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June 7, 2012

Sweet Auburn
Sweet Auburn

Dr. King's Boyhood Atlanta Neighborhood is on the List of Endangered Historic Places

by Frederick H. Lowe
Sweet Auburn, the Atlanta neighborhood, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was born, and Malcolm X's surviving boyhood Boston home, are on the 2012 list of the 11-most endangered historic places, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced on Wednesday. 

"Sweet Auburn, this once thriving African-American commercial district continues to be threatened by disinvestment," the national trust wrote in its 25th annual list. 

Malcom X's Boyhood Home
Malcolm X's boyhood home
The Malcolm X-Ella Little-Collins home is a modest house built in 1874.  It is the last known surviving boyhood home of Malcolm X.  It has been largely unused for more than 30 years, trust officials said.  Plans are in development to rehabilitate and reuse the property for graduate students who are studying African-American history, social justice or civil rights.

The trust also noted the Philadelphia gym of Joe Frazier, the recently deceased world heavyweight boxing champion and U.S. Olympian, also faces an uncertain future because it is up for sale.

Joe Frazier's Gym
Joe Frazier's Gym
The list also includes Terminal Island, Port of Los Angeles, Calif., Texas Courthouses, Historic U.S. Post Office Buildings,  the Ellis Island Hospital Complex in New York Harbor and in New Jersey, Bridges of Yosemite Valley, Calif., Princeton Battlefield, Princeton, N.J.,  Theodore Roosevelt's Elkhorn Ranch in Billings County, N.D. and the Village of Zoar, Ohio, which was founded in 1817 by religious separatists fleeing Germany.

"For 25 years, our list of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places has called attention to threatened one-of-a-kind historic treasures throughout the nation and has galvanized local preservationists  to help save them, " said Stephanie Meeks, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a privately funded nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C.

Since 1988, the organization has identified more than 230 threatened one-of-a-kind treasures.

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