A seller on eBay has an interesting old postcard for sale. It shows Front Street in the early 1900s, with the familiar landmarks of the original Cossitt Library and Custom House buildings in the distance. But what's really fascinating is that it shows a riverbluff park that most historians rarely mention.
In fact, to be perfectly honest with you, I had never even heard of it, until now.
Paul Coppock, one of our city's best-known historians, gives this park a brief mention in one of his Mid-South book series, but only noting that it was an early park along the original "promenade" that was replaced with a parking garage.
It looks nice. There's not much to it — just an open space with a fancy flowerbed in the middle, and nice plantings at the corners. What intrigues me is that curious little building on the corner. It almost looks like an old-timey gas station, but when this card was published, there were very few cars (note the mules in the street), and anybody who owned one of those newfangled "auto-mobiles" had to buy their gasoline in gallon cans from whatever store carried it.
So I have no idea what that building is. Or was.
The same scene today, as you might expect, has been completely transformed. A WPA parking garage stands on this corner. The Cossitt Library, with only a portion of the original sandstone building (a 1920s annex) still standing, is the next building over, and of course the old Customs House, much modified and expanded, is now home to the University of Memphis law school.
It's a nice old postcard. What I've shown here is a detail. For the full image, or to buy it, go here.
