In its heyday, Downtown Memphis was a vibrant center of shipping and commerce. As the largest port on the Mississippi River between St. Louis and New Orleans, Memphis developed as a transportation center and as a market for large quantities of cotton grown in the area. In the second half of the 19th century, Memphis was a booming and prosperous city that had capitalized on its river access, but by the late 20th century, the historic center city had fallen on hard times.

In the 1970s, the wheels of progress began to turn in Downtown Memphis, leading to the formation of the Center City Commission and one of the most dramatic revitalization efforts in the country. Today, Downtown is a bustling residential, business, and entertainment center truly the heart and soul of Memphis.

Early Days in Memphis
Downtown Memphis originated as campgrounds for the Chickasaw nation. But in 1541, when Hernando DeSoto claimed the area for Spain, so began the slow process of Chickasaw displacement and a tradition of passing ownership of what is today called the Mid-South.

DeSoto did not stay in Memphis long, but he was followed by the 17th-century French explorer Sieur de LaSalle, who claimed the entire Mississippi Valley for King Louis XIV. Then, in 1739, a French fort was built on what had become known as the fourth Chickasaw bluff. But the Spanish would return later in the century to replace the French fort with Fort San Fernando. Finally, in 1797, the United States took control of the area and erected Fort Adams, marking the final exodus of the Chickasaw nation. In 1818, the Chickasaws signed a formal agreement to relinquish West Tennessee to the United States.

The following year, the City of Memphis was founded by three Nashville land speculators – John Overton, James Winchester, and future President of the United States Andrew Jackson. The men named their new city for the capital of ancient Egypt.

19th Century: The Blue and Gray, Yellow Fever, and White Gold
Memphis did not become an economic force right away, but two developments toward the middle of the century served to transform the city’s fortune. In 1845, the navy yard opened and Memphis’ prominence as a river port was solidified. Shortly thereafter, the Memphis & Charleston Railroad was completed, providing a lucrative connection to the Atlantic Coast. Flatboats loaded with cotton and other goods lined the riverbank as peddlers, fur traders, and gamblers occupied hotels and saloons. Front Street became a bustling trading center for cotton, frequently referred to as "white gold."

Throughout the Civil War, Memphians remained staunch supporters of the Confederate cause, even during Federal occupation and Ulysses S. Grant’s use of the now-renovated Hunt-Phelan home on Beale Street. The evidence of this support is still existent today at Forrest Park in the Medical District, where namesake Nathan Bedford Forrest is buried, and at Confederate Park, which incorporates a statue of Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy.

On June 6, 1862, thousands of Memphians settled onto the bluffs along the Mississippi to watch the Union navy defeat the Confederate navy in the Battle of Memphis. So, while Memphis had a front-row seat during much of the Civil War, it did not suffer the same fate of other southern cities like Atlanta or Vicksburg. Federal occupation did not stifle economic activity. In fact, enterprising business owners would sell cotton to the Union, then turn around and sell nails, shoes, and gunpowder to the Confederates.

The Civil War did, however, launch social changes that would shape Memphis for decades. For example, Union authorities established a freedmen’s camp for escaping slaves just south of Memphis, which had to this point been settled primarily by whites. The population of the freedmen’s camp grew as the war went on, and most of the freedmen decided to stay after the war ended in 1865. Many moved into the southern part of the city around Beale Street, and the city’s black population grew from 4,000 to 15,000. The city’s population also ballooned to 55,000, making Memphis the sixth-largest city in the country.

The city’s fortune took a turn for the worse in the 1870s when two yellow fever epidemics killed more than 5,000 residents and caused another 25,000 to leave the city. By the end of the decade, Memphis was bankrupt and nearly vacant. As a result, the State of Tennessee revoked Memphis’ charter in 1879. But when a revival of river trade occurred in the 1880s, the city began to recover, and soon, Memphis was the world’s largest hardwood market and the cotton center of the South.

One of Memphis’ cotton merchants was William Goodlett, also an early settler of Memphis. The Goodlett Cotton Company was located downtown from 1852 until it closed right before World War II. The fortune of Goodlett and other cotton merchants took shape on what was once known as Millionaires’ Row, a string of fine homes running eastward from the river on Adams Avenue. The remnants of these fine Italianate villas, Second Empire French mansions, and Victorian estates are evidenced in the Victorian Village historic district.

Beale Street and Memphis Music
Well after the end of the Civil War, African-Americans continued to be drawn to Memphis. Beale Street and the surrounding area became an economically thriving and vibrant black community. A former slave and the South’s first African-American millionaire, Robert Church made his home on Beale Street and later established a park and auditorium for the city’s black residents. His financial support was also critical to the reinstatement of the city charter in 1893.

Beale Street would, of course, become home to the Blues. W.C. Handy established this new type of music out of Beale Street’s raucous, free-spirited environment, and by 1909, Handy had established such a formidable reputation that young mayoral candidate E.H. Crump commissioned Handy to write a campaign song for him. Crump went on to dominate Memphis and Tennessee politics for nearly half a century, and the campaign song, "Mister Crump," also became a hit. With altered lyrics, the song became known as "Memphis Blues," and its formula led to such Handy hits as "Beale Street Blues" and "St. Louis Blues."

Beale Street retained its vibrancy through World War II, and Memphis’ reputation for vice grew. As more and more affluent whites began migrating toward the suburbs, reform-minded city leaders began a major cleanup of Beale Street, closing most of the saloons, pawnshops, and pool halls. As a result, the Memphis music scene lost much of its vitality for the time being.

