Dexter Parsonage Museum

About

Experience where Rev. Vernon Johns and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. pastored and lived; an Interpretive Center, and the King-Johns Garden for Reflection

Story

In this National Historic Landmark, see the modest pulpit where Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. first preached his message of hope and brotherhood. This church was also a center point of the Montgomery bus boycott. A large mural in the church depicts King’s civil rights crusade from Montgomery to Memphis.

Visitors to the Dexter Parsonage Museum will experience the actual residence where Dr. King and his young family lived between 1954 and 1960; an Interpretive Center, and the King-Johns Garden for Reflection. Parking is available for cars and tour buses.

The Interpretive Center, located adjacent to the Parsonage, features a gift shop, restroom facilities and an orientation room for viewing videos and discussion groups on Dr. King’s family, community, and pastoral life. The permanent exhibit in the Interpretive Center includes a timeline of photographs of the 12 Dexter pastors who lived in the Parsonage, a wall of Pastoral Wisdom (inspiring quotes from several pastors), unpublished photographs of Dr. King, Dexter members, civic/business leaders, and Montgomery ministers active in the bus boycott; and historical accounts on the bombing of the Parsonage and other significant events.

The nine-room clapboard Parsonage, built in 1912, has been restored to its appearance when Dr. King and his family lived there. Much of the furniture presently in the the living room, dining room, bedroom and study was actually used by Dr. King.