Memphis wasn’t even 20 years old when residents demanded the formation of a Chamber of Commerce. A resolution published in the March 22, 1838, Memphis Enquirer noted, “The most casual observer must have discovered the absolute necessity of some such society, in order to carry on the diversified business of our growing town with harmony and good feeling to all. … The facilities for transacting business would be greatly increased, and the best interests of the City promoted, by the organization of a Chamber of Commerce.”
This declaration is especially remarkable when one considers that Memphis lacked safe drinking water, had no sanitation system, every street was dirt, sidewalks were nothing but wobbly planks, most buildings were wood, and the town had no public school or hospital. But citizens realized business would never prosper without a guiding force.
image courtesy tennessee state archives
Judge John Overton
Three Nashville investors — Judge John Overton, General James Winchester, and General Andrew Jackson — had established the city in 1819. “The plan and local situation of Memphis,” wrote Overton, “are such as to authorize the expectation that it is to become a large and populous city.”
Even so, the town grew more slowly than the founders hoped. Despite its prominent location, Memphis was considered on the frontier, with the river separating Eastern civilization from the wide-open West. Becoming “America’s Distribution Center” was in the distant future. Riverboats could reach it, but overland transportation consisted of a few bumpy stagecoach routes. More than 20 years passed before railroads showed any interest, beginning with the Memphis & LaGrange Railroad in 1842.
When the Chamber of Commerce was established in 1838, Memphis was essentially a trading post serving riverboat crews and local residents. The adult population was less than 1,700 and a report that year listed only 209 men with occupations, mostly merchants, planters, builders, and clerks. Memphis was home to just four physicians, three lawyers, two druggists, and two teachers. The Chamber of Commerce set up offices at Main and Court, with Colonel Nathaniel Anderson elected president and Lewis Trezevant vice president.
The newspaper reported that the Chamber “led the way in securing for Memphis its first telegraph line … and the first message was sent May 13, 1843.” No record survives of that initial message, but city leaders knew that “this fast contact with the outside world was essential, for Memphis was growing in importance as a world cotton market.”
During this crucial growth period, the Chamber organized meetings with planters and traders in Tennessee and Mississippi to set tariffs and other costs associated with the burgeoning cotton industry. They also established regulations to protect buyers against fraud when purchasing cotton, corn, and wheat.
illustration from Harper’s Weekly / courtesy Memphis Public Libraries
An illustration from Harper’s Weekly shows how dramatically the town had grown by the mid-1800s.
Despite inauspicious beginnings, the population steadily increased, surpassing 6,000 by 1850. The 1855 Rainey City Directory observed, “This is the four- and five-story era.” In its early days, Memphis had rows of “wooden buildings, with clapboard roofs and stick chimneys.” Over the years, homes and businesses became more substantial, and the town showed “many evidences of an advanced state of civilization,” with gas lighting and a trolley system along Main Street. What’s more, “the increased value of real estate is startling. Property which could have been purchased five years ago for one or two hundred dollars an acre, now commands as many thousands. Buildings spring up as if by magic.”
In April 1860, the Chamber moved into “fine rooms on the second story of a new building on Court Square,” with the Daily Appeal newspaper noting, “The committee on arbitration and appeals is now ready for business, and the prospects of the Chamber are most encouraging.” One year later, the paper reported, “The Chamber is flourishing; 31 members have lately been added, and we are glad to see our merchants and businessmen so alive to the utility of this association.”
The Civil War halted all progress. The Chamber struggled to persuade businesses to come to a Union-occupied city, but they helped an Ohio banker relocate here in 1864. Frank Davis established First National Bank, which later became First Tennessee, now known as First Horizon.
What’s more, Chamber officials realized the war couldn’t last much longer, so they wrote directly to President Abraham Lincoln. After complaining that “the state of insurrection had brought restrictions on our trade and commerce,” they urged the president to consider Memphis as “justly entitled to all the rights, privileges, and advantages of any loyal city.”
Lincoln’s response is not on record. When the war ended, however, the local newspaper reported, “Near the end of martial law — to be exact, June 18, 1865 — Col. W.M. Farrington successfully brought about the reorganization of the Chamber of Commerce.” As a result, members elected him the new president.
