Welcome to Home Tour
The Central Gardens Home Tour Committee is thrilled to offer our 48th annual tour of the neighborhood.
This year’s tour will showcase elegant and historic homes in the area north of Peabody Avenue and two homes west of Belvedere. It’s a unique opportunity to explore some of the city’s finest residential architecture and interior design. Tour highlights include Kimbrough Towers, a landmark apartment building and a range of homes from stately properties to charming cottages.
Also featured is a Special Celebration with a tour celebrating the 100th anniversary of Miss Lee’s Preschool at Grace-St. Luke’s School, adding historical significance to the event.
2024 HOME TOUR COMMITTEE
Patti Joyner Cutberth Chair
Kristin Frisby Co-Chair/Flowers
Kathy Ferguson Advisor to Chair
Barrie Simpson Entertainment
Lynn Doyle Flowers
Holliday Flowers
Snapdragon Floral
Ritzee Florist
Nancy Knight Hospitality/Food
Shelia Noone Docents
Cynthia Saatkamp,
Kathy Edmundson
Marketing/ Communications
HOME FLORAL ARRANGEMENTS GRACIOUSLY DONATED BY: PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRENNAN WILBANKS
B.D. Freeman Pillar Lead
Gary Burcl President, CGA
Kat Schwartz VP, CGA
Garden District
Premier Flowers
John Mark Events
227 KIMBROUGH PLACE
The Russel Dolan House
This residence is located on Lot 88 of John F. Kimbrough’s Union Avenue Subdivision. When the subdivision was developed in 1923, it was one of the last large undisturbed tracts in Midtown. It was surrounded by neighborhoods that predated it, so you could say it was an early example of “infill” development. For example, Belvedere Blvd., which lies just east of the subdivision, was already nearly 20 years old, and some of the homes along the nearby blocks of Peabody were more than 40 years old.
Kimbrough was a leader in real estate development. In addition to this home, he developed Chickasaw Gardens. The family lived in a spacious stone home at Union and Kimbrough, which was razed in 1939, and the Kimbrough Towers apartments were built there at the cost of $500,000. Kimbrough’s wife, Virginia Meacham Kimbrough, was a descendant of the pioneering Meacham family and a member of the upper echelons of Memphis society. Her father and uncle, M. L. Meacham and Edward Elzey Meacham, were also Memphis real estate developers.
Kimbrough planned his Union Avenue Subdivision extremely well. It had rigorous covenants written into the warranty deed as well as many innovations. The covenants included only one dwelling per lot, a servant’s house constructed simultaneously with the main house, and there were not to be rentals. A noteworthy innovation was the explicit encouragement of front porches, which is the hallmark of many Central Gardens homes. Many of the homes were designed by some of the most prestigious architects in town.
Russell (Bob) E. Dolan and his wife, Jean, were the first owners. He was first secretary-treasurer and then president of G. C. Denaux Interior Design, considered at the time to be the premier interior design firm in Memphis. It was located at 1400 Union Avenue. Bob was the fourth generation of his family to run it. Denaux was over 100 years old when he closed it. Bob was past president of the BBB, a third-generation Rotarian, and a member of the University Club.
They lived here until 1962 when they sold the property to Max L. Valentine and his wife, Barbara Wyatt. Barbara was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in 1932. She graduated from Women’s College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and became a stewardess for Delta Airlines.
Barbara also was a vice president of the former National Bank of Commerce, and a member of the Maternal League of Memphis, Idlewild Presbyterian Church and the Mid-South Fair Board. In 1984, Barbara sold the property to John Edward and Phyllis Pyeatt Webb. In 2010, John filed a quitclaim deed of the property to Phyllis. Phyllis died in 2020 and the property was sold to current owners Martha G. Hopper and Gabriel Statom.
Tudor-style homes such as this one stand out from other historic homes with their steeply pitched gable roofs, elegant masonry and stonework, and stately wooden beams set in a stucco or stone facade. The half-timber beams are typically placed vertically, but they are not load-bearing.
The most obvious design feature in a Tudor home is the oak timbers on show. Often colored black and white, the timbers showcase the building materials used in the construction. They were joined together with tight-fitting joints and wooden pegs. In between, there was the classic wattle and daub, which was then whitewashed.
