Many small cotton companies opened on Front Street, and the vast majority of the buildings on Cotton Row were built between 1848 and 1928.  The architecture of the street had a "sameness" to it.  They were all brick buildings with wide entrances on the ground floor, so large cotton bales could be moved in and out.  And they needed large windows and skylights on the top floors where the classing of cotton took place.  They were all sturdy buildings but generally unpretentious.

The wealthy cotton merchants of the city all wanted grand homes ... only they didn't want them on Front Street, and only a few merchants built unique homes on South Front.  The rest of the street was occupied by those large unpretentious, but sturdy brick warehouses, which ironically have now been converted into very expensive town houses with great river views.

Sometime in the mid 50s, the "electronic age" started the decline of Cotton row.  Fewer and fewer people were needed to handle more cotton.  It eventually became possible for one person to literally run a cotton business from a small office with just a phone and a computer.  By the 80s, like the rest of downtown Memphis, Front Street became a boarded up ghost town.

Neighborhoods developed on every major avenue that ran into Main Street.  And Memphis continued to grow outward from all these streets, leading the way to "Suburban flight".  This took a major toll on downtown.  And then the Civil Rights acts and "White flight" created further decline.  Main Street fell on hard times and was a virtual "Ghost town".

Today many of those large Main Street buildings that sat vacant during the 70s and 80s have been re-purposed into condominiums and downtown and Main Street are set for a "comeback".  Sadly, it did not happen sooner in order to save more of the classic downtown architecture.

Before the automobile became King, Union Avenue looked a lot like Peabody Avenue - a residential street with beautiful mansions.  In 1924 Union was widened ... Voila!  And Memphis began moving to the suburbs.  And Union property owners began the shift to commercial by adding their businesses to the front of their homes.  And the highly popular and successful Fortune's first drive-in opened its Union location.   Plus, there was no trolley line to get in the way.

Union, today is a nightmare for driver's, pedestrian's, and  the few homeowners who still live there.  It's a free-for-all speedway with six lanes, where rules, or courtesy don't seem to exist.  There's no street in the city that is more "bad-mouthed" than Union Avenue.

Adams was home to the wealthy families of Memphis.  They built their homes here in an area that was considered the "outskirts of town".   These families were the influential ones in the growth of the city.  Most of their wealth was made as cotton factors, riverboat and railroad tycoons, grocers, politicians, and bank presidents.  They all had many children and married into other families of wealth.

Sadly, only a few of their grand homes have survived.   Fortunately we are able to visit a couple of them, which are open to the public. 

The street was also a toll road at the beginning, and a trip down Poplar to Collierville was a two day journey.   Until the 1880s, it was a dirt road maintained by convicts from the Shelby County Jail.  In 1882, the city paved the street with cedar blocks, but these soon rotted and were replaced with gravel. 

Now there is talk in the City Council about changing the name of Poplar.  WHY???

After the Civil War, Jefferson Davis made his career change from Confederate president to insurance salesman, at Second and Madison.  The city's first electric streetlight  appeared on Madison in 1881.  And the University of Memphis began as a two year teacher's college at Main and Madison in 1912.  Madison was also the location of the "Dummy Line" the main east-west streetcar line that went from downtown to the Fairgrounds. 

Madison was originally named "Madison Street", but in 1910, Memphis reorganized the all East-West roads to "Avenue."  Madison begins at Front Street and runs east,  ending at East Parkway.     Many commercial and residential structures sprung up at the beginning of the 20th Century.  Most of this stretch of Madison contains its original granite curbs.

Most owners of black-owned businesses on Beale street lived in the Vance neighborhoods.  It was the center of black business, commerce, education,  ... essentially the black "Main Downtown".  The Vance neighborhood suffered through "urban renewal" programs and between 1935 and 1968, a steady demoliton campaign demolished more than half of the original structures.

The varied architectural styles of the neighborhood worked very well as did the many types of building materials.  The workmanship was consistently the highest quality.  During "Suburban Flight" and "White Flight", many residents of Central Avenue and Central Gardens stayed in place and  maintained the value of their property.  At that time the area became known as "the best kept secret in Memphis".

A project to repave and reduce the street to two lanes as well as add bike lanes has been delayed at least two more years.  Those plans have been put on hold amid major MLGW utility work on the street.

North Parkway was also known as Speedway.  George Kessler originally designed parts of the Parkway system to be straight portions of tree-lines avenues where car and carriage owners could race against each other.  Memphis ended this practice in 1910 and imposed a speed limit.

The Memphis Parkway System is about 12 miles long and varies from 100 to 250 feet wide.  It extends to the east from Riverside Park south of downtown to a point several blocks south of Overton Park where it turns north as far as the northeast corner of the park , then runs west all the way back to downtown.  Much of the parkway contains a grassy or landscaped median.

Jefferson Avenue was one of the original streets laid out by Memphis founders, Jackson, Overton, and Westchester.  Apparently no Memphis street was in more of a rush to accommodate the automobile than it was.  In the mid 1960s, Jefferson not only was widened but realigned with the construction of Danny Thomas Blvd. 

There are many "hidden gems" along Harbert Avenue.

<><><><><>