EVERGREEN NEIGHBORHOOD HISTORY THEN & NOW Vollintine-Evergreen Hein Park Neighborhood Neighborhood Snowden School North Parkway EVERGREEN Memphis Zoo HISTORIC DISTRICT NEIGHBORHOOD OVERTON Overton Park PARK The Shell Memphis College of Art Parkway East cLean Stonewall M Brooks Art Links at Evergreen Museun Overton Park Poplar Ave. Target House East End tkins Neighborhood Wa Court Ave. Cleveland Madison Ave. Union Ave. ➥ Annesdale-Snowden Central Gardens ➥ Cooper-Young Neighborhood Neighborhood Neighborhood PREFACE The story of rebuilding on the land vacated for the I-40 extension through Midtown Memphis is a dramatic example of how a neighborhood took responsibility for its future and in so doing, preserved an important part of the city itself. Memphis Heritage, Inc. a non-profit preservation organization dedicated to furthering public appreciation for our historic resources, saw a need to update the l980 Evergreen Neighborhood History in collaboration with the Evergreen Historic District Association. Memphis Interfaith Association (MIFA), publisher of the original history—along with six other neighborhood histories—readily endorsed the effort. This continuation of the Evergreen neighborhood history written by Bette Tilly, one of the authors of the original publication, is intended as a pilot project. Memphis Heritage hopes to update and expand a series of neighborhood histories to reinforce the sense of civic pride characteri stic of historic neighborhoods and to nourish the commitment to preserve such areas. The original narrative, Yesterday’s Evergreen Today’s Mid-Memphis, chronicles the destruction of homes, displacement of residents, and dissolution of a cohesive neigh- borhood in Midtown Memphis. The new chapter tells the story of reconstruction on the vacated land—like the phoenix rising—and the knitting together of the torn fabric of the Evergreen neighborhood. It is a success story worth telling. Here, then, are the details remembered by scores of dedicated people who worked at all levels to ensure that an error was corrected and a community was restored; this is a story of creative solutions that moves forward each day in the activities of this warm, caring community in the heart of the city. Cover design by Teresa Bullock of Flamingo Graphics and house sketches by Ed Garavelli. 1 2 3 YESTERDAY’S EVERGREEN **** TODAY’S MID-MEMPHIS A History By Bette B. Tilly with Pat Faudree Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association (MIFA) Memphis, Tennessee, 1980 MIFA Neighborhood History Series # 7 4 CONTENTS ILLUSTRATIONS 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 Preface 9 Overton Park 10 Poplar Blvd 13 Evergreen—Birth of a Suburban Community 17 The Evergreen Clubs, the School, and the Churches 23 The Growing Community 29 The Business District 35 A Mid-Town Community 39 Progress Come to Evergreen: The Expressway 40 The Corridor in the Community 47 NOTES 58 APPENDICES Appendix A: Residents and Streets in Evergreen - 1980 and 1909 71 Appendix B: Zoo Population and Value- 1908 72 Appendix C: Arch itectural Specifications for a 1916 House 73 Appendix D:Advertisements for Housing- 1902, 1905, 1925 76 Appendix E: Charter Members,Women’s Evergreen Club 80 Appendix F: Poplar Street Listings - 1906- 1920 81 Appendix G: Business Listings: Poplar, Overton Park Avenue,Watkins - 1979 83 Appendix H: Statement form Mid- Memphis Improvement Association 85 Bibliography 87 5 ILLUSTRATIONS Overton Park Frontispiece Brennan-Paul Map of Memphis and Suburbs, 1907 12 The Mid-Memphis Area of 1980 15 Street Name Changes 16 Proposed Historic Districts 21 Homes in Evergreen 27 Past and Present on the Parkways 28 The Armistead House 31 Theo W.Ohman Map of Memphis 1925 34 Neighborhood Churches 37 Commercial Life Then and Now 38 The Memphis Expressway System 41 Path of I-40 - The Corridor 46 The Changing Neighborhood 54 The Neighborhood Today 55 The Gallow ay Touch 107 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This history was made possible by a grant from the Tennessee Committee for the Humanities, Inc., an affiliated of the National Endowment for the Humanities and with partial funding from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation to the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association.The findings and conclusions herein do not necessarily represent the views of the Tennessee Committee for the Humanities, Inc. or the National Endowment for the “Humanities. The project staff appreciate the generous encouragement from Project Director Jeanne Tacket and the Advisory Committee Members: Ray Allen Professor Howard Sims Dr. Granville Davis Reverend Gid Smith Mr. Robert Dempsey Dr. Bernice White Dr. Fred Neal Dr. Don Mikula Bena Cates, MIFA Coordinator, helped in preliminary preparations and in interviewing.Vida Andersen, Mott Coordinator, gave valuable assistance.The “other” MIFA project team—Peggy Jemison,Virginia Dunaway and Ray Ann Kremer—were always available when needed. Lavelle Willis has been extraordi- narily patient as well as efficient in trying to type this history.To all the others