experience and I highly recommend it if you get a chance to see one. We spent the night in downtown Atlanta after the game and decided to do a little sightseeing in the morning before heading home.
Atlanta offers a plethora of activities, especially downtown, but we ultimately settled on the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park. My nephew had recently done a report on MLK for school, so it was the perfect opportunity to visit his birthplace and the church where he preached.
Educational Fun: Visiting Historic Sites
The park was a great adventure, full of interesting immersive experiences, thought-provoking exhibits, and beautiful grounds for the kids to run around a bit. I highly recommend it to anyone traveling to Atlanta with kids of any age as there was something for everyone.
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The park spans several blocks and includes the Welcome Center, Ebenezer Church, the King Center, Fire Station No. 6, and MLK’s birthplace. Information plaques along the sidewalks tell you about the neighborhood and the various historic structures located in the park.
The NPS purchased and restored many homes around his birthplace, giving you an idea of what the neighborhood would have looked like as MLK knew it. Many of these surrounding homes are private residences with people living there, which lends a sense of continuity and liveliness to the neighborhood instead of being frozen in time.
If you walk from the King Historic District trolley stop, you’ll first pass the Behold Monument, a large sculpture of a man holding a baby to the sky. Take a moment to read the sculptor’s statement on the NPS website, as it helped me see much more of the symbolism of the sculpture that I otherwise would have missed.
The World Peace Rose Garden, in addition to being beautiful, features poems about peace written by schoolchildren from around the world. The children enjoyed reading them all and choosing their favorite. You will pass through the garden on your way to the entrance to the Visitor Center.
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The public parking lot is behind the Visitor Center as well as a statue of Gandhi, an important source of inspiration for Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to non-violence.
Behind the visitor center is also a nice new playground which would make a great place to take a break after a visit.
The main exhibit, “Courage To Lead,” tells the story of MLK and the civil rights movement. Each circular display area contains videos, images and information plaques and has been well designed. The children’s interest was greater than I usually see in museums.
We particularly liked the “Children of Courage” exhibition which is aimed at children and has tactile elements, such as drawers to open and flaps to lift.
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The children also enjoyed “Freedom Road”, where one could join the marchers on the civil rights route.
You can also watch video presentations in the small theater. We didn’t stay once because the kids wanted to go see the other buildings. But a great option for rainy or sultry days.
*Simply awesome tip: Make sure to pick up the Junior Rangers booklets at the Visitor Center Information Desk. They are full of activities that the children enjoyed doing. Once completed and stamped by a ranger, you receive a Junior Ranger pin. I liked the booklets because they gave the kids something to do when we stopped periodically for a break.
Martin Luther King, Sr. was a minister at this church and his son, Martin Luther King Jr, was baptized here before becoming co-pastor of the church, alongside his father.
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Sit in the pews and listen to one of MLK’s sermons while the kids finish their Junior Ranger booklets. Martin Luther King Jr. was truly an impressive speaker. Ebenezer Church was my favorite stop and we sat and listened to his sermon for about 15 minutes.
From Ebenezer Church, walk next to the King Center. You will first pass through the plaza and reflecting pond surrounding the crypts of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King.
The Eternal Flame burns in front of the final resting places of the kings, which seemed to me to be a very beautiful symbolism. The children were much more interested in the practical aspects of the flame, bombarding me with questions about what happens when it rains or if someone throws a bucket of water on the flame, etc.
The King Center is the building at the far end of the square and contains 3 small exhibits upstairs, focusing on the personal belongings of Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Rosa Parks. If you’re beat and have to skip something, that would probably be it – although my 8 year old nephew said the Gandhi exhibit was his favorite activity.
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The old fire station has been restored and houses a 1927 fire truck that will certainly appeal to younger guests. It was one of the first fire stations in Atlanta to be desegregated and Martin Luther King Jr played basketball in the parking lot out back. (This was my basketball-loving nephew’s other favorite thing about the park.)
You’ll find exhibits about the history of the Atlanta Fire Department and their desegregation in 1963. The best part of the tour was Sunshine, a National Park Service volunteer, who enthusiastically shared stories about Martin Luther King.
There was a “touch table” in the station containing items related to segregation and Martin Luther King Jr. Sunshine gathered a group of people together and gave almost everyone something to hold. She then told a story about each object, whether it was looking up your town in the “Green Book” to see where you could stay or eat, or guessing the number of marbles in a jar to see if you could vote. The children were fascinated and it brought the story back to them in a very personal way.
From the fire station, turn right and continue on Auburn Ave to the Martin Luther King Jr. Parents and Grandparents Home.
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We didn’t get to go inside the house, but it was a nice walk outside and down the neighborhood sidewalks. The surrounding homes were purchased and restored by the NPS, and there are informational plaques outside a few of them, giving more of the neighborhood’s history.
***If you would like to visit MLK’s birthplace, you must register at the Visitor Center information desk. But don’t hold your breath: they only accept 15 people at a time, so tours sell out quickly.
The visitor center opened at 9 a.m. and tours were full by 9:10 a.m. on the day of our visit. This is a common phenomenon. Due to high demand, the NPS opens the house from 2 to 4 p.m. most afternoons for people to walk through on a shortened self-guided tour. Expect to queue outside the house.
The transportation page on the park website has a good description of the different options for getting there.
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***We were excited to take the new tram and discovered that the ticket machine didn’t take our credit card (or cash from other people at the stop). Just as we were walking to the next stop to try out his machine, the tram passed us and we decided not to wait 15 minutes to catch another one. The trolley looks cool and would be an easy way to see downtown Atlanta. I hope we have better luck next time.
There are a number of hotels in downtown Atlanta, particularly around Centennial Park and Peachtree Center, which are the areas I would look into. Use an exchange site like booking.com, Expedia, or Hotels.com to find the best rate.
I used booking.com and we ended up at the Hampton Inn & Suites Atlanta-Downtown. We had a suite for 6 people including breakfast and parking for one car for $268 total. The location was great, the breakfast was good and the staff was nice. The room was a bit small when the sofa bed was in use, but it was doable and we would stay there again.
There are hundreds of cheaper hotels once you leave downtown, but if you’re looking for something a little off the beaten path, consider glamping in a yurt at Sweetwater Creek State Park (30 minutes east of downtown) or High Falls State Park (60 mins east of downtown). min south of downtown). Read this great article from AllTheRooms for more information on “The 5 Best Glamping Spots in Georgia”.
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In total, we spent about 2.5 hours exploring Martin Luther King National Historical Park and the surrounding area, and it was a great experience. You could spend even more time if you could tour the birth center or stay to watch some of the video presentations at the visitor center. However, you can also adapt your visit to around an hour if you are
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