Tom Houck worked as a driver for Martin Luther King Jr.'s family.
When he first arrived in Atlanta in 1966, Tom Houck learned to navigate his new hometown as the driver for the family of Martin Luther King Jr.
45 years later, the landmarks still loom large.
"This is really the history of SCLC and Martin Luther King, Jr. -- was right here," Houck said as we stood outside 334 Auburn Ave. In 1966, it was headquarters to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, founded by Dr. King.
"Selma was born in this office," said Houck, refering to the "Bloody Sunday" march in Alabama that publicized the civil rights movement worldwide.
"And that place over there was the old VFW hall," Houck said, pointing across Auburn Avenue. Houck's encounters with Dr. King frequently crossed the boundaries of business and pleasure.
"And Dr. King would come across the street and have a beer with us. And smoke a cigarette," Houck said. "Coretta (Scott King, his wife) didn't like it. And when I was with him, he would oftentimes put his cigarettes in my pocket."
Houck remembers a man in his mid-thirties who lived in a modest, unprotected home in Vine City.
"You know, his house was bombed in Montgomery. But there was never that stuff here," he said outside King's home on Sunset Ave. NW. "Dr. King never had security. He didn't like it. He figured the FBI was always so close to him, he didn't need security."
When King ventured out, it was often to nearby Hunter St. -- now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, or Auburn Avenue, home of the SCLC.
"There was a man named Kato who was the 'bug man of Auburn Avenue," Houck said, pointing to a vacant lot west of the VFW hall site. "Which was the lottery. Which is legal now, but in those days it wasn't. And Dr. King would go in there every once in a while and he would play the bug."
Nearby, Houck pointed to a Carribean restaurant on Auburn Ave.
"This is the famous Henry's Grill. For years, this is where Dr. King would come. He would have fried pork chop sandwiches or fried pig ear sandwiches," Houck said. "Dr. King liked all parts of the hog."
Today, many of the places on Houck's tour are boarded up, or nonexistent or under new management.
"This is (the site of) Martin Luther King, Jr.'s first job," Houck said, pointing to a building marked "Southern Cross Bedding Products" on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive near Oakland Cemetery.
This was the mattress factory where King worked as a youth. Houck says the building now hosts "trendy lofts," housing "many people who probably don't know that Martin Luther King, Jr. worked in that building."
As Atlanta changed, Houck moved into radio, then political consulting -- in the adopted hometown whose streets he learned from Dr. King. Houck says he is attending the dedication of the King monument this weekend.