Celebrating the musical heritage of the Mississippi Delta, Stuart Forster goes walking in Memphis, exploring the Tennessee city’s links with Elvis Presley, the blues and the U.S. civil rights movement.
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Dazzling morning sunlight silhouettes the larger-than-life-size statue at Elvis Presley Plaza. The bronze sculpture depicts the youthful King of Rock and Roll with slicked-back hair, gripping the neck of an acoustic guitar.
Elvis Presley was born on 8 January 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi, and moved to Memphis with his parents in 1948. Influenced by gospel, country and blues – styles of music which have long flourished here in the Mississippi Delta – Presley recorded his first tracks just over a mile away at the Sun Studio (706 Union Avenue). Still an active recording studio, yesterday I had an opportunity to cradle the Shure 55 microphone that Elvis and many other stars sang into after a guided tour.
A green and white vintage tram rumbles along Main Street, yards from the statue. Costing $1 a ride, or $2 for a day ticket valid on three routes, the Memphis trolley is a cost-effective way of combining sightseeing and getting around the Downtown district.
Walking in Memphis
Today though, I’ve decided to explore the city on foot. I’m wearing suitably comfy footwear rather than the blue suede shoes that fans of Elvis Presley might deem most appropriate for following in his footsteps.
Visiting Graceland
Memphians recommended the Uber app for booking rides to outlying attractions such as Graceland. The mansion that Presley purchased in 1957 for $100,000 is near Memphis International Airport.
A 15-minute drive from the Downtown district that I’m currently exploring, I decide that heading to Graceland should be later in the week as there’s plenty to warrant spending a full day there. In addition to Presley’s former home, the memorabilia displayed at the hulking estate straddling Elvis Presley Boulevard includes cars, aircraft and enough show-worn white jumpsuits to clothe a choir.
Beale Street in Memphis
Arching across Beale Street, a neon sign that illuminates electric blue at night reminds visitors that the downtown entertainment district is the ‘Home of the Blues’.
The Rum Boogie Café (182 Beale Street), King’s Palace Cafe (162 Beale Street) and the original B.B. King’s Blues Club (143 Beale Street) are among the venues offering live shows in the Beale Street Entertainment District. On warm evenings people from all walks of life mingle outside the street’s scattering of bars with drinks in their hands.
Yet when Presley laid down his first tracks, racial segregation was still part of life. Beale Street was formerly the principal hub for black business and cultural life in Memphis. As reminders, cast iron signs convey bygone uses of buildings and tell stories about significant characters.
Father of the Blues
Wielding a cornet, a statue of W.C. Handy stands in Handy Park, which is named after the composer known as ‘the Father of the Blues’. Sheet music and artefacts from his career are displayed at the W.C. Handy Memphis Home and Museum (352 Beale Street).
Handy’s simple two-room home was relocated to Beale Street in the 1980s. The wood-built property is typical of the Mid-South’s shotgun houses – named because with the front and back doors open it was possible to fire a weapon straight through without hitting anything.
Memphis Music Hall of Fame
A few paces off Beale Street is the entrance to the Memphis Music Hall of Fame (126 South 2nd Street). Honouring musicians associated with the city, the attraction displays memorabilia ranging from a black shirt and sunglasses worn on stage by the singer-songwriter Roy Orbison to the Academy Award won by hip-hop group Three 6 Mafia.
Peabody Hotel in Memphis
After a five-minute stroll along 2nd Street, I turn towards the Peabody Hotel (149 Union Avenue). Soft piano melodies play in the grand lobby of the long-established luxury hotel. A grey marble fountain supported by four cherubs dominates the middle of the high-ceilinged room where Elvis signed his first recording contract with RCA. Each day visitors gather by the bar and on sofas to view the hotel’s duck march at 11.00 am and 5.00 pm each day.
“I’m the Assistant Duckmaster. I do a speech and a whole ceremony, I march ducks down a red carpet into an elevator and up to the roof or down to the fountain. We do that twice a day,” says Brittany, who wears a red jacket embellished with golden epaulettes and a braided cord.
