Reclaiming the Past

Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historic Site
includes more than just Dr. King's birthplace.
It also preserves some of the places King knew
as a youth. This house—522 Auburn Avenue—
is an example of those preservation efforts.

It was once home to two of Atlanta's most
important black business leaders. Rev. Peter
James Bryant, pastor of the influential
Wheat Street Baptist Church and associate
editor of the magazine *Voice of the Negro*,
lived here from 1915 until the late 1920s.
In the 1930s and 1940s, this was home to
Antoine Graves, who eventually became the
most successful black realtor in Atlanta.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
National Historic Site and
Preservation District

National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior

Preservation work begun in 1982
helped restore some of Auburn
Avenue's Victorian splendor.
The work done here is typical of
the preservation efforts throughout
the neighborhood surrounding
Dr. King's birthplace.

The Stuyvesant
142 East 18th Street

Architect: Richard Morris Hunt
Builder: Rutherford Stuyvesant
Built: 1869 (possibly a reconstruction of several older houses)
Razed: 1957

The Stuyvesant was the first building to house under one roof more than one family of the sort that aspires to high social status. Though lower class households had been accommodated together as early as 1833 in a tenement on Water Street, the quantity of the space and the quality of its occupants gives this building the distinction of being the first apartment house in New York. By present-day standards the layout was primitive: the kitchen, dining room, service entrance and dumbwaiter are all remote from each other; the inner hall is long and narrow and contains no less than five right-angle turns; two of the bedrooms are at the opposite end of the apartment from the lone bathroom; the closet space is inadequate; and no elevator was provided. Nonetheless The Stuyvesant represented a beginning and as such it is significant.

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LIGHT AND VENTILATION

<table><thead><tr><th>Year of Law</th><th>Yards</th><th>Required Shafts and Courts</th><th>Area of Shafts and Courts</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1867</td><td>Open space of 10 ft. between buildings on same lot. Discretionary power to Bd. of Health</td><td>Rooms of less than 100 superficial ft. must be ventilated by separate method if they do not communicate with air.</td><td>No provision.</td></tr><tr><td>1879</td><td>10 ft. between back wall of new building and lot line.</td><td>No change</td><td>No provision</td></tr><tr><td>1887</td><td>Removal of discretionary power</td><td>No change</td><td>No provision</td></tr><tr><td>1895</td><td>Corner tenements cannot come within 5 ft. of rear lot line above first story. 10 ft. rear yard on interior building</td><td>No shaft can be covered unless it is less than 10 sq. ft. Supt. of Bldgs. can make rules on shaft configuration.</td><td>No provision</td></tr><tr><td>1901</td><td>If bldg. is 60 ft. high or over, yard must be at least 12 ft. deep, adding 1 ft. for each additional 12 ft. and subtracting 1 ft. for each 12 ft. under 60. Minimum 10 ft. If lot is less than 100 ft. deep, yard must be 10% of lot depth.</td><td>Courts required in new bldgs.; new shafts in old bldgs. must be 25 sq. ft. and 4 ft. wide.</td><td>For court tangent to lot line, if bldg. is over 60 ft. high, the court must be 6 inches wider for every 12 ft. of added height. If outer court is between parts of same bldg. it must be 12 ft. wide. If inner court is on lot line, width must be 12' and other horizontal dimension must be 24' for bldg. 60 ft. high.</td></tr></tbody></table>

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LIGHT AND VENTILATION

<table><thead><tr><th>Year of Law</th><th>Yards</th><th>Required Shafts and Courts</th><th>Area of Shafts and Courts</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1929</td><td>If bldg. is 90 ft. high, yard shall be at least 20 ft. deep across entire width of lot, adding 3"/ft. of height.</td><td>Courts indirectly required by provision that windows open to outside air in every room.</td><td>For bldg. 90 ft. high: 20' width for court between parts of the same bldg.; 20' by 30' dimensions for inner court on lot line.</td></tr></tbody></table>