on the MIFA staff, thank you. MIFA wishes to thank the staffs of the History Department and the Memphis Room of the Memphis and Shelby County Public Library; the Memphis and Shelby County Archives; the City of Memphis Mapping and Property Division of Public Works; the City of Memphis Board of Education; the Memphis Area Transit Authority; and the City of Memphis Community Development Program, with special acknowledgment to Ann Bennett, Preservation Planner of the Memphis Landmarks Commission. Memphis artist, Brett Busang, provided the illustrative front cover as well as a drawing of the Armistead House incorporated into the text. Pictures have been used with the permission of Sue Reid Williams, Sears, Roebuck and Company, Memphis Park Commission,Women of the Church (Eve rgreen Presbyterian), and the Memphis Room, memphis and Shelby County Public Library. Current photographs were taken by Pat ‘Faudree. Jim Westmoreland, Bob Schuyler, and Mary Thorpe provided necessary materials and assistance. The Mid-Memphis Improvement Association welcomed the MIFA team into the neighborhood. President Kay Portman has provided assistance in many ways. Past president Agnes Bowe has given invaluable help as have members Mara Jones and Robert K.Wi lliams. 7 Although there is no space here to name them all, residents, past and present, made a unique contribution through their oral interviews. The bibliography contains a full description of these interviews which are to be deposited in the Memphis and Shelby County Public Library and Information Center. Front cover:Wessell House on Overton Park Avenue by Brett Busang Back Cover: Scenes on Forrest Street Center picture: Gluck-Rosenstein House 1640 Forrest Clockwise from top right: Montedonico-Perkins House, 1728 Forrest Stotz-Grehan House, 1740 Forrest Park-Warren House, 1696 Forrest Furbringer-Belcher House, 1734 Forrest Hyde-Shewmaker House, 1750 Forrest Peters-Wright House, 1705 Forrest Sparks-Peter House, 1718 Forrest Riegel Home, 1630 Forrest 8 PREFACE Over 150 years ago, David Crockett tried to write an introduction to his book. As he labored he complained: “So fashionable has it become to write a preface, that, like an epitaph, it now records of its subject not what it is, but what it ought to be.”1 Today, the preface might not be as much as fash- ionable mandate, but it still provides the author a space to introduce his topic.Thus, I hope to explain both what this history is and a little of what it ought to be. Perhaps it oug ht to be subtitled (with apologies to Harry Golden) “Only in America.” Where else but in America do you find a society as present-minded as we are—with seemingly little need to preserve our heritage? Certainly, Memphis has not been a backwater town in pushing progress to the detri- ment of old homes, institutions, or sites. Perhaps this little history ought to attempt an analysis of the American vision of “Progress” and the fruits of that dream. Perhaps too it should explain the American fascination with the automobile, the subsequent expressway system, and the resulting consequences for our society today. Nonetheless, this brief history is not the place to find the answers to those questions.However, Yesterday’s Evergreen does illustrate the effect on one community of our present-mindedness and pre- occupation with the automobile. It is then an attempt to trace the history of a suburban community through the years, from birth to maturit y as a mid-town neighborhood. Evergreen developed around the Overton Park area at the same time as the park.The architecture, the landscaping, even the layout of the streets reflect the Memphis of an earlier era—the new Memphis of the early twentieth century. those homes were still there and in good condition.Then, the City of Memphis decided, with the assis- tance of the State of Tennessee and the Government of the United States, to build an expressway through that neighbo rhood and, of course, through Overton Park. The early history of Evergreen is fascinating not only because of its association with Overton Park but also because of the colorful characters involved in its development. The recent history is even more interesting. Once again, that account might be labeled “Only in America.” The politics of the Interstate 40 controversy involving the city, the county, the state, and the federal government would be incom- prehensible to a foreigner trying to understand the situation. Then there were the inevitable citizens ‘ groups, some pro, some con, but all always vocal. Surely,“Only in America” would there be twenty years of delay involving the various governing bodies, the courts, the citizens groups, the newspapers, and—to be sure, the engineers and planners who initiated the I-40 route through Overton Park and the Evergreen Community. This brief history is not the comprehensive story of Evergreen th e subur- ban community or of Evergreen, the Mid-Memphis area of modern times. However, it offers a look at life in Memphis both yesterday and today. l Sketches and Eccentricities of Colonel David Crocket, of West Tennessee (New York: J.