Status: Endangered
Location: 751-53 to 775-77 St. Paul Avenue, and 558 Boyd Street, in Memphis
Built: 1890-1923
Architectural Style: Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Queen Anne
Original Function/Purpose: Residential
History: St. Paul Avenue Historic District is a small group of two single-family houses, and nine double-shotgun duplexes developed along St. Paul Avenue, dating between ca. 1890 and ca. 1923. The two types exemplify two separate waves of housing development occurring over an approximately 40-year span. The larger houses are good examples of middle-class homes from before ca. 1910. These particular shotgun homes were developed primarily for worker housing when demand superseded single-family use, but exhibit different treatments of roofs, window sashes, porch configurations and other elements that confer unusual variety to the different buildings. In 2018 the City of Memphis designated this property as a site on the Memphis Heritage Trail. In 2021 a developer who had purchased all seven historic double-shotgun duplexes along St. Paul Avenue proposed building a series of three apartment buildings containing 18 units in what amounted to the seven duplexes’ back yards. Although the project was approved by the Division of Planning & Development, the Land Use Control Board rejected it.
Maps:
City Council District: 6
Super District: 8
County Commission District: 8