By John Branston 

Are you a sucker for the New York Times annual “52 Places to Visit” feature that has been running in January for 20 years? A fun read, pretty places, pretty pictures. But without a lot of money and time, most of us are armchair travelers.  

John Branston

Hence this shameless imitation that doesn’t require a lot of money, a plane ticket (or any ticket at all), or even a full tank of gas.

Each one is in Memphis or within 50 miles of it. Most are free, at least if you are just looking. Many of the names are in the news a lot, so eyeballing them counts as being a good citizen and in-the-know. And for the most part there are no favorite restaurants, tourist traps, or destinations that are regularly featured in local, regional, and national travel media because such places churn out plenty of publicity.

Some of these places are probably unfamiliar and hard to get to, (and get into) but that’s what time, maps, wits, and smartphones are for. 

Big Deals

The Ford EV Factory in Stanton, 20 miles east of Memphis city limits. Lots of construction already finished. Very big deal, or possibly very big disappointment if EV demand does not pick up.

Elon Musk’s supercomputer in South Memphis. Take Mallory exit off I-55 near Mapco, go south, and keep going. It’s in the old Electrolux plant but there are no signs; across from a big TVA power which doesn’t need a sign. Land, water, power, and eager arms got it here. Possible game changer, like Ford. Top secret. You cannot get in. 

Amazon Fulfillment Center on New Allen Road in Raleigh. One of half a dozen Amazon facilities in Memphis. Huge, but not as huge as the one in Nashville. This is one reason you can get something “free” delivery on Amazon Prime, and get it in a day or so.            

The Way It Used to Be 

Frayser industrial area, once home of Firestone, International Harvester and Kimberly-Clark factories. Gone by 1980s. Big employers, dirty jobs, good wages.

Manassas High School in Frayser. Alma mater of Isaac Hayes. New school is not far from where the old one was.

See also: Central High School, the “H” high school and along with feeder school Bruce, a big player in school desegregation in the 1960s; Douglass High School, Booker T. Washington High School, alma mater of songwriter David Porter; and Whitehaven High School or its neighbor Hillcrest. The bygone Memphis City Schools boasted enrollment of 125,000 students. The post-merger/secession Memphis Shelby County Schools likely has daily attendance of under 100,000. Schools are expensive to build and maintain and hard to fill, but closing one is a neighborhood killer, as their graduates/defenders on the school board and city council rightfully say.

The Fogelman Downtown YMCA. One of the oldest functioning (mostly) buildings in downtown Memphis. Next to Autozone Park. Friendly staff, nice indoor pool where people learn to swim.

495 Union Avenue. Speaking of the Memphis that once was, this one has a place in my heart because I worked there at The Commercial Appeal. As outdated as the printing press that once stood in the lobby. Print papers died a decade ago. It was awful. Thousands of parakeets had to be released.

Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park. Kind of forlorn and forgotten. Nostalgic for those of us who used to squirrel hunt, swim, put a canoe in the river, or play baseball there and get burgers and steak with live music at the country store near the entrance. Go north on Danny Thomas, cross the Wolf River and wetlands and keep going.

Historic cobblestone landing. The cobblestones – where steamboats loaded with cotton landed – were picked up a few years ago and will apparently eventually be put back down. Long story.

Malls of Memphis. Wolfchase, Oak Court, Raleigh Springs. Once upon a time, not so long ago. Wolfchase hanging on.

The Racquet Club of Memphis. East Memphis is the prime residential and commercial real estate in Memphis but the big parcel of vacant land with a few tennis courts remains undeveloped, though plans are in the making. Still. 

Short Road Trips 

The Ghost River. A section of the Wolf River east of Collierville. Easy to get lost. Best to get someone from the Wolf River Conservancy to go with you for a float trip, or join one of their scheduled floats.

Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge. You don’t have to be a serious birdwatcher to miss a heartbeat watching a flock of thousands of snow geese landing or lifting off from the lake here  Also likely to see big snakes, ducks in formation, and bald eagles in the cypress trees. Public hunting area too. About 15 miles from downtown Memphis.

Snowden Grove just over the state line in Mississippi. A concert venue, youth baseball hub, and competition for anything like-minded in Shelby County. Well used.

