56 Magazine Street has been the site of a church since the 1870’s. Prior to being the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church, it was known as the Grace United Methodist Church.

On January 10, 1960, after Rev. King spoke at the First Baptist Church in Central Square, he came to Grace Church for dinner, as remembered in a 2011 CCTV interview with Xonnabel Clark, a long-time Cambridgeport resident, member and historian of Grace United Methodist Church.

King’s connection to Cambridgeport was through his friendship with an older student, Willard A. Williams, during his graduate school years at Boston University. Eventually the friendship would develop into a long-term tie to Cambridgeport, when Williams became the pastor (1984-95) at Grace United Methodist Church, Xonnabel Clark said.