Published: Jan 18, 2018

And so, you've lived here all your life, been to all the museums and iconic landmarks, and shown off the city to dozens of visiting friends and family. Yous know this city like the back of your hand, correct? Recall again. Nosotros did some digging and discovered 10 surprising Memphis facts and stories that y'all might not know about our fabulous metropolis. Check these out, and get fix to impress the folks at the water cooler tomorrow!

Surprising Memphis Facts & Stories Nosotros Bet Yous Didn't Know

1. Certain, you've fabricated plenty of drives down Summer Avenue, and you may have traveled Autumn. But most Memphians don't know that these ii seasonal streets in one case had neighbors that formed a full twelvemonth. What we call Faxon was once Winter Artery, and Forrest was formerly known as Spring.

ii. Despite the city's deep respect for the Mississippi River, relatively few citizens know that the largest maritime disaster in American history occurred just n of downtown Memphis. Part of the reason history has largely forgotten the wreck of the Sultana and the decease of 1,800 of the 2,500 Wedlock war prisoners, crew and passengers aboard is because it occurred the same week as Lincoln'due south assassination and a war-weary land was focused elsewhere. The gunkhole's official capacity was 376 passengers, simply a greedy captain wedged in 2,100 more than to earn $x a caput. The already weakened boiler exploded during the stressful trip upstream on the rapid, flood-phase river, killing hundreds more than than the sinking of the Titanic.

3. The story of Tom Lee's heroics as he saved 30 people from a doomed steamboat are more well known, simply you may not realize that we also owe a Memphis cultural icon to this deed of bravery. The future Margaret Dixon was one of the passengers saved from the Mississippi, and she and her husband would go on to create the fine art and horticultural treasure at present celebrated equally Dixon Gallery and Gardens.

4. Memphis is celebrating its bicentennial next yr, but non its 200th year as Shelby County'due south seat. That laurels went to Raleigh in 1825, and the two cities maintained a rivalry until Memphis incorporated its neighbor after Globe State of war II. Memphis' second mayor, Isaac Rawlings, is buried in Raleigh's nearly hidden 7-acre cemetery on Sometime Raleigh Lagrange Road, because he considered Memphis a "rowdy river town" and did not want to balance at that place for eternity.

5. If y'all want to observe the resting place of Memphis' kickoff mayor, Marcus Winchester, proficient luck. He's cached in an unknown location in Winchester Park, an area encompassing the Medical Commune and Uptown neighborhoods. Despite his office and status every bit son of the urban center's co-founder, likewise as his positions equally city annals, postmaster and ferry operator, Winchester's career declined following his 1824 marriage to Marie Louise Amarante Loiselle Regis (called Mary) of New Orleans. Almost historians agree that Mary was a free woman of color, and equally the city became more established and fright of slave uprisings increased, the city formally codification a law forbidding interracial marriage. Although shunned by many, the couple was friends with Fanny Wright, founder of the progressive, just curt-lived Nashoba cooperative customs.

6. Memphis' greatest calamity brought about a brief, early era of opportunity. Although they contracted yellow fever at the aforementioned charge per unit as other residents during Memphis' multiple epidemics, African-American sufferers had a substantially lower mortality rate – vii% to white residents' seventy%. As a issue, more than African-Americans stayed in Memphis and sustained the city during these outbreaks, and in 1878, were allowed to serve as patrolmen with the Memphis Police Department for the first fourth dimension. Access to these jobs, along with positions in the fire section and other civic entities, was revoked by the end of the 19th century as white citizens returned and Jim Crow laws blanketed the S.

RELATED: Terri Lee Freeman, National Civil Rights Museum President: FACES of Memphis

7. Now home of Big River Crossing, the Harahan Bridge was named after James Theodore Harahan, president of Illinois Central Railroad with a tie to Memphis through his second wife, Mary Mallory. Only Harahan did not survive to see the bridge he championed completed; he was killed in a railroad blow that may non have been an accident at all. He and 3 other rail executives were asleep in a private car at the end of a Memphis-bound train when an budgeted engine split the sleeper in half, as well as Harahan'south skull. Suspiciously, theirs was the only wooden auto on the railroad train (all other sleepers were steel), and a similar fate had recently met another railroad president with whom track workers were unhappy.

8. Memphis itself may not even exist without the help of its first African-American millionaire, Robert R. Church building. Stranded in Memphis by Spousal relationship soldiers who overtook the steamboat on which he was a 23-year-sometime steward, the unacknowledged son of a slaveholder made his fortune through investments in hospitality, entertainment and existent estate. When xanthous fever depleted the metropolis'southward economy, Church purchased Bond Number I (toll: $i,000) to restore Memphis' charter. FedExForum now sits adjacent to Robert Church Park, which was initially created by Church himself to house an auditorium and recreation expanse for Memphis' African-American residents.

9. Although at present dwelling house to the Memphis Roller Derby, the fairgrounds one time hosted a derby of a different sort. The Tennessee Derby, a thoroughbred horse-racing event comparable to its peer in neighboring Kentucky, was run annually at Montgomery Park Race Rails start in 1884. The last race was run in 1906; gambling was banned in Memphis the next yr.

10. Denied entry into the Academy of Memphis' graduate program, Maxine Smith went on to be instrumental in the desegregation of Memphis public schools and personally escorted the 13 children who integrated MPS on their first day of school. In 1994, after serving more than two decades on the Memphis Lath of Education, she was appointed to the Tennessee Lath of Regents, the governing body of … the University of Memphis.

Now, you're armed with some fun Memphis facts for the next time you're playing bout guide around our bully urban center!

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