Midtown is a collection of neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee, to the east of Downtown.
Midtown is home to many cultural attractions, institutions of higher education, and noteworthy pieces of architecture. [1] The district is an anchor in Memphis' arts scene, including the Playhouse on the Square, the Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis College of Art, and the Levitt Shell. The annual Cooper-Young Arts Festival draws over 120,000 visitors [2] to the district. Midtown also plays host to multiple universities and colleges, including Memphis College of Art, Rhodes College, and Christian Brothers University.
Midtown is characterized by vintage residential housing, a blend of independent and chain retailers, and high-rise buildings. Multiple historic districts [3] are located in Midtown, and commercial corridors such as Overton Square and Cooper Street developed before World War II in an urban style. Mixed use areas with housing, religious, commercial and office spaces are common in Midtown.
Midtown has an evenly distributed black and white population, as well as a notable Asian population. Cleveland Street in Crosstown is the heart of the Vietnamese population in Memphis, [4] with multiple Vietnamese-owned businesses and a Buddhist temple.
The exact boundaries of Midtown are often disputed. Generally, it is the area between the Medical District to the west and East Memphis to the east. The eastern boundary is variously defined as East Parkway, the CN railroad east of East Parkway. The northern boundary is Vollintine Avenue. VECA is generally considered the northernmost neighborhood in Midtown. Cooper-Young and Rozelle are generally regarded as the southernmost neighborhoods in Midtown. Interstate 240 provides the western border for the neighborhood, separating Midtown from Downtown and the Medical District.
Due to the historic eastward expansion of the city, automobile traffic in Midtown is primarily served by east–west arteries. Major traffic corridors in the district include:
Midtown Memphis is connected to the Medical District and downtown via the Madison Avenue trolley line, with a park and ride station at Cleveland Street. [5] Historically, Madison Avenue was the location of the "Dummy Line", the main east–west streetcar line that went from downtown to the Mid-South Fairgrounds (east along Madison, south down Cooper, and east along Young), and many commercial and residential structures along the avenue date to the beginning of the twentieth century. Most of this stretch of Madison contains its original granite curbs, and in a few locations the original brick pavers can be seen in the gutters.
Bicycle infrastructure is growing in Midtown, with bike lanes now installed on McLean Boulevard, Madison Avenue, Southern Avenue, and Cooper Street. Protected bike lanes have been installed on portions of Overton Park Avenue. [6] Additionally, the Hampline is a two-way bicycle track that will connect Overton Park to Shelby Farms in suburban Memphis via the Shelby Farms Greenline. [7]
Midtown public schools include Snowden School (elementary and middle), Idlewild Elementary, Rozelle Elementary, Peabody Elementary, Bellevue Middle, Fairview Middle, and Central High School, some of which offer optional programs. Several private and parochial schools are also found throughout Midtown, including Grace-St. Luke's Episcopal School, Immaculate Conception Cathedral School and Memphis Catholic High School. The 1st Class Montessori School has operated for over twenty years on Peabody Avenue in Midtown.
Midtown is home to two private undergraduate universities. Rhodes College is a classical liberal arts college housing roughly two thousand students [8] in the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood. Christian Brothers University is located adjacent to the Lenox neighborhood on East Parkway.
Several specialized colleges and schools are also located in Midtown. The Memphis Theological Seminary is located on East Parkway, in the East End neighborhood. Overton Park is home to the Memphis College of Art, which moved to its current location from Victorian Village in the 1960s. The Southern College of Optometry and Moore Tech, a small vocational college, are located in the Crosstown area.
Several other institutions of learning are located nearby. The historically-black LeMoyne-Owen College operates in Soulsville, a neighborhood to the south of Midtown. The Memphis Medical District to the west includes University of Tennessee Health Science Center's Medical, Pharmacy, Nursing and Dentistry schools; Methodist Hospital Schools of Radiologic Sciences and Nursing; and the Baptist College of Health Sciences.