West Memphis casino. Former dog track is the new kid in the neighborhood, tallest building in Arkansas east of Little Rock, and dependent on Memphis customers. Closer than Tunica.

Abandoned hotel, Helena

Helena, Arkansas. River town notable for Mark Twain connection and a blues festival. Abandoned.

Tunica casinos. Thirty-some years ago they came out of the ground like mushrooms. Still the gambling center of the South, producing hundreds of millions of dollars for Tunica County and Mississippi every year. Memphis donates.               

Educational 

Memphis Botanic Gardens. For my time and small amount of money, the best outdoor attraction in the Memphis area for locals, families, nature buffs and visitors of all ages.

LeMoyne-Owen College. Private HBCU, neighbor of Soulsville, alma mater of Willie Herenton.

Rhodes College. Pricey liberal arts college in Midtown, limestone and slate-roof architecture, oak alley, iron fence. Closed campus.

The University of Memphis campus. A beauty. Big makeover in last 20 years. Central Avenue, Southern, and Highland hardly recognizable.

Memphis University School (MUS). Premier private high school with Memphis Christian Brothers, St. George’s, Hutchison, and Briarcrest. All are outside the I-240 loop.

Shelby County office buildings at Shelby Farms. County-nental drift from downtown to across from the Penal Farm (aka prison).

201 Poplar. Where you don’t want to be, unless you are a curious visitor on the reality tour.

Jail is off limits, but when the courts are in session downstairs it is a documentary in the making. Reporters used to hang out here.

The City Council auditorium in City Hall. Where it happens – or doesn’t happen. Parking available in the lot across Front Street. But a drive-by on Front Street will do.

MATA bus barn on N. Watkins. MATA is losing money. A picture worth a thousand words. 

Time Sensitive 

Memphis Bluffwalk at sunset. Overlooking Tom Lee Park, best views of the river, lighted bridges, and Arkansas floodplain.

Memphis International Airport at 7a.m or 11p.m. rush for this feeder airport for passenger-airline hubs (and, of course, the FedEx World Hub).

Central Station. Amtrak’s City of New Orleans stops here at 7a.m. And 10p.m. enroute to and from Chicago. Upscale hotel atop. Easy walk to South Main restaurants, National Civil Rights Museum and a movie theater with actual movies.

Bass Pro Pyramid Observation Deck. Like the song says, “On a clear day you can see forever.” Costs $8 but worth it for the view, and the store itself is a free zoo and museum. 

See Also 

Taco shops and markets on Summer Avenue east of Highland. Helps if you can speak Spanish.

Overton Park Golf Course clubhouse. Classy restoration for the affordable nine-hole course and free putting green. Walk the Old Forest trail from second hole to third hole.

Overton Park Golf Course Clubhouse

 

Tennessee Brewery on South Bluff. Active in the days of can openers, horse-drawn wagons and buckets of beer, than a serious candidate for demolition, now as masterful a restoration as you will see. 

New Interstate 55 bridge access. Badly needed but hard to navigate until completion and possibly longer. Easy to wind up in Arkansas even if not headed there.

Crosstown Concourse. Midtown. Sears-Roebuck warehouse in 20th century. See Green Room for live music and drinks in unusual setting, Listening Lab for LPs, CDs, 45s, and high-end stereos. Shout out to benefactor John King.

Leftwich Tennis Center. Tennis-playing donors made it happen, now it is up to the marketers and the university to make it a big regional and national draw.

Audubon Park Golf Course. Redesigned and upgraded 18 holes, with forgiving fairways, water hazards, and acres of green. Public.

The Poor Clares Monastery in Frayser. Closed in 2019 but before that nuns prayed and stayed there. Finding it takes some doing but worth the effort.

Gates of Graceland. Bring some Benjamins if you and the family want to take the full tour and more Benjamins to stay in the hotel. Bluff the guard and see the lobby. Plan B: Selfie. Hey, you were close.

Mud Island boat ramp at the north end where the Wolf River comes into the Mississippi. If you have a boat and want to get on the water or in it, this is the place to do it.

Airways Boulevard from Memphis International Airport to the fairgrounds.  Welcome to Memphis. 

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John Branston covered Memphis as a reporter and columnist for 35 years.

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