Status: Preserved
Address: 1428 Fox Street, Memphis
Built: ca. 1854
Architectural Style: Mid-1800s log construction
Original Function/Purpose: Residential
History: The Elam Homestead is a significant example of log construction techniques in the mid-1800s, as the last surviving nineteenth-century log building in Memphis. The land on which the house was built was part of a land grant of 1791 to John Lynch for his service in the Revolutionary War. The grant included the area from Prescott to Lamar and from Kimball to Nonconnah Creek. In 1821, Lynch’s heirs sold the land to J. Kimble. When the tracts were sold, Edward Simpson Elam bought 444 1/4 acres in 1849; the property stayed in the family until 1924. An addition to the structure was made shortly after the Civil War and others were made during the 1930s through the ‘60s. Now standing on less than an acre of land, only two of the house’s 14 rooms are original to the house.
City Council District: 4
Super District: 8
County Commission District: 10