| South Main Arts District | |
|---|---|
 South Main Street (2010) | |
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| Location | South Main St. between Beale Street and G.E. Patterson, Memphis, Tennessee |
| Coordinates | 35°8′1.24″N90°3′32.24″W / 35.1336778°N 90.0589556°W |
The South Main Arts District in Memphis, Tennessee makes up the southern portion of Downtown Memphis. It is located along South Main Street and is within the South Main Street Historic District.
Many great points of historical interest in Memphis reside in this area. One is the National Civil Rights Museum. The others include the Blues Hall of Fame and the historic restaurant the Arcade, located on the south corner of South Main and G.E. Patterson. It is the oldest coffee shop and one of the oldest family owned restaurants in Memphis. Elvis used to hang out at the Arcade [1] and it has become a favorite among filmmakers; several movies have had scenes filmed at the diner-styled restaurant.
On the last Friday of each month, an event called "Trolley Night" is put on by the South Main Association, as well as owners of the South Main businesses and art galleries. From 6-9 pm, this includes free MATA trolley service up and down Main Street, open art galleries, and longer hours for most area shops and restaurants. [2]
Several notable locations and buildings are located in the South Main district.
The South Main district has been featured in many films, sometimes as just background scenery in Memphis, sometimes masquerading as an older version of Beale Street. [3]
Some of the films featuring scenes from the South Main district are:
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County, in the southwesternmost part of the state, and is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-most populous city in Tennessee after Nashville.
The University of Memphis (Memphis) is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students.
Beale Street is a street in Downtown Memphis, Tennessee, which runs from the Mississippi River to East Street, a distance of approximately 1.8 miles (2.9 km). It is a significant location in the city's history, as well as in the history of blues music. Today, the blues clubs and restaurants that line Beale Street are major tourist attractions in Memphis. Festivals and outdoor concerts frequently bring large crowds to the street and its surrounding areas.
The National Civil Rights Museum is a complex of museums and historic buildings in Memphis, Tennessee; its exhibits trace the history of the civil rights movement in the United States from the 17th century to the present. The museum is built around the former Lorraine Motel, which was the site of the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Two other buildings and their adjacent property, also connected with the King assassination, have been acquired as part of the museum complex.
A. Schwab Dry Goods Store is the sole remaining original business on Beale Street in Memphis, Tennessee.
Midtown is a collection of neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee, to the east of Downtown.
Spaghetti Warehouse is an Italian restaurant chain geared towards families with five physical locations in two U.S. states: four in Ohio, one in New York (state). They also operate a to-go only location in Texas. The chain started in 1972 in Dallas, Texas, and at one point had spread throughout the southern and eastern parts of the United States. Each restaurant has a trolley car in the dining room and patrons are able to sit in the car. One of Spaghetti Warehouse's unique characteristics is that many of the older locations are in renovated, historic buildings.
Downtown Memphis, Tennessee is the central business district of Memphis, Tennessee and is located along the Mississippi River between Interstate 40 to the north, Interstate 55 to the south and I-240 to the east, where it abuts Midtown Memphis.
South Memphis, one of the oldest portions of Memphis, Tennessee, is a community stretching from Midtown and Downtown to the Mississippi state line. In its early days, it was primarily an agrarian community. South Memphis has many well-known neighborhoods including Whitehaven, Lauderdale Sub, Longview, Riverside, Lakeview Gardens, Prospect Park, Dukestown, Gaslight Square, Wilbert Heights, Mallory Heights, Dixie Heights, Barton Heights, Elliston Heights, Handy Holiday, Chickasaw Village, Pine Hill, Indian Hills, Bunker Hill, Westwood, Boxtown, West Junction, Walker Homes, Coro Lake, Nehemiah, and French Fort. Many of these neighborhoods are considered home to many famous hip hop/R&B singers and rappers. Many locations in South Memphis are also considered a hotbed for crime and violence due to the high amount of gang influence and the overall poverty level of the area. But South Memphis is known for its plentiful houses of worship including Mt. Vernon Baptist Church Westwood, St. Andrew AME Church, Washington Chapel CME Church, East Trigg Baptist Church, White's Chapel AME Church, Union Valley Baptist Church, Enon Springs Baptist Church, Warner Temple AME Zion Church, Unity Baptist Church, Ford's Chapel AME Zion Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, and Monumental Baptist Church, just naming a few.
WDIA is a radio station based in Memphis, Tennessee. Active since 1947, it soon became the first radio station in the United States that was programmed entirely for African Americans. It featured black radio personalities; its success in building an audience attracted radio advertisers suddenly aware of a "new" market among black listeners. The station had a strong influence on music, hiring musicians early in their careers, and playing their music to an audience that reached through the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast.
Memphis Central Station, referred to as Grand Central Station prior to 1944, is a passenger terminal in Memphis, Tennessee. Located along Main Street and G.E. Patterson Boulevard in Downtown Memphis, it currently a service stop for Amtrak's City of New Orleans route, arriving in late evening northbound and in the morning southbound. It is also served by the MATA Trolley system. The building was opened in 1914, and is located within the city's South Main Arts District. It is also an contributing property to the South Main Street Historic District of the National Register of Historic Places, as are the National Civil Rights Museum and other historic properties within the district boundaries.
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.
Gay Street is a street in Knoxville, Tennessee, United States, that traverses the heart of the city's downtown area. Since its development in the 1790s, Gay Street has served as the city's principal financial and commercial thoroughfare, and has played a primary role in the city's historical and cultural development. The street contains Knoxville's largest office buildings and oldest commercial structures. Several buildings on Gay Street have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Main Street Line is a line of the Memphis Area Transit Authority trolley system. It began operations in 1993, becoming the first streetcar line to operate in Memphis since 1947. It runs for about 2 mi (3.2 km) along Main Street, with 14 stops in Downtown Memphis. The Main Street Line is concurrent with the Riverfront Loop for almost all of its length.
The Riverfront Loop is a line of the Memphis Area Transit Authority trolley system. It began operation in 1997, as the second line in the system. It runs for 4.1 mi (6.6 km) through downtown Memphis and along the Mississippi riverfront, with 18 stops along the way. It is the longest of the system's three lines, though it is concurrent with the Main Street Line for about half of its length. Part of the line offers panoramic views of the Mississippi River from atop to the Chickasaw Bluffs.
Beale Street Baptist Church, also known as, First Baptist Church or Beale Avenue Baptist Church, is a historic church on Beale Street, in Memphis, Tennessee. It is affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA.
John A. Elkington is an American real estate developer best known for the redevelopment of Beale Street, the entertainment district in Memphis, Tennessee, known in the United States as a popular tourist destination.
Andrew "Sunbeam" Mitchell was a Memphis-based businessman. He operated the Mitchell Hotel which lodged well-known musicians, and soon he began operating nightclubs on the Chitlin' Circuit such as the Club Handy, Club Ebony, and the Club Paradise. Mitchell ran nightclubs for 40 years until selling off his holdings in the 1980s.
The South Main Street Historic District in Memphis, Tennessee, is located south of the city's central business district encompassing over 100 mostly commercial buildings spread across 11 blocks. The area was constructed between 1900 and 1930 in a wide range of early-twentieth-century architectural styles including Beaux Arts, Georgian Revival, Art Deco and Chicago Commercial. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982 as an area of Memphis representing the impact of the railroad on the city during the a period of railroad-led prosperity that ended with the Great Depression. The district includes the Lorraine Motel, constructed in 1925, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. The South Main Arts District is a smaller area within the historic district. The district is also a City of Memphis local historic district or Historic Overlay District.
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