Midtown contains Overton Park which includes the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis Zoo, and the Memphis College of Art. It is also known for its bars and restaurants, many of them featuring live music at night. Located in the Cooper-Young neighborhood are coffeehouses, restaurants, and bars. Located in Midtown Memphis is also a movie theatre, Studio On The Square, and the city's only professional theatre troupe, Playhouse on the Square, which currently runs three separate theatres. Grace-St. Luke's Tiffany windows are thought to be the largest collection of Tiffany windows in a parish church in the South. Central Gardens is a historic neighborhood in Midtown.
Tennessee Williams wrote his first publicly performed play, Cairo, Shanghai, Bombay! while staying in the Midtown home of his grandparents: 1917 Snowden Ave. It was first performed in 1935 at 1780 Glenview, also in Midtown. [9] [10]
The Cooper-Young Festival is also held annually at the intersection of Cooper and Young, in Midtown. Another area, Overton Square, holds a St. Patrick's Day celebration.
Midtown was also home to the Mid-South Fair for 152 years. However, the year 2008 was the last year that the Mid-South Fair was held in Memphis. Starting in 2009, the Mid-South Fair was held on newly acquired land at Tunica, Mississippi. [11] [12] [13]
Christian Brothers University is a private Roman Catholic university in Memphis, Tennessee. It was founded in 1871 by the De La Salle Christian Brothers, a Catholic teaching order.
Cooper-Young is an eclectic neighborhood and historic district in the Midtown section of Memphis, Tennessee, named for the intersection of Cooper Street and Young Avenue. The entrance to the neighborhood is marked by the Cooper-Young Trestle, a 150-foot (46 m) long steel sculpture which depicts homes and businesses found in the neighborhood. Created by metal artist Jill Turman, the sculpture was dedicated in 2000, and has become a source of community pride and identity. In 2012, Cooper-Young was listed on the American Planning Association's 10 Great Neighborhoods in the U.S list.
Manhattan Community Board 5 is a New York City community board, part of the local government apparatus of the city, with the responsibility for the neighborhoods of Midtown, Times Square, most of the Theater District, the Diamond District, the Garment District, Herald Square, Koreatown, NoMad, Murray Hill and the Flatiron District, all in the borough of Manhattan. It is bounded by 59th Street on the north, Eighth Avenue, 26th Street, the Avenue of the Americas on the west, 14th Street on the south, and Lexington Avenue on the east, excluding the area from 34th to 40th Streets between Madison and Lexington Avenues, and the area from 20th to 22nd Streets between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenue/Irving Place.
Central Gardens is a historic Memphis neighborhood in Midtown. It has been named one of North America's best "Old House Neighborhoods."
Interstate 240 (I-240) is a 19.27-mile-long (31.01 km) auxiliary Interstate Highway in the US state of Tennessee that forms a bypass around the southern and eastern neighborhoods of Memphis. Combined, I-240 and its parent, I-40, form a contiguous beltway around most of Memphis. I-240 runs from I-40 in Midtown Memphis to I-40 and Sam Cooper Boulevard in East Memphis. Throughout its length, it provides access to I-55, multiple U.S. and state routes, and the Memphis International Airport. The segment between the western terminus and I-55 is a north–south route, and the segment between I-55 and the eastern terminus runs east to west. Throughout its length, I-240 is designated as the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Expressway, the W.B. Fowler Sr. Expressway, and the Avron B. Fogelman Expressway.
The Memphis–Clarksdale-Forrest City Combined Statistical Area, TN–MS–AR (CSA) is the commercial and cultural hub of The Mid-South or Ark-Miss-Tenn. The census-defined combined statistical area covers eleven counties in three states, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. As of 2010 census, the Memphis metropolitan area had a population of 1,324,108. The Forrest City, Arkansas Micropolitan area was added to the Memphis area in 2012 to form the Memphis–Forrest City Combined Statistical area. In 2023 the Clarksdale, Mississippi Micropolitan area was also added to form the new Memphis-Clarksdale-Forrest City Combined Statistical Area which as of 2023 had a population of roughly 1.4 million people according to census estimates.
