The South Main Association is an organization of the district's businesses, residents, property owners and services. The Association ensures that the revitalization of the neighborhood respects the district's commitment to preservation of South Main's architectural beauty while contributing to the lifestyle of the community.

History of South Main

Look and listen along the streets of the South Main Street Historic District for the sights and sounds of the early 1900s. They’re still there, as virtually every building from this era remains, albeit with new occupants.

The train whistles from Central Station are a constant, with 50 daily departures and arrivals. The opening of the station in 1914 sparked the district’s development to serve the rail passengers and commerce. By 1929, 11 hotels and eight restaurants housed and fed the visitors. Some catered to the elite. The Adler Hotel at 263 S. Main, later converted to apartments, advertised: “We cater to couples and gentleman/strictly moral and modern.” Rates were $1 a day or $1.50 a day with a private bath. The Chicsa Hotel at 272 S. Main, now vacant, boasted Turkish baths with Battle Creek Methods to cure rheumatism. The Chisca became home to WHBQ and the Red, Hot and Blue show hosted by Dewey Phillips. The station was first to broadcast a record by Elvis Presley. Other hotels were little more than bordellos, Maxine House at 502-504 and the Pullman at 520. You can see a remnant of the red-light district on the second floor of Ernestine and Hazel’s at 531 after indulging in one of E&H’s now-famous soul burgers.

Walk down the sidewalk and listen for the merchants and families that often lived above the shops. There’s the Tri-Tone Drug Company and Jopling Perfumery in an elaborately ornamented Beaux Arts building at 422. The aroma of fresh bread draws you into Herman Burkle’s bakery at 506, while Greek immigrant Louis Koleas prepares pans of moussaka in his restaurant at 508. Dry goods merchant Samuel Pelts sells his wares in the district’s only glazed brick building with distinctive pin striping at 510. Austin Bradley shines your shoes at 510. Jeweler Abraham Novick is behind the counter at 518 (now WEVL FM 90 community radio station). Herman Moskovitz tailors your suits at 520 while you wait next door at Johnson & Finch barbers (522). Taylor & Taylor is the corner druggist at Main & Calhoun (now G.E. Patterson St.). On the next corner, Speros Zepatos opens the Arcade in 1919 in a wood frame shack with a pot belly stove, open 24 hours a day. You’ll find his grandson, Harry, behind the counter today in the building constructed on the same corner in 1925 — the oldest continuing dining establishment in Memphis. A bit down the street, Adolph Grisanti opens the Grand Central Lunch Room at 552.

On the west side of South Main and nearby streets were the manufacturers and warehouses with railroad spurs behind the buildings. The Whistle Bottling Company (“When Thirsty Just Whistle”) is at 303. Puck is the name of the tile relief figure at 409, from the character in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The building housed White, Wilson and Drew grocers, whose canned goods carried the Puck label. Today’s offices of Memphis Heritage at 431 began as the Curry-McCraw wholesale grocery company. Today’s Paperworks at 408 Front and galleries along Huling were the Tayloe Paper Company, and The Lofts on Tennessee began as Orgill Brothers Hardware and Saddlery Warehouse. At 11 Huling was the National Biscuit Company, converted to the Woodliff Photography Studio. The adjacent horse stalls now are Charles Woodliff’s home — he says the origin of his home is still evident on hot, steamy summer days!

The occupants of South Main changed over the next few decades, with many becoming victims of the Depression. And by the late 1950s, the railroad industry was beginning to crumble and with it, the supporting businesses. The social and economic upheavals of the 1960s doomed many of the nation’s vibrant Downtowns. Memphis in particular secured a perpetual chapter in the story of the Civil Rights movement with the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel on Mulberry in 1968. Much of the district deteriorated into desolate blocks of boarded windows.

Interestingly, however, according to June West of the Memphis Heritage Society, South Main was saved because it was abandoned — there was no reason to tear down the buildings because there was no interest in redevelopment. According to the later U.S. Department of Interior historic district designation, “The streetscapes and building remain relatively unchanged from their appearance at the beginning of the Great Depression.”

South Main’s renaissance began in 1982 when pioneers Robert and Annie McGowan bought 418 as a home and art studio, registering their residence as “the night watchman’s quarters” because the area was zoned for commercial use only. The former soda fountain once had rooms to rent upstairs. James Earl Ray stood in one of those windows when he assassinated King. The address now houses the Civil Rights Museum Gift Shop. The McGowans founded the South Main Street Historic District Association, predecessor to the South Main Association. The first logo represented the featured the triple arched windows in the matched buildings of 378-384 South Main.

The South Main Street Historic District was approved the same year. The 11-block, 20-acre area consists of 105 buildings between South Main and Mulberry beginning at Linden and ending two blocks south of Calhoun (G.E. Patterson). The district was expanded in 1998 to include the circa 1905 complex at 384 Mulberry and 129 Talbot, identified then as “Negro Tenements,” and 663 South Main. Later, the city would proclaim the existence of the South Main Arts District with undefined boundaries.

And on Dec. 13, 1982, the Lorraine Hotel was sold at auction to Harry Sauer of the Martin Luther King Memphis Memorial Fund. Had the two other bidders won the auction, the Lorraine would have been razed for commercial uses. The Lorraine began as a hotel for whites before becoming a black establishment whose visitors included Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Nat King Cole and Aretha Franklin. The National Civil Rights Museum opened in 1991.