After the war, the Chamber focused on getting the city on sound financial footing and continued working to attract more railroads. “Memphis in 1871 was feeling jubilant over the laying of the last bar of iron on the track of the Memphis & Little Rock Railroad,” reported the Daily Appeal. “The old road had suffered all but complete extinction during the Civil War.”
postcard courtesy vance lauderdale
The first Peabody Hotel was located on Main Street.
During this period, the Chamber also moved into the Peabody Hotel. “Col. R.A. Pinson was its president, and perhaps never in its history did it boast a membership of more distinguished men,” which included “all the railroad presidents whose lines ran out of Memphis, bankers, and capitalists who were actively engaged in promoting the interests of Memphis.” In short, “The organization was engaged in undertakings which even in 1930 would be considered Herculean.”
In his first speech to members, Pinson told them, “A new business decade is just commencing and promises a rich reward to enterprising businessmen of Memphis. I could suggest no surer instrument for the proper management of our trade than the wise counsel to be secured by consultation with your committee, and by the activities of the entire Chamber.”
During this period, Chamber members played key roles in laying the riverfront cobblestones, spanning the Mississippi with the Frisco Bridge (North America’s longest bridge when it opened in 1892), and opening the Central Railroad Depot.
Memphis had become the fastest-growing city in the South, competing with New Orleans and Atlanta, when tragedy struck with the 1878 yellow fever epidemic. Doctors knew neither cause nor cure of this disease, which killed thousands in a few months. So many people fled the city that the state government revoked the city charter, turning Memphis into a taxing district. It would remain in this precarious financial position until regaining its charter in 1891, with the first $1,000 municipal bond purchased by businessman Robert R. Church, the South’s first African-American millionaire.
HISTORIC JET PACK DEMONSTRATION COPYRIGHT © 2023 MEMPHIS HERITAGE, INC. / MRS. DON NEWMAN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
By 1900, the population here reached 100,000, but other events limited the city’s growth. World War One drew many able-bodied men and women away; many never returned. The Spanish flu swept over the region — just as the yellow fever before it — taking many lives. Once again the city shut down, with businesses closed, public gatherings banned, and the new Central High School converted into a hospital. Then came massive floods in 1927 (and again in 1937) that ruined farmland, destroyed homes, and displaced thousands.
During these challenging times, the Chamber remained active. Promoting Memphis nationally as “The Wonder City of the South,” hard-working members lured major industries to Memphis, which would remain here for decades and employ thousands at good wages. Among them were the Virginia and Carolina Chemical Company, Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, the Fisher Body Division of General Motors, and Armour & Company. Other businesses were more “home-grown,” founded by Memphians, such as the Humko Company and Plough (later Schering-Plough).
Airplanes hadn’t yet shown practical benefits in the early 1900s, but Chamber officials understood their significance. They supported Park Field north of the city, a small airfield which would add aviation to the city’s river and rail transportation network. The Chamber even brought Col. Charles Lindbergh to speak in Court Square after his daring solo flight across the Atlantic. With the development of Memphis Municipal Airport, the Chamber helped Memphis enter the Air Age.
postcard courtesy vance lauderdale
The original Cotton Exchange Building.
The Chamber formed other organizations to help with its myriad duties. Among them were the Cotton Exchange, Merchants Exchange, and Business Men’s Club. The Merchants Exchange reported, “The City of Memphis now has 55 miles of paved streets and 130 miles of sewers, the latter built since 1878. Between 25,000 and 30,000 souls are sustained through the wage outlay of industrial enterprises of the city.” The Business Men’s Club strove to promote Memphis as the “Convention City of the South.” Members led a ten-year effort to build the Memphis Auditorium (later known as Ellis Auditorium and now home to the Renascent Convention Center).
One of the BMC members gained national fame by inventing the first self-service grocery. Piggly Wiggly made Clarence Saunders a millionaire, and his former home has survived as the Pink Palace, part of the Museum of Science and History (MoSH) complex.
