Prince Hall Masonic Lodge reopens after $10 million makeover

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The “Jewel of Auburn Avenue” is officially open for business.

On Feb. 11, local leaders held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the renovated historic Prince Hall Masonic Lodge and Temple after a years-long $10 million makeover. Now, the 16,000 square foot multi-use space is officially part of the Martin Luther King. Jr. National Historic Park.

It is a major win for historic preservation. It sits squarely in “Sweet Auburn,” a once-prosperous Black neighborhood that has fallen to disinvestment and displacement since the 1960s. In the 1990s, the entire district made it onto the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 11 Most Endangered Places list.

But in 2022, the Trust for Public Land partnered with leaders from the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge to raise funds and complete a much-needed renovation of the multi-story building.

“The lodge has served as a gathering place for Black civic life, and it holds an important place in the broader story of justice and progress in Atlanta and in this nation,” Prince Hall Grand Master Primus James said at the ceremony.

Many consider Prince Hall one of the most significant buildings in Atlanta’s history and the civil rights movement. It was built in 1940 by the “mayor” of Sweet Auburn, civil rights activist John Wesley Dobbs.

It soon became home to the Georgia chapter of the Prince Hall Masons, the oldest Black fraternity founded by Prince Hall in 1775 after he was denied membership from the other masonic groups based on the color of his skin.

Prince Hall was also home to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King Jr.’s only known office, as well as the country’s first Black-owned radio station, WERD, and the Atlanta location of Madam C.J. Walker’s Beauty Shoppe — the first self-made female millionaire in the country.

Some event attendees even recalled the legend of King, Jr. taking interviews with WERD through a phone radio that staffers dropped from a window above. The space was a hub for the bustling business and social justice landscape of 1960s Atlanta.

“The Masonic Lodge we are preserving today is a powerful part of our story, of Atlanta’s story,” Invest Atlanta CEO Dr. Eloisa Klemmentich said.

The renovation was made possible by funds from Invest Atlanta, the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, the Georgia Pacific Foundation, the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation and the U.S. National Park Service.

It paid off. Today, the building has been completely remodeled to modern standards while maintaining details from the past. Walls are painted in bright colors matched from old photos, and the WERD sign stands tall along the wall.

The most striking features are the green window frames and the Prince Hall Masons neon sign out front. They point to a rich history, while the empty rooms show possible futures.

While project leaders did not reveal who will fill the thousands of square feet of space, the masons will use the top floor for meetings and events. The whole building will also be part of the National Park.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park Superintendent Reggie Chapple said the park system also received a $1.4 million grant to create an “immersive environment” for visitors from Black billionaire Robert Smith.

Chapple said the money will pay for technology like audio of Dr. King’s voice and immersive exhibits that tell the story of the lodge.

As a part of the National Historical Park, the building will join a district that welcomes more than 1 million visitors per year and contributes millions to the economy. It will also carry the legacy of Atlanta’s Black history.

“It is said that a people that do not remember their history are doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past,” Martin Luther King III said at the event. “And so, this solidifies a great history that certainly is a transition, because the dream my father shared with my mother, and others work to institutionalize, is not yet fulfilled.”

See Delaney Tarr’s gallery with photos from the ceremony below.