In 1986, Henry Turley bought the Frank James Hotel at 516 South Main for $14,000, and the reconstruction began at the pace still seen today. The Downtown Trolley opened in 1993, and Central Station was restored to its former beauty, with upstairs apartments. A bit belatedly, the city rezoned the district for multi-use residential and commercial purposes in 1998.

History of South Main Street Addresses

269: Adler Hotel built in 1908 and 1912. “We cater to couples and gentleman/strictly moral and modern.” Rates were $1 a day or $1.50 a day with a private bath. Converted to apartments.

272: Opened in 1913, the Chisca Hotel later was the broadcasting home of WHBQ, world famous for the Red, Hot and Blue show hosted by Dewey Phillips and the first station to broadcast an Elvis record. Ads featured the Chisca Turkish Baths with Battle Creek Methods for rheumatism.

303: The Whistle Bottling Company: When Thirsty Just Whistle.

309 - Built in 1909 as a former Boarding House. The original hot water heater was just removed in 2006 while the building was undergoing renovation to condos.

322-323: This 1910 Beaux Arts building has housed Frank’s Liquor Store since 1939.

345: Ambassador Hotel.

361-365: Built in 1930 in Art Deco style with glazed terra cotta ornamentation.

371: One of the oldest commercial buildings, built about 1890.

372: The home of Fine Woodwork custom-made furnishings opened in 1905

378-384: Matched buildings constructed in 1905, home of the Paris Dress Store in 1913.

385: Former lumber warehouse built in 1910.

387: A former grocery warehouse built in 1925, which became the home of a Fred P. Gattas Showroom. The beautifully conceived tripartite arched windows with prominent keystones inspired the first South Main Association logo.

409: Puck is the name of the tile relief figure here, from the character in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The building was the home of White, Wilson and Drew grocers, whose canned goods carried the Puck label.

413-415: The former Sleep-Tite building, converted into loft apartments.

417: Men’s furnishing store.

418: Soda fixture company with soda fountain, with rooms to rent upstairs. The rooms now are gone. The bathroom window of one of them was where James Earl Ray stood to assassinate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Later a private home and gallery in 1982 and now the gift shop for the Civil Rights Museum.

421: A former grocery warehouse known as Banks and Company built in 1912. This later became the home of Hotline Record Company owned by Poplar Tunes.

422: Elaborately ornamented Beaux Arts building opened in 1910 as the Tri-Tone Drug Company and Jopling Perfumery, with residences above.

431: This home of Memphis Heritage was built in 1910 as the Curry-McCraw wholesale grocery company.

474: South Main Fire Station opened in 1953.

492: Joseph Weisberg, tailor.

496: Abe Glassman clothing.

500: Max Zucherman’s dry goods.

502 ½ -504: Maxine House, a brothel.

506: Herman Burkle’s bakery.

508: Louis Koleas’ restaurant, later the Grand Hotel.

510: Samuel Pelts’ dry goods. It is the only glazed brick building with distinctive pin striping and unusual attic vents.

512: Austin Bradley’s shoe shine.

516 Abe Siegman’s dry goods, later the Frank James Hotel. With façade made of cast stone.

518: Abraham Novick jeweler. Now the home of WEVL FM 90 community radio station.

520: Herman Moskovitz tailor.

520 ½: Pullman Hotel, with its Georgian Revival façade, was built in 1912.

522: Johnson & Finch barbers.

524: C.S. Lettes, tailor.

526: Nick Lecourias’ restaurant, later named the Eagle Café, then LaRue No. 2 Restaurant.

531: Ernestine and Hazel’s, former bordello.

Main & Calhoun (G.E. Patterson), northeast corner: Taylor & Taylor corner druggist.

Main & Calhoon (G.E. Patterson), southeast corner: The Arcade Restaurant was constructed by owner Speros Zepatos in 1919 as a wood frame shack with a pot belly stove and built as you see it today in 1925. The oldest continuing dining establishment in Memphis still is owned by the Zepatos family.

552: The first restaurant opened by Adolph Grisanti as the Grand Central Lunch Room in the 1930s.

108-110 Calhoun (G.E. Patterson): Built as the Winona Hotel, later the Arcade Hotel.

27 Linden: Shelby County Candy and Coffee Company, converted to condominiums in 1990.

69 Pontotoc: Constructed of rusticated concrete blocks as the Pontotoc Hotel in 1906, now a private residence.

Front at Pontotoc: The home of John Alexander Austin in 1873, later a boarding house and now private home.

11 Huling: Distribution center for the National Biscuit Company built in 1917. The building has been converted into the Woodliff Photography Studio and the 10 nearby horse stalls as the owner’s residence.

408 S. Front: The former Tayloe Paper Company, now Paperworks condominiums, with galleries along the side on Huling.

529 S. Front: Part of this building dates to the 1830s and was the site of Pappy Sammon’s first restaurant.

356 Mulberry: Victorian home, later the Eureka Hotel, is built at 356 Mulberry. It later becomes the oldest building in the South Main Historic District.

505 Tennessee :Orgill Brothers Hardware and Saddlery Warehouse opens in 1909; converted to The Lofts residences in 2000.

115 Vance: Raiford’s Lounge was built in 1915. It now is noted for its parking lot of limos and prominent signage: No Illegal Drugs, No Discrimination.

South Bluffs was the Burlington-Northern railway yards and South End primarily a warehousing district.

South Main Film Clips

“The Firm” (1993)
Directed by Sydney Pollack and written by John Grisham. Tom Cruise and the FBI meet at the Arcade Restaurant.