Home where MLK stayed in Camden, N.J. damaged in fire
CAMDEN, N.J. (CBS) -- A home where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. once stayed in Camden was damaged in a fire overnight.
Firefighters were at the home on the 700 block of Walnut Street where there was a fire on the second floor.
The home has never been given an official historic marker, but advocates say King stayed at the home while he was a graduate student at Crozer Theological Seminary in Upland, Pa.
"Powerful history there...powerful history," Pastor Amir Khan said.
Pastor Khan looks at the charred windows and part of the roof that collapsed after the fire tore through the twin home. Heavy smoke could be seen billowing out of the dilapidated structure early Saturday morning and not long after Khan says his phone started ringing.
"I thought we were going to come out here and see this thing flattened and thank God to our surprise, pleasant surprise, that for the most part, the outside walls are still up," Khan said.
Khan tells CBS News Philadelphia he bought the home in 2021 more than 70 years after civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jr, lived on and off while he was a graduate student at Crozer Theological Seminary in Delaware County from 1948-1951.
Proponents were trying to raise money for a museum that would tell more about King's experiences in this area in the 1950s.
Advocates told CBS News Philadelphia in 2020 that King and others planned a sit-in while staying at this home.
"Coming over here on weekends, coming here over summer," Khan said.
The property has been vacant for years.
Khan says the inside needed to be gutted and he recently secured a grant from the state to restore the home and transform it into a museum highlighting King's connection to South Jersey.
"People can walk through the house and tour to see where Dr. King ate, slept, drank, prepared his messages and even prepared his first civil rights sit-in," Khan said.
The sit-in was at Mary's Place, a restaurant in Maple Shade after they were apparently denied service and chased out by a gun-toting bartender of the now-closed establishment.
A police report filed by King listed the Walnut Street home as his address.
But the home's application for a historic preservation marker was denied. The late Rep. John Lewis, who was friends with King, had called for the home to be preserved.
"This piece of historic real estate must be saved for generations yet unborn," Lewis said at the time.
Khan says he's working to have 753 Walnut Street recognized on both the New Jersey and the National Register of Historic Places.
He's also raising money to build the MLK Center for Social Justice on this lot next to the home.
Although the fire is a setback, Khan says it's also a blessing.
"In this case, since the outside of the building is still ok, it's going to work out well," Khan said. "The insurance can take care of a lot of this right away until the other funds come in."
Khan says he wants to thank the firefighters for their quick work to save this piece of history.
The exact cause of the fire is under investigation.
