photo by maya smith
The rainbow crosswalk at the intersection of Cooper and Young.
Despite the clouds overhead warning of a rain shower, many pedestrians — some leading dogs, others pushing strollers — passed by the Cooper-Young gazebo. A man sat inside the gazebo intently reading a book.
Marked by a rainbow crosswalk, the intersection of Cooper and Young captures the spirit of the neighborhood. Local restaurants, bars, and coffee shops abound. It’s where friends and neighbors run into each other and shoot the breeze. And once a year, for the past 33 years, it’s where crowds from all over the city flock for the annual Cooper-Young Festival.
But the area had quite a different feel 30 years ago, according to longtime Cooper-Young resident Emily Bishop. “The nicest business in the Cooper-Young intersection when I first moved here was a motorcycle repair shop,” she says. “Where Café Olé is now was a woodworking shop. Where the Deli is, there was a head shop, but not the kind most people think. I’m talking about car engine heads. It was very industrial and kind of transitional. My friends thought I was crazy for moving here.”
Today, the streets near that intersection are lined with a record store, a yoga studio, a couple of coffee shops, and a dozen other independent businesses, such as Burke’s Book Store. Just a few steps from the gazebo, inside the store, owners Cheryl and Corey Mesler are tucked away from the afternoon shower.
photo by maya smith
Cheryl and Corey Mesler have owned Burke’s Book Store since 2000.
The bookstore, which opened in 1875, was originally on Main Street. The Meslers bought the business in 2000, becoming only the third owners since the Burke family. Thirteen years ago, the store moved from Poplar to its current home at 936 South Cooper, where the couple says they will likely stay for a while.
“The eccentricity of the neighborhood and our customers matches ours.” — Corey Mesley
Before the Meslers moved the store, Cheryl says, “We were really having a tough time and I thought we were going to have to close. Then we were shown the spot on Cooper and we just loved it. We had already been living in the neighborhood since 1993. I feel like we’re really lucky to be in this spot.”
Like Bishop, Corey says when they first moved to the area, “there wasn’t a whole lot else here. There weren’t all the restaurants and shops. It was just starting to be built up. It started slowly for us here, but we knew it was the place we wanted to be. We could foresee it was about to be a really hot neighborhood.”
photo by maya smith
Inside, a store display includes a photo of the original store when it was located on Main Street.
Now, because of the foot traffic, Corey says the neighborhood is a perfect location for the store. The area has always been “funky and arty” Cheryl says. “It’s still got its weirdness. That’s the part we like about it. It sort of has a bohemian nature and I hope it’ll stay like that.” Corey adds, “The eccentricity of the neighborhood and our customers matches ours. You’re not going to have at another store what we have at our store. It’s going to be reflective of what the residents in that community want.”
Burke’s is just one of a few dozen locally, independently owned businesses within Cooper-Young. Another is Memphis Made Brewing Company, which sits at the edge of the neighborhood in a former pie factory building. The company’s founder, Andy Ashby, lives about a mile away in a 100-year-old house.
photo by maya smith
Andy Ashby, founder of Memphis Made Brewing, relaxes on the spacious porch of his home in Cooper-Young.
One of Ashby’s favorite qualities of Cooper-Young is the neighborhood’s walkability. “I know this sounds nerdy, but I’ve always been fascinated with urban design,” he says. “I like the idea of being able to walk to bars and restaurants from my house. I grew up in Germantown and we didn’t really have that.”
“Sometimes you move into the neighborhood and you’re just an observer, but this is a hands-on neighborhood.” — Andy Ashby
When Ashby was looking for a house in 2004, he says one of the requirements was a front porch. “My real estate agent found a 100-year-old house with a front porch and that kind of clenched it for me.” During the pandemic, he’s spent a lot of time on that front porch. “You’re just able to see people. You sit here and read a book and watch the neighbors go by.”
He describes Cooper-Young as a “laid-back, come-as-you-are” neighborhood. Another thing that attracted him to the neighborhood was its accommodating and open nature. “There are a lot of people from many different walks of life.”
People are really active in the neighborhood, he notes. “It’s got a lot of stuff going on and that’s just because neighbors are really involved. Things are getting done by neighbors. People aren’t just paying their homeowners association and having things taken care of. They’re getting their hands dirty and actively working to make things better. Sometimes you move into the neighborhood and you’re just an observer, but this is a hands-on neighborhood.”
photo by maya smith
The railroad trestle over Cooper carries replicas of buildings in the neighborhood.
Emily Bishop is one of those active residents. She’s been heavily involved in the neighborhood for about three decades now. “My neighborhood involvement started with our neighborhood newspaper, the Lamplighter,” she says. “Shortly after I moved into the neighborhood, I got a little four-page newspaper that was delivered to my doorstep and it said, ‘Can you help?’ So I contacted them and I ended up doing quite a bit with the newspaper. It was a unique experience just because it was a great way to share information and create a feeling of connectedness in the neighborhood.”
As a member of the neighborhood association, Bishop says her involvement progressed from there, volunteering in a variety of ways and helping with events such as the Cooper-Young four-mile run and the annual festival.
Over the years, Bishop says she’s seen the neighborhood change in many ways, but it has still maintained its quirky character. “One thing we’re seeing,” Bishop says, “is more young people moving into the neighborhood. We have young professionals coming in and they’re bringing a whole different vitality to the neighborhood, where when I moved here it was a bunch of older people. There were a lot of artists and musicians because they didn’t mind living in a neighborhood that was transitional, which it was when I first moved here.”
One of the few things Bishop misses about the neighborhood, though, is the abundance of art galleries. “At one time we had six art galleries because there were commercial spaces that were really cheap and we had all of these young emerging artists who had gallery space,” she says. “There was always live music in the galleries. I feel so fortunate that I lived through that time in Cooper-Young when there was so much creativity. Looking toward the future, I just hope that Cooper-Young continues to help the core of Memphis stay strong and livable.”
