It is set on the south side of Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard SW, between Sunset Avenue and Vine Street.

[5] Atlanta University was founded September 19, 1865, chartered October 17, 1867; offered first instruction at postsecondary level 1869; first graduating class 1873, (normal school for future teachers including women); and awarded its first six bachelor's degrees June 1876.

In 1929–30, it began offering graduate education exclusively in various liberal arts areas, and in the social and natural forensics.

The school produced a large number of prominent African American leaders in business, education and politics.

[3] In 2019, the Atlanta chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History started a "Friends of Fountain" financial campaign to stabilize and preserve Fountain Hall, with the intention of eventually renovating the space as "an academic building and Civil Rights interpretive gallery.