The Memphis Medical District is an area which was created to provide a central location for medical care, serving both Memphis and the Mid-South.
East Memphis is a region of Memphis, Tennessee with several defined and informal subdivisions and neighborhoods such as Colonial Acres, White Station-Yates, Sherwood Forest, Normal Station, High Point Terrace, Belle Meade, Normandy Meadows, St. Nick, Pleasant Acres, Balmoral, and Ridgeway. The general boundaries are informal:
Evergreen Historic District is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee.
The history of Memphis, Tennessee and its area began many thousands of years ago with succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. In the first millennium, it was settled by the Mississippian culture. The Chickasaw Indian tribe emerged about the 17th century, or migrated into the area. The earliest European exploration may have encountered remnants of the Mississippian culture by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Later French explorers led by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle likely encountered the Chickasaw. The European-American city of Memphis was not founded until 1819. The city was named after the ancient capital of Egypt on the Nile River in North Africa.
Memphis, Tennessee has a long history of distinctive contributions to the culture of the American South and beyond. Although it is an important part of the culture of Tennessee, the history, arts, and cuisine of Memphis are more closely associated with the culture of the Deep South than the rest of the state. For example, the city's influence on 20th-century music has had worldwide impact. Memphians have had an important role in founding or establishing several important American music genres, including blues, gospel, rock and roll, and "sharecropper" country music.
Tourism in Memphis includes the points of interest in Memphis, Tennessee such as museums, fine art galleries, and parks, as well as Graceland the Beale Street entertainment district, and sporting events.
Vollintine Hills Historic District is a historic district located in the Midtown area of Memphis, Tennessee, notable for its cohesive collection of 78 post-World War II Minimal Traditional and ranch-style houses built around a former synagogue. "The neighborhood represents the efforts of members of an Orthodox religious group to accommodate their beliefs by developing a synagogue and housing for the congregation within easy walking distance."
Sam Cooper Boulevard is an urban highway in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The more recent western segment of the road follows a parkway design, while the older eastern portion, which was proposed and constructed as a segment of Interstate 40 (I-40), is built as a freeway, without at-grade intersections and traffic lights. The western terminus of Sam Cooper Boulevard is at East Parkway North. At the western termination point of the road there is a short concurrency of East Parkway North with U.S. Route 64 (US 64), US 70, and US 79. From its western end, Sam Cooper Boulevard continues east for 5.8 miles (9.3 km) to reach its eastern terminus at the I-40/I-240 interchange.
Glenview Historic District is a neighborhood in Memphis, Tennessee that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district in 1999. The neighborhood is between South Memphis and Midtown and bounded by the Illinois Central Railroad on the west, Lamar Ave on the east, Southern Ave on the north and South Parkway on the south.
Binghampton is a neighborhood on an edge of Midtown in Memphis, Tennessee. It is named after W. H. Bingham, an Irish immigrant, hotelier, planter, magistrate, politician, and entrepreneur who founded a town to the east and slightly north of the Memphis city limits in 1893.
The Memphis Parkway System is a system of parkways that formed the original outer beltway around Memphis, Tennessee. They consist of South Parkway, East Parkway, and North Parkway. Designed by George Kessler, the Parkway System connects Martin Luther King Jr. Riverside Park with Overton Park. The system was put on the National Register of Historic Places on July 3, 1989.
Idlewild Presbyterian Church is a historic church located at 1750 Union Avenue in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. Idlewild is a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
George Awsumb was a prominent Norwegian-American architect in the first half of the 20th century. Awsumb defined architecture as “frozen music” designed for the “man on the street.” He was influenced by his early life, European travels, and prevailing architectural trends of his time. His eclectic, progressive portfolio included neoclassical, Gothic Revival, Prairie School, and International Style designs. Several buildings that Awsumb designed have been in continuous use in the American Midwest and South for over 100 years. In particular, Awsumb began a family architectural legacy that contributed to the progress and development of Memphis, Tennessee.
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