Sweet Auburn in One Afternoon: Three Stops from Market to Skyline
One afternoon and a little over a mile: lunch at the market locals call the Curb Market, a ranger's account of King's childhood on the street where he was born, and the skyline at dusk from a city bridge.
Where the Walk Runs
11:30 — Lunch at the Curb Market
Locals have called it the Curb Market since 1918, when it was still an open-air market; the hall you walk into opened in 1924 and holds thirty businesses. Eat at Metro Deli & Soul Food, run since 2004 by Mimi and Freselam, who came from Ethiopia in the 1990s: a meat-and-two plate with vegetables cooked without meat, plus a lentil sambusa. Take a bag of Triple popcorn from Miss D's for the walk.
13:45 — King's Street, With a Ranger
Fire Station No. 6, the temporary visitor center at 39 Boulevard NE, is where you sign up for a ranger's Birth Home presentation — free, in person, on the day. The house is closed for renovation, so the talk runs in the bookstore next door; sessions usually go at 10 and 11 a.m. and 2, 3 and 4 p.m., fifteen people each, first come. While you wait, catch a Church Talk at Ebenezer, where King was baptized, and see his tomb in the reflecting pool; Freedom Hall next door covers the rest.
17:00 — Jackson Street Bridge at Dusk
The bridge is plain civic roadwork — no gate, no ticket, no closing time — with one thing going for it: a straight sightline west, so downtown stands at the end of the street. In early November the sun is down by about 5:40 p.m., so be here at five and watch the towers come on. Stay on the sidewalk: the roadway carries live traffic, and the railing is not a seat.
Before You Go
Walk it Monday through Saturday: the market is closed on Sundays, and on Thanksgiving Day the park buildings and The Varsity both shut. Saturdays are the park's busiest day for presentations, so the official advice is a weekday or a Sunday morning for one of the fifteen spots. Free visitor parking is at 423 John Wesley Dobbs Ave NE.