In the early 1900s, Chamber organizations encouraged plans to open the West Tennessee State Normal School (known today as the University of Memphis), along with medical and dental schools that would later merge into the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
Memphis weathered the Great Depression, aided by an aggressive “Program of Progress” campaign. In its 1932 annual report, Chamber officials were blunt: “These are times when men and their businesses are sorely tried and sternly tested. Everywhere the urge is strong to cut expenses to the bone. And maybe even throw the bone away.”
Even so, the Chamber announced dramatic progress. In the past year, its members had helped bring to Memphis “nine new factories, investing $265,000, occupying 139,000 square feet of factory space, with 1933 payrolls totaling $312,000. In other words, more than ONE-HALF MILLION DOLLARS in new money.” The report pointed out that “these new factories will employ Memphis labor, spend money for supplies, rentals, and raw materials in Memphis — at no cost whatever to you but the sum spent on industrial progress through your Chamber of Commerce.”
Even during the Depression, businesses held conventions here. In 1932, more than 31,000 people visited, adding more than $2 million to the local economy. The Chamber’s convention staff would later form its own organization, the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau, known today as Memphis Tourism.
Other economic development groups that branched off from the Chamber included the Center City Commission (now the Downtown Memphis Commission), the Mid-South Minority Business Council, the Riverfront Development Council (now Memphis River Parks Partnership), and the Memphis in May International Festival. In fact, Chamber officials now select MIM’s honored country; for 2024, Memphis will salute the nation of France.
New York Times advertisements selling Memphis to the nation. Members of the Chamber played key roles in the development of the Defense Depot on Airways, Kennedy General Hospital on Getwell, and the Chickasaw Ordnance gunpowder factory near Millington. The Fisher Body Works plant in North Memphis began producing bombers instead of car bodies.
After the war, the city enjoyed a boom time, with 41 new industries. International Harvester opened a $20 million plant in Frayser. DuPont began construction of a multimillion-dollar chemical factory on Highway 51 North. Kellogg constructed new facilities here, and Kimberly-Clark Corporation, the nation’s largest tissue manufacturer, moved into the old Fisher Body plant.
In 1948, the Jack Carley Causeway linked Presidents Island to Memphis. The once-barren area quickly became the city’s largest industrial complex, a 7,500-acre home to heavy industries whose products could be shipped on barges to ports up and down the Mississippi River.
photograph courtesy st. jude
Other expansions changed the face of the city. In 1962, entertainer Danny Thomas chose Memphis as the site of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, a worldwide leader in medicine. Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, Methodist Hospital, and Baptist Memorial Hospital greatly expanded their operations in the Medical Center and opened locations in other areas of town.
By this time, the federal interstate highway system had connected Memphis to the east, west, north, and south. Another development would tie Memphis to cities around the globe. On April 17, 1973, Federal Express began operations, using 14 small cargo aircraft and delivering just 186 packages. Today, FedEx operates a fleet of more than 650 jets, delivering more than 10 million packages every night.
In 1969 the Chamber launched the $4 million Greater Memphis Program, which expanded its operations across the community, taking a leading role in efforts to heal race relations. A few years later, the Downtown Council would bring new energy to the Central Business District. As part of that effort, the organization moved into modern new headquarters on Beale Street.
During the 1980s, the Chamber touted Memphis as “America’s Distribution Center” to entice companies who appreciated the city’s central location and easy access to river, rail, and air. In fact, thanks to a $500 million expansion by FedEx, Memphis International Airport was consistently ranked the world’s busiest air cargo airport.
National businesses and organizations moved to town over the years, including Williams-Sonoma, Ducks Unlimited, Thomas & Betts, Birmingham Steel, and Ingram Micro.
As a direct result of so much commercial expansion, Memphis earned well-deserved accolades from a wide variety of sources. American Heritage named this city “The Great American Place.” Inc. magazine ranked Memphis the seventh “Best City in America for Starting and Growing a Business.” Partners for Liveable Communities selected Memphis and Shelby County “one of America’s best places to live, work, and play.” And the Chronicle of Philanthropy ranked Memphis the fifth most generous community for charitable giving.
All of this momentum only brings us up to the twenty-first century. The past 20-plus years have arguably seen greater progress than any other era.
photograph by justin fox burks
New owners hope to bring new life to the Sterick Building.
