Now that Carol Coletta and urban planners from Chicago and New York have unveiled their ambitious plans to revamp our city's riverfront, I thought it might be interesting to see what planners had in mind for Memphis almost a century ago.
Yep, we've been pondering what to do with downtown for almost 100 years.
In 1920, the city planning commission asked Harland Bartholomew & Associates, a nationally recognized urban planning firm headquartered in St. Louis, to redesign Memphis. Not just the riverfront, but the entire city! Bartholomew made detailed suggestions for building designs, street layouts, intersections, even public lighting, and paid special attention to the river. "The chief criticism to be made to the riverfront from the standpoint of appearance is its disorder and general shabbiness," Bartholomew reported in the plan they released in 1923. "Today, the riverfront is not merely unattractive, but represents a flagrantly unprofitable use of the property."
The illustration shown here is what the firm recommended. The view is looking east, and yes that is indeed Mud Island in the foreground, with downtown Memphis in the background, with the Wolf River Harbor separating them.
Do you recognize any part of this? Take your time. See the boats in the harbor? The big open area behind them is actually a parking lot. A very large parking lot.
What Bartholomew had in mind was a graceful series of arches forming a lengthy promenade ("such as was intended by the early founders of the city"), stretching for blocks along the bluffs, with acres of public parking along the riverside, and a handsome bridge linking Downtown to Mud Island. The island in this vision has been converted into a spacious public park, with a tree-lined wraparound pier, baseball diamonds, tennis courts, and what Bartholomew described, rather vaguely, as "some formal treatment at the southern extremity."
Although admitting this was an "ambitious scheme," Bartholomew predicted, "No immediate steps are necessary. As private improvements are made and as public funds become available, the various improvements can be accomplished."
Now, you may notice that two of our city's most well-known amenities — Riverside Drive and Tom Lee Park — aren't shown here, because they were never part of this plan. Riverside Drive was finally built in the 1930s, mainly as an attempt to shore up the unstable bluffs, and Mud Island was finally developed in later years, but most Memphians would admit that the riverfront today doesn't resemble in any way the dream Harland Bartholomew & Associates envisioned in 1924.
So they tried again in the 1950s.
"The riverfront opposite the central business district offers a challenging opportunity to create an outstanding civic development," they reminded us (again). A 1955 plan (not shown here) offered a complete reconstruction of Mud Island, to make way for an expressway, boat harbor, playing fields, and even a riverside stadium and auditorium, complete with parking for 5,000 cars.
"The major street plan proposes an interstate route which would be located on Mud Island," their report explained. "With the proper connections on the downtown street system, this expressway would offer a new and impressive approach to the business district from the north and south."
Sometimes they guessed wrong about the future. Despite all those stories in Popular Mechanics, Memphians would not be flying around in helicopters in the 1950s, but that didn't stop Bartholomew. "In addition to an enlargement of Jefferson Davis Park," the report continued, "a helicopter landing field and terminal area are provided to the west of the park. This would make a conveniently located facility for helicopter transportation, which, while now in its infancy, is progressing very rapidly."
Oh, really? Well, then why don't the Lauderdales have one — or a whole fleet, for that matter?
Harland Bartholomew & Associates must have hated us. We just wouldn't listen to their grand ideas. Despite several plans, we ignored their best efforts to transform our downtown — well, for that matter, our whole city — into a futuristic community that George Jetson would have loved.