227 KIMBROUGH PLACE
The DeGarmo Home
In 1815, pioneer Anderson B. Carr settled 1600 acres of virgin land originally known as John Rice’s “East Memphis” tract that included present day Central Gardens. The boundaries of the vast Carr property were present day East Parkway on the east, Cane Creek (South Parkway) on the south, the old Raleigh Road (Bellevue) on the west and Union Avenue on the north. Present day Central Avenue was an aboriginal trail improved early on by Carr who began selling off parts of his claim in the late 1820s.
In 1907 W. A. Bickford purchased the North 12 Acres of Lot 25 of the old Carr Tract and platted a new subdivision named Bickford’s Union Terrace. It was bounded by Union Avenue, and the rear property line of Eastmoreland and South Willet and Rozelle Streets. William A. Bickford was a real estate operator born Philadelphia, Pa. in 1874. At eighteen he began in real estate here and by 1895 went into it for himself as W. A. Bickford & Co. He is also director of North Memphis Savings Bank, a member of Business Men’s Club, Country Club, Chickasaw Club and Tennessee Clubs and a Democrat. This property is located on part of Lots 19 & 20.
This six-room bungalow was built by Walter Harris at a cost of $8300 in 1920. The owners were Reverend John DeGarmo and his wife. His occupation is listed as evangelist. His daughter was married there in 1923. By 1926 he had sold it to Heslope Armstrong, a widow. She lived in the property until her death at age 76 in 1957. Her son inherited the property and sold it in 1958 to Sam B. and Nancy Blair. Sam Blair was realtor. He sold the property the next year for $21,000 to Richard and Carel Norris.
In 1981 the Norrises sold the property to John W. Park. He transferred the property two years later to Philip and Vicki Janes in July 1983. The Smiths sold it to John Scheeper and Estelle Landers and Gabriel and Sandra Ragghianti in July1985. Then the property was sold to Stephen and Shelly Smith in December of that same year.
The property was purchased by Anna Schlafke in October 1987. Schlafke married at an unknown time and sold the property in February 1991. The new owners were David and Terry Dees who lived there until March 1993.
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The next owners of the property were Charles and Amy Weirich. Both were attorneys at the time. They lived here until 1999 when they sold the property to Stephen Pittman. In 2003, Pittman sold it to Jill Powelson. Powelson married Eric Robinette and his name appears on the deed when it was purchased by the current owners, David and Sandy Rasmussen in 2019.
This house is a good later example of a Craftsman bungalow. Bungalow was the dominant style for smaller houses built throughout the country during the period from about 1905 until the early 1920s. The Craftsman style originated in southern California and most landmark examples are concentrated there. Two California brothers, Charles and Henry Greene who practiced architecture in Pasadena from 1893 to 1914, were the primary inspiration for Craftsman-style houses.
About 1903 they began to design simple Craftsman-type bungalows; by 1909, they had designed and executed several exceptional landmark examples that epitomize the “ultimate bungalows.”
Several influences- the English Arts and Crafts movement, an interest in oriental wooden architecture, and their early training in the manual arts- appear to have led the Greene Brothers to design and build these intricately detailed buildings. Extensive publicity in such magazines as House Beautiful, Good Housekeeping, Architectural Record, and Ladies’ Home Journal familiarized the rest of the nation with the style. Consequently, there was an influx of pattern books featuring designs for Craftsman bungalows. Some even included pre-cut lumber packages and detailed instructions shipped to buyers for assembly by local workers.
Through these vehicles, the one-story Craftsman house quickly became the most popular and fashionable smaller house in the country. Like vernacular examples of the contemporaneous Prairie style, it quickly spread throughout the country by pattern books and popular magazines. The style rapidly faded from favor after the mid-1920s, and building them ceased after 1930.
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The HouseBready
This residence is located on Lot 28 of the Charlemont Park Subdivision. It was platted in 1910 by Henrietta and Oscar Mann. The house was not constructed until 1914 and the first owners were J. M. and Laura Bready. Bready was an accountant and Laura was a homemaker. They lived there until 1927 when they sold it to Lela R. Cox.
The property chain then disappears until Alton and Lois Dalton bought it right after World War II. He was a foreman at the Southern Oil Company. He died of a coronary thrombosis in 1950 and Lois inherited the property. In 1959 she sold it to Sara Christianson but held the mortgage herself. At some point she regained the property and held it until her death in July 2000.
