State Historic Sites Spotlight: Alex Haley House Museum and Interpretive Center State Historic Site

Welcome to the boyhood home of Pulitzer Prize winning author, Alex Haley! This 10-room Craftsman Bungalow was built in 1919 by Will E. Palmer, the maternal grandfather of Alex Haley. Before Haley’s birth, and long before his fame, his grandfather was a significant local businessman within the town of Henning and managed the local lumber mill.

In 1920 Haley’s mother and father, Bertha and Simon A. Haley, married at the nearby New Hope CME Church and had their reception inside the parlor of the recently constructed home. Nearly a year later, Alex Haley was born and from 1921 to 1929, Haley lived here with his grandparents. As a young child, while sitting on the front porch of the home, Haley heard the stories of his family’s history from his grandmother Cynthia. It was through these stories that Haley learned of Kunta Kinte, the inspiration of his 1976 Pulitzer Prize winning novel book, Roots: The Saga of an American Family.

This site has been owned by the State of Tennessee since 1985 and has been open to the public as a museum since 1986.