photo by maya smith
Vollintine-Evergreen's active community association gave the neighborhood its name: VECA.
Beneath a canopy of trees, the V&E Greenline runs nearly two miles through the Vollintine-Evergreen neighborhood (VECA). It’s a slice of nature in the middle of a historic urban area.
Mary Wilder, who’s lived in the neighborhood just west of Rhodes College since 1974, says the greenline is “sort of a hidden gem” in VECA. “A lot of people have forgotten it’s here, but it’s one of the neighborhood’s elements that make it so walkable. You can go on a walk on the greenline any day or night and you’ll see everyone — all ages, all races, all walks of life, walking dogs, walking their kids, and adult children walking their parents.”
The V&E Greenline is one example of how the neighborhood “takes things into our own hands,” Wilder says. The route of the greenline was once a working railroad line until it was abandoned in 1980. Litter and blight soon followed. Then in 1995, residents came together to purchase the right-of-way for the land using funds from a Pew Charitable Trust grant.
“We decided to define ourselves as a walkable neighborhood with solid homes built in the 1920s. We didn’t have giant homes. We were where the mailman and the teacher lived.” — Mary Wilder
Wilder says the residents are always focusing on an “issue du jour” from blockbusting to historic preservation, and it was VECA’s autonomous initiative that first intrigued her. “I decided to stay here because within the first month or so, a neighborhood newsletter arrived on my doorstep. I had been a community organizer before and I thought it was pretty cool that the neighborhood has its own newsletter. Which still comes out once a week now, in fact.”
For the first ten years of living in the neighborhood, Wilder considered herself just a resident. Then in the mid-’80s, she became the editor of the newsletter. Her involvement continued into the ’90s when the neighborhood wanted to do a National Register of Historic Places nomination, which is essentially a listing of every house in the neighborhood and its historical significance.
“We were experiencing sort of a public relations letdown,” Wilder says. “People were referring to us as a neighborhood with old houses. There was a lot of disinvestment in the ’90s. Suburban movement was rampant. We decided to define ourselves as a walkable neighborhood with solid homes built in the 1920s. We didn’t have giant homes. We were where the mailman and the teacher lived.”
photo by michael finger
StJohns2
St. John's Orthodox Church is one of several old sanctuaries in VECA.
Wilder, along with seven other volunteers, surveyed the streets of the neighborhood one by one, until the group had successfully listed close to 3,500 houses.
“We’re that middle-class working neighborhood and the flavor of the neighborhood has always maintained itself,” Wilder says of VECA over the years. “I would say we haven’t really significantly changed. Crosstown Concourse reintroduced our neighborhood to people who forgot we were here. So we’re getting more artist types. But we’re by and large where the teacher buys her first house.”
Wilder says the residents “pride ourselves in being accepting.” This accepting attitude has always been a part of the neighborhood’s history.
When schools were becoming integrated in the 1950s, the neighborhood took charge of how it would transition, Wilder says. As a result, the neighborhood voluntarily desegregated two schools. “It was a very conscious community making a conscious attempt to say ‘we’re going to be integrated.’”
The neighborhood remains diverse today. “Given our American culture, diversity is something we have to work at every day,” says Wilder. “We’re bombarded in society with negativity that works to divide us. I think our neighborhood works hard to maintain inclusivity. That’s the only way to thrive. The elasticity of life is being able to accept lots of different people and not just boxing yourself in. A forest wouldn’t be a forest if it just had one type of tree.”
photo by maya smith
Alex's Tavern is a neighborhood institution, with one of the city's best jukeboxes.
On the northern edge of the neighborhood, Alex’s Tavern is “home to a lot of people,” says Rocky Kasaftes, owner of the bar. “It’s off the beaten path, but it’s turned out to be the right spot.”
The bar has been at 1445 Jackson since 1953. It’s the oldest tavern in Memphis owned by its original family. Kasaftes took over the tavern in 1978 from his dad after he passed away. Kasaftes’ father grew up on Jackson right down the street and wanted to create a place where his friends could gather, he says. The younger Kasaftes says his earliest memories of the neighborhood are of him going to the bar with his dad. “He would put me to work, have me mop the floor, scrape gum off tables, and do other odd jobs.”
photo by maya smith
St. Therese, known as the Church of the Little Flower, has been a Jackson Avenue landmark for 80 years.
The neighborhood was very multi-ethnic in the 1950s and ’60s, Kasaftes says. “There were Greek, Italian, Polish, Jewish, and Black residents. There was Little Flower Church and of course, everyone went there. All different kinds of people mingled there.”
Kasaftes says when his dad first opened the bar, there were “tons” of other businesses on the street, but over the years those businesses faded away.
“The neighborhood’s changed, but it’s coming back,” Kasaftes says. “There have been ups and downs, but we’ve always just stayed steady. People told me for years I wouldn’t make it here. But I’ve always been stubborn thinking, ‘It’ll work. I’ll make it.’ With Crosstown Concourse, it’s like a full-blown renaissance in this neighborhood. It’s going to take a while. But it’s happening.”