After Lois died she left the property to daughter Barbara Dalton. Barbara sold the property to Barbara Mashburn in June 2003. She sold it two years later to Gannon Weaver. Weaver lived there until July 2012 when he sold it to Carson Irwin. Irwin then sold the property eight years later to Quenton Brannon III, the present owner.
This is the third bungalow featured on this year’s tour. The houses in Central Gardens were originally developed for the most part with larger scale residences for upper-middle class families and the wealthy. The foursquare and its variations appear to be the most common house type within both neighborhoods, though there are significant numbers of architectdesigned houses in these areas with floor plans that defy categorization.
By ca. 1905, the Craftsman bungalow had begun to compete with the composite cottage as a mainstay of the home builder and a favorite of the home buyer. Apart from the Craftsman style, the Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and lingering applications of the Queen Anne Revival style were the most popular architectural styles applied to the cottages and bungalows built in Central Gardens neighborhoods.
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The Dermon House
Located on Lot 78 of John Kimbrough’s Union Avenue Subdivision, this property is located in one of the newest subdivisions that makes up today’s Central Gardens. In the 1920s, 71% of the Memphis population were renters. Due to the large number of new residents continuously arriving in the city, apartments were both a smart investment and a relatively steady source of income for developers. During the 1920s, there were 2,850 duplexes and 4,600 apartment building units constructed. Kimbrough built the d. 1928 duplex with two bathrooms per unit, oil heat and electric refrigerators. This property was architect designed by J. Frazer Smith and H. M. Burnham and sold for $16,000 originally.
The first owner was Memphis real estate developer Dave Dermon who purchased it in 1928, the year before the Great Depression crashed the real estate market. Demon (1884-1963) came to Memphis in 1900 from Kiev, Ukraine. Not long after he arrived, he established a general tinsmith shop in downtown Memphis.
He also engaged in real estate development, initially making several lucrative land deals in the Vance area and constructing a few buildings there. In 1915 his interest shifted to the section of Union Avenue between downtown and the fashionable Midtown residential areas. He was also responsible for the construction and development of many apartment buildings and subdivisions in Midtown and north Memphis during the 1920s and later. These included the Overton Park Court Apartments on Poplar Avenue, the city’s largest apartment building at the time. He constructed the 10-story Dermon Building on Third Street in 1925 to house his various enterprises. At the time of Dermon’s death, the assets of his company were estimated at $15 million dollars.
According to the Polk City Directory, the Dermon family lived here one year.
Beginning in 1929 the city directory shows it was rented out to various tenants until 1935 when it was foreclosed on by the Prudential Life Insurance Company who apparently held the mortgage. It continued as rental property until it was purchased by Marion S. and Sarah M. Boyd in October 1941.
They lived here until their deaths. Their son sold it to Thomas and Teresa Corona in 1990.
The Coronas lived here until September, 2001 when Mr. Corona transferred the property to Mrs. Corona. In December, 2005, Mrs. Corona who was now legally Teresa Sims Saunders sold the property to Warner F. Moore. Moore was an interior decorator who lived here until 2011 when the property was purchased by Dr. George and Jessica Bertel Mayhall. The Mayhalls lived here until 2015 while he completed his internship and diagnostic radiology residency at the University of Tennessee/Methodist Healthcare. They sold the property to current owners Francis and Andrea Letard in 2015.
The d. 1928 English Tudor-style house is a great vernacular example of the Eclectic movement which began quietly in the last decades of the 19th century. The Tudor style is loosely based on a variety of early English building traditions ranging from simple folk houses to Late Medieval palaces. Most of them empathize high pitched gable roofs and
elaborate chimneys but other decorative detailing is drawn from Renaissance or even modern Craftsman traditions.
The Tudor Revival style of domestic building was used for a large proportion of early 20th century suburban houses and apartment buildings throughout newer parts of Memphis. It was particularly fashionable in the Midtown subdivisions. During the 1920s and 1930s only Colonial Revival rivaled it in popularity as a vernacular style.
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1597 PEABODY AVENUE
The HouseDouglass
Peabody Avenue was named after philanthropist George Peabody and originated at East Street. By 1902 it stretched four blocks east of Camilla Street. In 1905 as Memphis suburban expansion began in earnest, it was extended east to South Cooper. This property is located on parts of Lots 9 & 10 in the unrecorded Bonnie-Crest Subdivision.