Consider the transformation of a desolate Sears warehouse into Midtown’s Crosstown Concourse, complete with retail, commercial, and residential spaces. A similar project is underway Downtown, as new owners of the sorely neglected 29-story Sterick Building hope to restore life to the former “Queen of Memphis.”
Important developments have affected patrons of the arts — or will soon. In Overton Park, Memphis College of Art closed, but the Metal Museum plans to move into the complex. Meanwhile, its park neighbor, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, broke ground in September on a brand-new riverbluff facility, with a new name — the Memphis Museum of Art. Another park landmark, the Overton Park Shell, has been refurbished and has even developed a mobile component, “Shell on Wheels,” to bring productions to other parts of the city.
The city’s three major dance companies — New Ballet Ensemble, Collage Dance, and Ballet Memphis — recently moved into new facilities, and the latter’s modern headquarters helped jumpstart the rejuvenation of Overton Square. The Germantown Performing Arts Center, Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, and The Orpheum, with its contemporary Halloran Center, bring a full slate of stage productions to the Memphis area.
Music has always played a major role in Memphis’ history. The Stax Museum of American Soul Music, in conjunction with the Stax Music Academy, has introduced new generations of music lovers to the hits produced here. Elvis Presley’s enduring legacy draws thousands of fans worldwide to Graceland, which recently added the Heartbreak Hotel and a new museum complex.
For outdoor enthusiasts, Shelby Farms Park has seen major improvements, including a modern new visitors center, but the biggest change to our cityscape is the rejuvenated Tom Lee Park. Our city’s front porch reopened to much fanfare in October, a $60 million project of the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
A few blocks north, The Pyramid now houses Bass Pro Shops’ retail operations, complete with observation deck and hotel. Big River Crossing invites bikers and pedestrians to cross the Mississippi on a walkway attached to the 1914 Harahan Bridge, formerly a railroad span. Every night, that bridge’s spectacular light show competes with the “Mighty Lights” display on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge upriver.
Sports fans have enjoyed new opportunities. Redbirds enthusiasts flock to AutoZone Park, while just a few blocks away, Grizzlies fans watch the city’s NBA team compete in FedExForum. Across town at Audubon Park, tennis players take advantage of the new Tennis Memphis facility with 36 courts inside and out, and in Germantown, TopGolf lets players track their game by computer.
In the world of business, Ford Motor Company is constructing a $6 billion industrial complex called BlueOval City, to manufacture its electric F-150 and the truck’s batteries. The project will employ thousands and inject millions into the local economy.
photograph courtesy greater memphis chamber
Ted Townsend, CEO and president of the Greater Memphis Chamber.
In 2024, Ted Townsend is already planning for 2030. The president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber and his team are working on the “Prosper Memphis 2030” strategic plan.
“When we are celebrating New Year’s Eve that year,” he says, “I want us to look back and say that the Chamber was leading the way in the creation of 50,000 new high-quality jobs in our region, and also say that 50 percent of those jobs were filled by minorities within our community.”
By high-quality jobs, he means “advanced industry operations — companies that represent automation, robotics, machine learning, research and development, and yes, artificial intelligence.” Filling these jobs will require a workforce that has the necessary high-tech skills, “so that means we have to produce 20,000 STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] graduates per year.”
Townsend is confident that goal is within reach. “We will be in a different Memphis by 2030,” he says. “I hope we will represent a community that has the highest median income for African Americans in the United States.”
That’s not something in the distant future; in some sectors it’s already happening. Townsend cites BlueOval, which will provide 15,000 jobs, noting, “Ford had to buy in and understand the promise of Memphis. So what we’ve seen is an economy that is not recovering, and it is not emerging. It is in high-growth mode right now.”
In August 2023, the national organization Gusto, which tracks employment trends, reported a 2.1 percent growth rate for Memphis. That places this city at the number-one spot of the fastest-growing cities in the United States, followed by Cincinnati, Buffalo, Detroit, and Riverside, California.
“Our focus at the Chamber is to radiate the narrative of Memphis globally,” says Townsend, “so when businesses consider where to invest, where to create jobs, where to expand their operations, the answer is: Memphis.”
