Status: Preserved Address: 10 North Main Street, Memphis Built: Completed in 1895 Architectural Style: Eclectic, with elements of both Northern Italian Renaissance and Richardsonian Romanesque Original Function/Purpose: Bank History: The ten-story Continental National Bank was the city’s first skyscraper and (at the time) the tallest building in the world to haveContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 850 North Manassas Street, Memphis Built: 1856-1927 Architectural Style: Italianate (Italian Villa) Original Function/Purpose: Orphanage History: This was Memphis’s first orphanage. The Protestant Widows’ and Orphans’ Asylum was chartered in 1850, and following donation of land by Sarah Leath, the first building of the home was completed inContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 149 Union Avenue, Memphis Built: 1925 Architectural Style: Italian Renaissance Revival Original Function/Purpose: Hotel History: After a 1923 fire at its original location at Main and Monroe, the Peabody Hotel moved to this site and into its new building in 1925. It was designed by the firm ofContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 2086 Young Avenue, Memphis Built: ca. 1910-1912 Architectural Style: Beaux Arts Original Function/Purpose: Education History: Peabody Elementary School was designed by the firm of Jones and Furbringer, one of eight public schools they were responsible for between 1902 and 1915. This one is said to have been builtContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 1085 Poplar Avenue, Memphis Built: 1877 Architectural Style: Victorian Original Function/Purpose: Residential History: Oral history has it that the Patton-Bejach house was constructed in 1833, but some existing records indicate the building was built in 1877 and renovated in 1884 after a fire. The property was purchased inContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 1822 Overton Park Avenue, Memphis Built: 1908-1910 Architectural Style: Greek Revival Original Function/Purpose: Residential History: This home was built by businessman Robert Galloway who named it Paisley Hall for the town in Scotland where his father was born. Galloway was highly instrumental in establishing the Memphis Zoo andContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 197 South Main Street, Memphis Built: 1927-28 Architectural Style: Italian Renaissance Original Function/Purpose: Entertainment History: At the time the finest and most elegant theater outside of New York City, Memphis’s Grand Opera House was purchased by the Orpheum Theater Vaudeville Circuit in 1907 but subsequently burned to theContinue Reading
Status: Endangered Address: 100 North Main Street, Memphis Built: 1963-65 Architectural Style: Thirty-eight-story Late International skyscraper Original Function/Purpose: Commerce History: This building, the tallest in Memphis and occupying half of a city block, was designed by Robert Lee Hall, who also designed Clark Tower. Its tenant base consisted primarily of professionalsContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 7831 Poplar Pike, Germantown Built: c. 1875 – c. 1957 Architectural Style: Gabled L-shape five-bay home; many museum objects purposefully located outdoors in assemblages of natural features as well as nursery groves and gardens Original Function/Purpose: Commerce History: A former nursery, florist shop and family farm, OaklawnContinue Reading
Status: Preserved Address: 168 East Parkway South, Memphis Built: 1912 Architectural Style: Beaux Arts Original Function/Purpose: Residential History: The Newburger house was designed by the prominent Memphis architectural firm of Hanker and Cairns, who designed other well-known properties such as the Peabody Hotel and the Nineteenth Century Club. Joseph Newburger, theContinue Reading