Holding a cane topped with a duck head cast from silver, she explains that the duck march was established in 1933. Ducks were first introduced into the lobby as a jape by the hotel’s manager following a hunting trip in neighbouring Arkansas.
From Memphis, it’s possible to walk between Tennessee and the state formerly governed by Bill Clinton on the longest pedestrian bridge spanning the Mississippi River. A marker midway across Big River Crossing denotes the point the states meet.
The Memphis Pyramid
In the other direction, a mile from the Peabody’s well-behaved mallards, Memphis has a museum telling the story of duck hunting. It’s inside the glass-fronted Memphis Pyramid (1 Bass Pro Drive), a vast structure built as a multi-use arena.
Today the riverside landmark also houses the Big Cypress Lodge, a hotel with 103 rustic-chic rooms, and the Bass Pro Shops, whose stock includes guns, fishing equipment and outdoor gear.
Like some theme park dreamt up by hunters, the floorspace features a cypress swamp and trees draped with Spanish moss. Reminiscent of a baddy’s lair from an early Bond movie, alligators live in the tank at the foot of America’s tallest freestanding lift. It rises 300 feet towards glass-floored observation platforms.
FedExForum in Memphis
The pyramid was repurposed following the opening of the downtown FedExForum (191 Beale Street), the mixed-use events venue that also houses the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum.
“We’re the only museum in the world where the Smithsonian Institution put the entire exhibition together then turned it over to the city where it exists…it’s as much a civil rights story as it is a music story because it tells how black musicians and white musicians created music that was heard around the world,” says John Doyle, Executive Director of the Memphis Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum.
Swaying to soul tunes recorded at Stax Studios, which has a dedicated museum (the Stax Museum of American Soul; 926 E McLemore Avenue) three miles away, I learn that Memphis is mentioned in more than 1,000 songs – more than any other city.
South Main Arts District
The National Civil Rights Museum (450 Mulberry Street) is at the site of the Lorraine Motel, where the civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead on 4 April 1968. Along with the Blues Hall of Fame Museum (421 S. Main Street), it’s a reason to spend time in the South Main Arts District.
Hungry, I stride in the direction of Memphis’s South Main Arts District. Elvis was reputedly a fan of the fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches served at The Arcade Restaurant (540 S Main Street). But Memphis’ oldest restaurant remains open only until 3.00 pm. Instead, I cross the road for a burger in Eight & Sand, the bar and restaurant inside of the stylish Central Station Memphis, Curio Collection by Hilton hotel (545 S Main Street).
Afterwards, the 10-minute stroll back to Beale Street, for a beer and a live blues show, is an ideal way of rounding off a day of walking in Memphis.
Map of Memphis
Zoom in or out of the Google Map of Memphis (below) to locate places of interest in the city:
Travel to Memphis
No airline currently offers direct flights from an airport in the United Kingdom and Memphis International Airport.
United Airlines flies between London Heathrow and Memphis International Airport via its hubs in the USA.
Hotels in Memphis
Memphis offers a broad choice of quality accommodation. I enjoyed staying at two stylish hotels in Memphis. The ARRIVE Memphis (477 S. Main Street), is a 62-room boutique hotel in the South Main Arts District. The Hyatt Centric Beale Street Memphis (33 Beale Street) has a beautiful rooftop bar.
Books about Memphis
Planning to visit Memphis, Tennessee and elsewhere in the USA’s Mid-South? You can purchase the following books from Amazon:
The Moon Memphis travel guide by Margaret Littman.
Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley by Peter Guralnick.
Memphis 68: The Tragedy of Southern Soul by Stuart Cosgrove.
It came from Memphis by Robert Gordon.
The Rough Guide to USA: South.
Further information
See the Memphis Travel website for more information about things to do in and around the city in.
Thank you for visiting Go Eat Do and reading this post about walking in Memphis and exploring the city’s heritage and top attractions. If you are planning to visit Memphis and enjoy whisky cocktails, you may also appreciate reading this post about the Five of the best Old Fashioneds in Memphis.
Basedin the north of England, Stuart Forster, the author of this post, is an award-winning travel writer. His work has been published by the likes of Love Exploring, National Geographic Traveller and Wanderlust Magazine.
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