The builder and first owner was Richard Douglass who was born here in 1857 to Judge A.H and Elizabeth B. Douglass. His first wife was Nona Bailey. In 1903 the family lived on North Seventh Street downtown in Greenlaw. Along with his brother Eugene, they operated Douglass Brothers on Front Street as cotton factors. Factors were commercial agents who handled the exchange of goods on behalf of planters. A factor sold cotton or other crops and made the arrangements for finding a buyer, transportation, insurance, and storage in return for a commission.
In 1909 Richard built this brick veneer, two-story house for $6,200. His daughter Gwynne, a graduate of Randolph-Macon
College and his sister Elizabeth lived here as well. Tragedy struck when Nona died at the home in May, 1912. His sister Elizabeth died at the residence in 1919, the same year he married his second wife, Miss Sarah Hathaway of Pelham Manor, NY. He died at his son’s home in 1933.
The next owner was a widowed business woman, Katherine M. Dove, who was born in 1877 in Louisiana. Dove purchased the property in 1935, at the height of the Depression from the New York Life Insurance Company for $7,116 (the latest purchase price was ten times that amount!). She was a stenographer at the John D. Gerber Department Store. She rented rooms and suites out, complete with home cooked meals. She managed to pay off the property in 1940 and continued to live there until 1955 when she sold it to Samuel and Eugenia Fleming. Katherine Dove died shortly after in March 1956.
The Flemings sold the property to Leota Edmondson Pence, the widow of Edward Pence. Her daughter Blanche lived there with her and nursed her through a long illness that resulted in her death
in March, 1967. She left the property to Blanche who lived there until her death in 1979. It was then sold to Doctors Alfred and Lorraine Kraus.
Alfred Kraus was born in Austria in 1916. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1938 and attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, IL. He then trained in Internal Medicine and Hematology at Michael-Reese Hospital at the University of Chicago where he met and married his wife of 64 years, Lorraine M. Kraus. After serving during WWII, in 1950 they moved to Memphis, where he began his study of sickle cell disease at the University of Tennessee (UT). Both he and his wife became internationally known leaders in the field of sickle cell research and the care of the sickle cell patient. He served as Chief of the Division of Hematology until his retirement in 1981, at which time he became emeritus Professor of Medicine, continuing his work. His research with Lorraine led to the discovery of a type of hemoglobin which was appropriately named Hemoglobin Memphis-S. Alfred died July 22, 2008 here at his home.
In 2010 the property was sold to Dr. Charles R. and Miriam Handorf. Charles was an M.D. and a professor at the University of Tennessee. After living here for three years, the Handorfs sold it to Doctors Michael and Loretta Rudd.
Rudd received a BA cum laude in psychology from Princeton, where he also lettered in Varsity football. He studied at the University of Texas at Austin where he holds a master’s degree (MA) and Ph.D. in psychology. Rudd began active duty service in the United States Military as a U.S. Army Captain at Fort Ord, California and later at Fort Hood, Texas, transitioning from active duty service following the Gulf War. In 2013, he and his family moved to Memphis where he became provost of the University of Memphis and was named president in 2014 where he served in that role for eight years. Dr. Loretta Rudd is a clinical associate professor and program coordinator in the child development and family studies department at the University of Memphis. In 2022 Rudd stepped down from the University of Memphis. In that same year, he and his wife sold the residence to current owners Dr. Brandon and Michelle Triplett.
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Dr. Brandon Triplett is an Assistant Member in the Department of Bone Marrow Transplantation & Cellular Therapy at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at UT Health Sciences Center here.
Triplett grew up in Galatia, Ill and matriculated to Southern Illinois UniversityCarbondale and graduated Summa Cum Laude in 1996. He then attended medical school at St. Louis University School of Medicine. Triplett completed his pediatric residency at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center in St. Louis before training in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital between 2003 and 2006. In 2009 he returned to St. Jude to focus on expertise in transplantation. Michelle had been an interior designer for the past 21 years in metro St. Louis and Memphis.
The d. 1908 hipped roof, asymmetrical plan, Prairie-style house is a vernacular example of the Eclectic House movement which began quietly in the last decades of the 19th century as fashionable, European-trained architects began to design landmark period houses for wealthy clients. These trends gained momentum with Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, which stressed correct historical interpretations of European styles.
