Dear Vance: I found this photo tucked away in a Memphis yearbook and am trying to confirm if it shows a curiously empty Anderton’s East restaurant. — B.H., Memphis.
The Rainbow Terrace was usually packed at the Rainbow Lake entertainment complex.
Dear B.H.: When you say “trying to confirm” I presume that you want me to do that for you. And I can’t do it — for the simple reason that this isn’t Anderton’s.
I immediately noticed the peculiar decorative blobs mounted on the walls and thought they looked familiar, but they didn’t quite match the unusual interior that was a hallmark of Anderton’s East, with its similar bloblike “clouds” that floated across the ceiling of that restaurant on Madison Avenue. So I was prepared to settle back in my La-Z-Boy and think for a good long time — weeks, if need be — until I could recall where I had seen them before.
Then I had a better idea. I had Basil run the photo through the electron scanning microscope in the Lauderdale Laboratories, and see if it enhanced the faint lettering visible on the white napkins on the tables in this photograph. Sure enough, the stitching clearly reads “Rainbow Terrace.”
Even though the place is indeed “curiously empty” but apparently open for business, the Rainbow Terrace was the main restaurant for one of Memphis’ most popular attractions, called Rainbow Lake. First opened in 1936 at 2879 Lamar by the Piericcini family, the same folks who later owned Clearpool, just down the road a bit, the “lake” wasn’t what drew visitors. Instead, Rainbow offered one of the city’s finest public swimming pools, complete with white sand “beaches,” along with one of the city’s largest skating rinks and other enticements, such as the nice dining room you see here.
But Rainbow Lake went through rough times — there were fires, robberies, even a drowning. In the 1960s the Memphis AFL-CIO Building Association purchased the 14-acre property and turned the various buildings into offices. Later, Pancho’s converted it into a manufacturing plant for their food products. Nowadays, that stretch of Lamar is a subdivision, without a trace of the pool, rink, or the Rainbow Terrace.
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Email: askvance@memphismagazine.com
Mail: Vance Lauderdale, Memphis magazine, 65 Union Avenue, Suite 200, Memphis, TN 38103
