![]() What is striking is how this original grid has stood the test of time. ![]() The date we celebrate as the day Memphis became a city, May 22, 1819, was the first day that the lots were sold and certificates of title were issued. In other words, the street grid was a tremendous exercise in faith. At the time, surveyor Lawrence wrote that only three non-native Americans lived at the site and there were no roads and only two “Indian trails” leading to the bluffs. The founders’ vision of a great city was captured in a plan that laid out its streets in a classic grid punctuated by four squares – Court, Auction, Exchange, and Market – with a public landing at Auction Street on the Mississippi River to attract river commerce and a promenade on the bluff set aside for public purpose. We’ve always found the back story interesting, but it brings us to our point: in 1819, city planning was of little concern west of the Alleghenies, and yet, Memphis was one of the best planned towns of its day. This was not for lack of interest because their correspondence about Memphis was frequent, but because the journey from Nashville to Memphis was arduous and circuitous with the most preferred route being 287 miles. Indeed, Jackson, if he visited at all, may have only visited the city briefly three years after its founding on his way to become governor of Florida, and Overton did not travel to assess his investment for months after its founding. The three prominent Middle Tennesseeans never visited Memphis at the same time. They named it Memphis after the legendary capital of Egypt located on another great river, the Nile. The romanticized version goes like this: In 1819, Memphis was founded by Jackson, Overton, and Winchester, who, standing on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff of the Mississippi River and looking at the untamed river and wilderness, foresaw a city of greatness. None of the three developers planned to live in Memphis so Winchester’s son, Marcus, was sent to act as their sales agent. His finished product was a rectangular town site containing 362 lots, laying parallel with the riverfront. On January 12, 1819, the three inveterate land speculators agreed to lay out a town site and hired surveyor Williams Lawrence to do it. General James Winchester joined their partnership later and is generally credited with bestowing the Egyptian namesake on the new town (although it would often be referred to as Chickasaw Bluffs in media accounts). John Overton purchased the land from Rice’s brother (Rice had been killed in a battle with native Americans) and sold half interest to Andrew Jackson, a frequent investment partner. By 1819, the mouth of the Wolf River had retreated to today’s Auction Avenue as a result of Mississippi River erosion. ![]() In 1783, the rivers met near what is today is the foot of Jefferson Avenue, and the Mississippi’s current struck the bluff at what was to become Union Avenue. ![]() The development scheme for a new city had been around since the 1790s when John Rice obtained a 5,000-acre grant that included a riverfront essentially as it is today but with a tongue of land separating the Mississippi and Wolf Rivers in front of the bluff where the town would be laid out. In 1795, the Spanish built their own fort and that was followed by an American fort in 1800-1803 which remained an army outpost until about 1812. A fort had been built by the French in the area in 1739, almost 60 years after they claimed the territory for their country. However, by the time the first lots in Memphis were sold in 1819, explorers had been criss-crossing the area for several centuries. It was the earliest version of Memphis comprehensive planning – think Memphis 1.0.īy 1819, the date celebrated as the founding of Memphis in this year’s bicentennial, there were of course people already living in the rough wilderness encampment that was to be named Memphis by developers Andrew Jackson, Marcus Winchester, and John Overton. In truth, celebrating Memphis’ 200 th anniversary this year is largely ceremonial, ignoring earlier settlers and forgetting that the city was the first city west of the Alleghenies to be a planned community.
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