At the time of his assassination in 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was living in a brick home on Sunset Avenue in an Atlanta neighborhood known as Vine City.

The civil rights leader had moved there in 1965 — the year after he was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize — and the house was a refuge for him, his daughter Bernice King said Thursday. It was a place where the entire family would gather around the dining room table to eat and talk, where family portraits hung on the wall, and where Dr. King and his children used to play games and watch television.

This month, the house became the property of the National Park Service, in preparation for opening it up to the public.

“With greater access to Dr. King’s life and legacy, we can learn more about this country’s past and how his work continues to echo through time,” said Will Shafroth, the president of the National Park Foundation, the National Park Service’s charity arm.