Status: Preserved
Address: 1914 Poplar Avenue, Memphis
Built: 1923
Architectural Style: Neo-classical style
Original Function/Purpose: Multi-family housing
History: The Parkview was designed by the St. Louis firm of Barnett, Haynes, and Barnett, a firm with several other notable hotels to its credit. The structure originally contained 165 suites, catering to both long-term apartment dwellers as well as transient guests, and quickly became a fashionable “Out East” address; dwellers included adventurer and author Richard Halliburton’s parents, and Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Saunders. City planner Harland Bartholomew didn’t like it, though, calling it a zoning anomaly. A number of neighbors didn’t like it either, successfully suing for damage to their property values. Home-owners “also complained of finding half-filled liquor bottles discarded in the shrubbery and that the [Parkview] residents neglected to close their window shades.” The building’s fortunes declined during the Depression, but innovations and improvements saved it to be purchased in 1964 by the Presbyterian Church U.S. when it became a non-denominational retirement residence called Parkview Manor. “The current owners propose to rehabilitate it as luxury apartments serving the Mid-Town market.”
City Council District: 5
Super District: 9
County Commission District: 7