The Commercial Building was constructed by the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in 1919 for the Hall community, where it housed commercial businesses including a drug store, meat market, dry goods store, grocery store, and barbershop. Until Charles M. Hall School opened in 1926, the second floor also served as the school for African American youth. On August 22, 1968, the Alcoa City Commission named it the Martin Luther King Center, making it one of the first structures in America named for the assassinated civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.