BOSTON (WHDH) - The group behind the landmark sculpture honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, announced a new social and cultural hub set to be built in Boston’s Downtown Crossing over the next four years.
The new center will be created to host arts and cultural events, as well as community gatherings and public programming. The group said the new complex will be open year-round and encourage members of the community to come together and connect.
“People will visit some of the amazing monuments on the Common, and they’ll have a place where they’ll get to spend more time, have an indoor experience,” said Imari Paris Jeffries, the President and CEO of Embrace Boston.
Two buildings on West Street will now be redeveloped as a 35,000 square foot complex for arts and events. The two buildings were chosen because they are close to the Embrace Monument and Freedom Plaza on Boston Common.
The Embrace Monument depicts Martin Luther King Jr. embracing his wife Corretta Scott King. The couple met in Boston in 1952.
“It’ll be a bigger project, we’re redoing the facade to be the Frederick Douglass Monument. We’re working with the city to redo the Emancipation Plinth and so it’ll be a big monument site,” Jeffries said. “We drew upon the lessons of Martin and Coretta, now we’re going draw upon the lessons of the great abolitionist, which originated in Boston the Frederick Douglass, those great orators. I think we’re going to draw upon that same spirit of that small group that dared our country to be better.”
The organization said it hopes the new space will attract visitors to the city.
“We have a chip on our shoulder when it comes to a city like ours, we are America’s storytelling city, and so its a national center,” Jeffries said.
The new center will open in phases, with the grand opening slated for 2030 to align with Boston’s 400th anniversary.
(Copyright (c) 2026 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)