Landmark examples are concentrated in early 20th-century suburbs of large mid-western cities like Chicago. Vernacular examples such as 1337 Peabody were spread widely by pattern books and popular magazines and they are common in early 20th century suburbs throughout Memphis. Mostly built between 1905 and 1915, the style faded quickly from fashion after World War I.
Crafted by a distinctive group of Chicagostyle architects, the style is now recognized as the Prairie School (1900-1920). Architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s (1867-1960) early work is in this style and he is the acknowledged master of the Prairie house. Wright is unusual in that he early turned his creative genius towards the problems of domestic architecture rather than public buildings. His symmetrical, rectangular 1893 Winslow House was perhaps the first Prairie house. It was not until about 1900 that he began to use the asymmetrical rectangle form such as this property.
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The HouseMeyer
This early 20th century property is located on a re-subdivision of Lot 50 of the nineteenth century Idlewild Subdivision, which was platted in 1899 by the Equitable Land and Construction Company. The subdivision was bordered by Madison Avenue on the north and Appeal (now Peabody) on the south. Originally Linden was lyrically named Mystic Avenue but changed by 1907.
The first owners were Bettie and J.B. Hills who purchased the lot and then sold it undeveloped in 1903 to Erich Meyer, a German immigrant who became a foreman at Memphis Machine Works.
Meyer built the house in 1906 and took out a construction loan at that time. In 1908, his daughter Miss Vera Meyer held a meeting here for The Concordia Society of the German Trinity Lutheran Church. There was a notice in the paper in 1915 that she had arrived home to spend Christmas with her parents. Their other daughter J. R. Gorman arrived for a visit in 1916. In 1921 Vera was married in the home to Bergen S. Merrill of New Orleans. Vera was a music teacher
at A. B. Hill Elementary School before her marriage. Erich was a widower when he sold the home in 1935 to a widow, Patty P. Davis.
Davis’ daughter, Marion Davis Looney was married here in 1947. Marion was educated at The Cathedral School in Washington, DC and The Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. The wedding was officiated by the District Superintendent of the Memphis Methodist Church. Davis moved out and rented out the property. After 28 years, Davis sold the property to Francis S. and Marion Chamberlain in 1963. The Chamberlains were married in Memphis after World War ll in 1947. Chamberlin was a radio pioneer here when he was an announcer for WMC from 1925-29. In 1991, the couple sold the property to Mark and Margaret Talley. It was later deeded to Mark by his wife. In March 2000, Mark Talley conveyed the title to Transcontinental Title who then conveyed it to CitiFinancial Mortgage Corp. It was purchased by Robert and Sue Crabtree in 2004.
The Crabtrees would own the property until 2009 when they sold it to Robert and Rachel Russ. In 2016 they sold the property to Kirchner Ulhorn Development, LLC. They flipped the property eight months later to Dr. Blas S. and Rachel Catalani. Dr. Catalani is an anesthesiologist and Rachel is a marketing officer. They sold the property in 2019 to its current owners Brian and Kate Sullivan.
The electrification of the Memphis Street Railway Company in 1895 and expansion of the routes up thru the 1920s spurred suburban development around the outskirts of the city. The streetcar lines provided a faster and more efficient means of transportation to downtown Memphis, allowing people to live further outside the city, and as a result, the city limits were expanded eastwards.
Circa 1890, a new house type began to appear in Memphis: the asymmetrical, two-story “Queen Anne” house and its one-story variation, the composite cottage. This house type was made possible by balloon framing and inexpensive lumber prices, resulting in a complex floor plan
laid out under an equally complex roof of multiple hips and gable ends. Apart from its complex roofs, this plan is recognizable for its front-projecting wing often featuring a gable end, and primary and secondary entrances located near either end of its L-shaped porch. The Queen Anne house and, to a much greater degree, the composite cottage, became an extremely important element in the building of Memphis late-nineteenth and early twentieth century subdivisions, especially in middle class neighborhoods.
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1771 VINTON AVENUE
The Roberts House
Developer T.W. Crenshaw platted the Harbert Place Subdivision in 1912 during the early twentieth century frenzy of development that would later become Central Gardens. He was a realtor with R. L. Matthews & Company and lived on Waldron in 1912. The subdivision was bounded by Peabody on the north and Harbert Avenue on the south with the rear property line of LeMaster and McLean Boulevard as the west and eastern boundaries with a total of 81 lots in it.