But in 1945, a young disc jockey from Alabama named Sam Phillips arrived in Memphis with a great enthusiasm for the blues and country music. He soon opened a recording studio on Union Avenue, which drew the attention of Ike Turner, another southern deejay, who came to the studio and recorded “Rocket 88” in 1951. The success of that record inspired Phillips to open his own record company, and in 1952 he founded Sun Records. Two years later, music history was made again when Elvis Aaron Presley recorded at the studio. Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Roy Orbison would follow in Elvis’ footsteps by recording their own hits at Sun Studio.

Although racial discord continued to hover over the city throughout the mid-20th century, city development progressed. In 1958, the City began constructing an expressway system. Two years later, entertainer Danny Thomas founded St. Jude Children’s Research Center. And in 1963, an expanded metropolitan airport opened.

In the 1960s, two small recording studios maintained Memphis’ presence on the national music scene, producing hits with both interracial and African-American. Music. Hi-Records was the creation of Willie Mitchell and was most successful with the early 1970s artist Al Green. Stax Records, established in 1958 by siblings Jim Stewart (ST) and Estelle Axton (AX), was located about a mile south of Beale Street and was marked above the entrance by a marquee that read “Soulsville, USA.” Stax received national recognition, thanks to such artists as the MarKeys, Booker T. and the MGs, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes and Rufus and Carla Thomas.

The Resurgence of Downtown
Stax and Hi-Records flourished at a time when racial unrest was prominent. Like many southern cities, Memphis fell victim to the racial tension that plagued the nation, but it was exacerbated by the City sanitation workers strike in 1968. In Memphis to lead a march protesting the workers’ condition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.

The riots and fires that followed, combined with the national trend toward suburbanization, sent Downtown into a downward spiral from which it would not recover for years. By the 1970s, Downtown had all but died. Large areas of Downtown had fallen victim to neglect; buildings on virtually every block were vacant; the once-vibrant Beale Street had been boarded up; and the South’s grand hotel, the Peabody, had closed.

The City of Memphis began the process of rebuilding the center city in 1976 when it launched a major public initiative to improve the quality of Downtown by constructing the Mid-America Mall, a pedestrian corridor along Main Street. While originally intended as a destination, its greatest success has been its role as a safe corridor linking downtown points of interest. This role was further enhanced nearly two decades later when the City and the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) invested in a trolley system and redevelopment of the public infrastructure along what is now the Main Street Mall.

Recognizing the need to leverage these public investments and to make Downtown an attractive environment for private development, the City of Memphis and Shelby County chartered one of the first downtown redevelopment agencies and business improvement districts in the nation. The Memphis Center City Commission was formed in 1977 to direct the comprehensive redevelopment of Downtown Memphis and to serve as the official partnership between private business and government in the revitalization effort.

Today’s Downtown
Few Memphians would argue that one development in particular has served as a catalyst for much of the development Downtown Memphis is experiencing today. On July 31, 1975, Jack Belz purchased the Peabody Hotel for $75,000 and began a $24 million renovation of the hotel, which reopened in 1981 – 56 years after its original grand opening.

But this was only the beginning of Belz’ vision, which included the creation of a mixed-use facility Downtown to live, work, and entertain. He eventually purchased 8 city blocks near the Peabody Hotel and straddling the Main Street Mall to create an area called Peabody Place, a development that includes Gayoso House apartments, Pembroke Square, 50 Peabody Place, the renovated Orpheum Theater, the Tower at Peabody Place, and the AutoZone headquarters. The most dramatic and long-awaited element of the project, the Peabody Place Entertainment and Retail Center, opened its doors in the summer of 2001.

Another catalyst in Downtown Memphis’ rebirth was the redevelopment of Beale Street. In the late 1970s, the City of Memphis bought nearly all of the properties along three blocks of Beale Street, and the Beale Street Management Corporation was formed with the charge of creating an entertainment district. In 1983, the first club reopened on Beale, and one by one, clubs and businesses moved into renovated spaces, producing the most vibrant streetscape and activity center in Downtown Memphis and the Mid-South, and arguably one of the hottest entertainment districts in the nation. Over the last 20 years, the street has gone from the epitome of urban decay to Tennessee’s number-one tourist attraction.

In 1991, the $60 million Pyramid Arena opened at the north end of Downtown, providing a home for the University of Memphis basketball program and a venue for top performers. That same year, more than 20 years after Dr. King’s assassination, the Lorraine Motel reopened as the National Civil Rights Museum. In 1998, on the 30th anniversary of Dr. King’s death, the museum announced its plans to expand its facilities to incorporate as exhibit space the building from which the fatal shot was fired and to develop a public plaza that will strengthen the museum’s connection to Main Street.

Tourism has played a major role in Downtown Memphis’ success, but it could not, by itself, support the kind of sustained development that Downtown is experiencing now. One of Downtown’s real success stories has been its residential growth. In 1977, only 244 units of market-rate housing existed in the Downtown area. A desire to live on the river drove a tremendous demand for these limited housing units. Those early developments were in such great demand that larger developers took notice, and decades of successful residential development, new construction, renovation, and adaptive reuse projects began. Today, more than 22,000 people live in the Central Business Improvement District, with 5,000 of those in the traditional downtown core.

Today’s Downtown Memphis is a dynamic development market. With approximately $2 billion in development projects recently completed, underway, or scheduled to begin, Downtown Memphis is experiencing the most dramatic period of redevelopment in its history, with tremendous prospects on the horizon.