Early Saturday morning, a fire caused severe damage to a run-down house in southern New Jersey that Martin Luther King Jr. had once stayed in.
Fire crews reported to the three-story row home in Camden shortly after 2:30 a.m., but the precarious structure made it difficult to fight the blaze. The fire had already spread heavily by the time crews could open the boards covering the building. Due to concerns about the structure’s stability, firefighters were unable to enter.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported, but the home next door caught fire, forcing four nearby residents to evacuate. The city’s fire marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
Officials had been working for years to restore the structure, called MLK House Camden, and turn it into a museum. While attending Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania, King and a classmate stayed in the home between 1949 and 1951.
Despite efforts to secure a historic designation for the building, the New Jersey Historic Preservation Office denied it in 2020.