This structure was constructed around 1914 on Lot 75. The first owner was Charles W. Roberts. Roberts was the Vice-president of Barton Parker Manufacturing Company, which made costume jewelry. He lived there until he sold it to J. K Walker.
Walker was the Vice President of OK Storage Company. They offered padded moving vans, private storage rooms and competent movers. We are not sure if Walker rented out the house but the city directory shows Edward G. Bell living there in 1931 and Hugh G. Cobb 1934. According to the city directory, James Walker moved
back into the property in 1936 and lived there until 1939.
By 1943 Evelyn Smith, Secretary at Grace-St. Luke’s Church, was living there. In the early 1960s, owners Lee B. and Patricia Holliday sold it to Carleton and Nelia Cunningham in October 1962. Then the Cunninghams sold it to Leonard and Denise Hughes in May 1966.
The Hughes lived there until 1976 when they sold it to Robert H. Thorton. Thornton died in 1995 and left no direct heirs. The property was passed to Francis Campagna in 1997.
The property was sold to Jeanette Comans in 2006. She turned it over to Eagle Mortgage in 2016. They sold to Dominic Chase in July 2016. Chase is the co-founder and COO of Honeycomb Management Services.
Four years later, Chase sold it to Jason Crump and Lindsay Doty in 2020. It was sold to current owner Meredith Taylor in 2022.
The original form of the Bungalow came from one-story buildings surrounded by verandahs built in India in the 19th century to serve as rest houses for travelers known as “dak bungalows.” This Eastern influence can be seen in the development of the form, setting and crafted wooden details of the Bungalow style. The Bungalow style emphasizes low, horizontal lines and a design that becomes a part of its natural setting. The hallmarks of the style – wide projecting eaves and overhanging gables with exposed rafters, and open porches with heavy square porch columns often atop stone bases – give these buildings a sense of solid construction.
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Miss Lee’s Preschool at Grace-St. Luke’s
Congratulations to Miss Lee’s on celebrating its remarkable 100th year! The Central Gardens Association applauds this incredible milestone and the lasting impact Miss Lee’s has had on generations of Memphis youth.
The modest size and simple design of this charming frame house conceal the fact that it has been a cornerstone of education since it opened as a school in 1924. Originally built in 1906 as a center hall cottage for Turley Green, it was transformed under the supervision of George Mahan into Miss Eva Lee’s School of Childhood. While the school may have been small, its alumni include some of Memphis’ brightest and most successful community members.
Though records on Mahan’s exact modifications to the original cottage are sparse, his porch design remains one of the few remaining examples in Memphis of this lightweight yet strong lattice construction. The radiating lattice archway beautifully frames the entrance, welcoming visitors.
Miss Lee’s curriculum, described by her as an “old-fashioned education,” focused on music, the arts, and the teaching of manners for grades 1-6. The school reached its peak enrollment in the 1970s, though by 1983 it had reduced to 35 students. That year, the Lee family sold the school to Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, ensuring Miss Lee’s name would be preserved. Renamed the “Miss Lee Campus” of GraceSt. Luke’s Episcopal School, it is fondly referred to as Miss Lee’s Preschool today.
In 1998, the school gained a new lease on life with a rear addition designed by Mark Weaver of Hnedak Bobo Group. The award-winning design blends the charm of traditional rural American schoolhouses with the simplicity of the original building.Miss Lee’s continues to be a vital part of Central Gardens and the Midtown community, and we look forward to its bright future in the years to come.
172 KIMBROUGH PLACE
Kimbrough Towers
Kimbrough Towers, one of Memphis’s finest pre-war apartment buildings, is also a feature on the Central Gardens Home & Garden Tour and the Hospitality Center can be found on its grounds. Located at the southeast corner of Union and Kimbrough, this iconic Art Deco building opened in 1939 to widespread acclaim. Its construction during the Great Depression made it a significant architectural achievement for the city.
Designed by local resident Herbert M. Burnham, Kimbrough Towers was praised by architectural historians Eugene J. Johnson and Robert D. Russell, Jr. in their book Memphis: An Architectural Guide as one of the city’s finest examples of Art Deco. Built using slipform reinforced concrete technology, each story was poured in place, with the steel formwork reused on the upper floors. Cantilevered floor slabs at the corners allowed for large corner windows, creating a unique and modern aesthetic.
