David Cohn, the well-known writer from the Mississippi Delta, said that the Delta "begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg."
In 1935, Cohn also said of the Peabody: "If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby . . . ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta."
I'm sitting in the Peabody lobby on a Sunday afternoon, and there's no place I'd rather be on my birthday. During the four years I spent with the Delta Regional Authority, meetings at the Peabody were a regular occurrence. Trips there are infrequent these days, so I've given myself a birthday gift of a night at the hotel. There's no agenda other than a walk around downtown Memphis, a visit to a favorite museum and a good dinner.
There's a special place in my heart for old hotels, which is probably why I've written so much about the Arlington Hotel at Hot Springs while hoping that this Arkansas jewel will be properly polished. It's also why our family's summer vacation began at the Hotel Galvez in Galveston, Texas, a 1911 classic along the Gulf Coast. There's just something about sitting in the lobby of a historic hotel and soaking up the atmosphere.
The original Peabody opened at the corner of Main and Monroe streets in downtown Memphis in 1869. Col. Robert C. Brinkley named his hotel in honor of financier George Peabody, who was a friend. Brinkley received word of Peabody's death just before the hotel opened and decided to honor Peabody rather than using the name Brinkley Hotel.
The Peabody had 75 rooms, an ornate ballroom, a saloon and a spacious lobby. The original Peabody closed in 1923 so Lowenstein's Department Store could be built at the site. The Peabody was replaced two years later by the current structure on Union Avenue. Chicago architect Walter Ahlschlager designed the building in the Italian Renaissance style. The hotel opened on Sept. 1, 1925.
The lobby hosted everybody from Arkansas and Mississippi plantation owners to professional gamblers. One of the live radio broadcasts on CBS originated from there. Big bands played the Plantation Roof and the adjoining Skyway Room.
In 1932, general manager Frank Schutt and some friends had a bit too much to drink while duck hunting in Arkansas. When they returned, they put their live decoys in the lobby fountain. The tradition of the Peabody ducks was born.
Hanging out in the Peabody lobby is fun, but it's the walk around downtown that proves most instructive. There's a construction boom taking place, and it shows.
"New investment in downtown Memphis real estate could surpass $2.9 billion over the next few years if all the plans proceed," Ted Evanoff writes for The Commercial Appeal. "It would add up to the largest investment boom downtown since the center city commercial district emptied out following the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Over the last decade, investors have pushed back at downtown blight one building at a time. The new wave promises something larger. Each project would energize a wider swath than the block the building stands on."
In July, officials of the Carlisle Corp. announced that they will proceed with the $225 million One Beale project. That project revolves around a Hyatt Centric Hotel (locations include Tokyo, Miami and San Francisco), a residential building, an office building, a rooftop lounge and a riverfront restaurant that will be operated by well-known chefs Andy Ticer and Michael Hudman.
"My dad had a saying that people and cities define themselves by their buildings, and as a native Memphian, I could not be prouder of what One Beale says about our city's culturally rich past and our promising future," said Carlisle Corp. chief executive officer Chance Carlisle.
Evanoff wrote: "Other real estate investors have stepped in, spending more than $500 million in total. They've renovated warehouses, the shuttered Chisca hotel, the closed 19th-century Tennessee Brewery and turned old retail stores into fresh condo and apartment developments. Taken together, the projects brought new life to a forlorn end of the old center city, particularly along Main south of Beale near the Central Station railroad terminal.
"Central stands two blocks from King's assassination site at the Lorraine Motel. . . . The Lorraine's redevelopment in 1991 into the National Civil Rights Museum brought in tourists and paved the way for new restaurants and nightlife. For the first time in a century, the center city became a desirable living area for well-to-do baby boomers and men and women in their 20s and 30s. That, in turn, spurred the $55 million renovation now under way of Central Station's office tower into a boutique hotel."
Last month, New York developers announced plans for a 26-story, 550-room Loews Hotel downtown. Just down the street, the long-vacant building at 100 North Main will be renovated for condos and offices.
Kevin Kane, who heads the city's convention and visitors' bureau, said: "We're taking an entire city block, and we're bringing it to life with a lot of activity, not just government activity. We're a good value that has been overlooked for some time for development opportunities."
Kane calls Memphis "the new it city."
"Downtown resembles an American city from the 1940s," Evanoff writes. "There's nightlife, 7 million annual visitors, some 12,000 residents."
There also are lessons for Arkansas' largest city. In discussions about why Little Rock has been stagnant in recent years, people point to problems with crime and the public schools. Memphis suffers those same problems, and it hasn't stopped developers from betting big on downtown. There are several positive things taking place in downtown Little Rock, but the fact remains that the two tallest buildings along Main Street (the Boyle and Donaghey buildings) remain empty while Capitol Avenue (which should be the state's premier urban thoroughfare) remains bordered by too many tacky surface parking lots.
The area is ripe for infill development. At a time when urban living is back in vogue and the national economy is hot, I would be placing my bets on downtown Little Rock if I were a developer. Just look at what's happening two hours to the east.
------------v------------
Rex Nelson is a senior editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Editorial on 09/23/2018