The building features striking bas-relief ornamentation and pilasters that accentuate its streamlined Art Deco style. Following the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, Art Deco became known for its geometric curves, polychrome elements, and balance between horizontal and vertical design elements. Kimbrough Towers embodies these characteristics, making it a standout example of mid-20thcentury architecture in Memphis.
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Scout Lodge
Chartered in 1920, Boy Scout Troop 34 at Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal Church is the oldest continuing operating unit in the Chickasaw Council. As is the case for most units, Troop 34 never really had a place of its own, as meeting spaces are provided by chartered organizations and shared, making it difficult to do many of the things that scouting entails: hang tents to dry, clean patrol kids or even display items unique to the Troop and Pack. Troop and Pack 34, however, were a bit of a hybrid; when Grace-St.Luke’s Episcopal School expanded in the 1960s, money was given to dedicate space for scouting. Two classrooms were provided, and the wall between them knocked out to open up the space. But, as it was in the middle of a growing school, access at nights and on weekends was sometimes a challenge. Several years ago, Thor Kvande, headmaster of Grace-St. Luke’s Episcopal School, approached current and past leaders of Troop 34 with the idea to turn a dilapidated property owned by the school into an “urban cabin” dedicated to scouting and to Troop 34’s legacy. The project explored the feasibility and cost of converting the existing 1920s bungalow into a modern, functional
meeting space—all while preserving the highly visible elevation on Peabody Avenue and working within applicable historic district guidelines.
Outside is a bungalow, true to its architecture, its period, its neighborhood, and the Landmarks Commission guidelines that protect all of that. Inside is another world, true to the cabins of old Kia Kima and Camp Currier, and the lodges at Philmont Scout Ranch, and to the images and icons of scouting. The design includes a large meeting hall with a soaring 28-foot ceiling, a “mess room,” smaller break-out meeting areas and an ADA-accessible restroom. Upon entering the building, Scouts and guests will see the exposed century-old pine rafters and roof deck above. The remaining second floor has been converted into a mezzanine that overlooks the meeting space below. Structural upgrades make the building safer in a wind or seismic event, and new plumbing, electrical and HVAC bring the structure into this century.
Our Entertainment
“Opera Memphis is a model for companies across the country.”
-Marc Scorca, CEO of Opera America.
Launched in 2012, 30 Days of Opera is a month of free, daily performances spread through every zip code in Memphis. Since then we have given over 600 free performances and reached almost 500,000 people, many of whom had never heard live opera. We have been invited to give presentations about the program by the National Endowment for the Arts, Opera America, and The World Opera Forum. Dozens of opera companies across the country have adopted the model (and some of them even asked permission first!) To learn more about Opera Memphis and our mission, visit operamemphis.org or visit us on Facebook, Youtube or Instagram @operamemphis. Or visit us at our new HQ here in 38104, at 216 S. Cooper St.
The Beethoven Club
In 2023 The Beethoven Club celebrated its 135th anniversary. Our focus is the support and encouragement of young musicians as they explore the field and prepare for the possibility of professional careers with activities such as the Savell Vocal Competition, the Avanti Concert Series, the Grace Chamber Players, and a variety of locally produced concerts. One of the chief events is the Young Artists Competition. Each year it attracts approximately 100 entrants from the tri-state area. Winners receive cash prizes as well as multiple opportunities for live performances. Several of today’s performers have been participants in this competition. The Beethoven Club is run entirely by volunteers and in an average year is involved with 150 events. Information is available at beethovenclubmemphis.org or by calling 901-274-2704.
The Stax Music Academy Rhythm Section is SMA’s flagship ensemble and performs many different styles of music including the Stax Records catalogue, rhythm & blues, funk, and contemporary jazz. Students refine their accuracy of rhythm, phrasing, articulation, and music theory. Stax Music Academy Rhythm Section vocalists learn assigned vocal repertoire verbatim, perform vocal choreography, and portray proper practice and performance etiquette. Throughout the years, members of the Rhythm Section have traveled the world playing in places such as Australia, Italy, France, Germany, England, New York’s Lincoln Center, and Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center. In 2016 they were invited to perform for three days on the National Mall for the grand opening festivities of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. In 2017, they toured Europe to great acclaim in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Stax/Volt European Tour.
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when it comes to managing your money.
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