The Chamber currently has more than 50 viable projects “in the pipeline,” and Townsend notes that for the past three years Business Facilities magazine has ranked Memphis first in supply-chain logistics. “If you’re a company that makes anything, you need raw material to come in, you need a world-class workforce, and you need to get your product to the end-user — the client or customer. Well, who’s better than Memphis, where you have all four modes of transportation — river, rail, roadway, and air? And the geography speaks for itself.”
“America’s Distribution Center” is an accurate description, with 95 percent of the world’s products only 72 hours away, thanks to FedEx, five class-one railroads, and the fifth largest inland port in the U.S. (Presidents Island).
Years ago, Memphis was a manufacturing center, but then major industries like Firestone and International Harvester shut down. That’s all in the past, according to Townsend. “The prospect of bringing those back is incredibly exciting,” he says, “because now they will be successful in getting their products in and out. They will have a skilled workforce. Memphis is one of the most affordable cities in the U.S., so your income will go farther here than anywhere else.”
There are other factors to consider. “We lead the nation in the percentage of African Americans in manufacturing,” he says. “We lead the nation in the percentage of females in manufacturing. So if diversity, equity, and inclusion are a primary focus for these new companies, Memphis will help them accomplish their goals.”
Not many Memphians are fully aware of the business power already centered in our city. Five Fortune 1000 companies have headquarters here — FedEx, International Paper, AutoZone, First Horizon, and Mueller Industries — with many name-brand publicly traded companies located here as well, including Terminix, Varsity Spirit, Hilton, and others. The world’s leading medical device firms, such as Medtronic, Smith & Nephew, and Stryker, have manufacturing operations here.
Back in 1819, when those three gentlemen from Nashville decided to build a new city overlooking the Mississippi River, could they possibly have envisioned the metropolis that stands today on the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff? Almost from the very beginning, members of the Greater Memphis Chamber have been a part of that journey. “Other groups have recently called Memphis one of the hottest cities in the country for companies to look at,” says Townsend. “Our future is growth-minded, and I think will be surprising to the people who live here.”
photograph courtesy paul young
Memphis Mayor Paul Young.
A native Memphian, Paul Young knows that Memphis has faced — and overcome — its share of challenges, from yellow fever epidemics to floods, and now finds himself in a unique position to confront them. The president and CEO of the Downtown Memphis Commission was elected mayor of Memphis in October.
During the Civil War, Memphis actually fared better than other Southern cities like New Orleans, which had its port shut down, or Atlanta, with its railroad terminals and businesses burned to the ground by the Union forces.
But look at Atlanta now, Young says. “It has a completely different image because they were steadfast in creating a strong economy and providing more opportunities for its citizens. In fact, it’s often cited as a mecca of opportunity for African Americans, in particular. We can do the same here.”
The new mayor thinks Atlanta can serve as a model for the Bluff City. “Memphis was recently named the largest city for African Americans per capita in the country,” he says. “My goal is to ensure that we embrace that designation — turn it into one that invokes pride, and thoughts of Black wealth, entrepreneurship, and culture.”
“And that’s what we are going to do in the new administration,” he continues. “We are going to change the perception of how Memphians feel about our city, and that is going to change the perception of how visitors and the rest of the world view our city.”
A major emphasis of his new administration, he notes, is that “we still have a ways to go to help the Black business owners and entrepreneurs here. Despite a 65 percent Black population, they still haven’t seen the business receipts that their white counterparts are seeing.”
One goal is to grow women- and minority-owned businesses in our city. “We know that African-American firms are more likely to hire African Americans,” he says, “and we need to employ more African Americans.”
But he is quite emphatic about articulating this message: “When we build other businesses, we are not trying to take a piece of the pie away from another person,” he says. “It’s not about taking away; it’s about adding — growing the whole pie for everybody.”
This city’s diversity is our strength. Young asks, “Where else in America can you go that offers this level of diversity? One of the statistics that came out of a Chamber study is that Memphis has more Black and female technical talent per capita than any city in the country, and what we’ve always said at the Downtown Memphis Commission is that diversity is our superpower. That’s something my administration is going to use moving forward as we recruit even more business to our city.”
Memphians have to “lean into that diversity,” he says. “That way, we will bring more people to the table, and the more dialogue we have, the more conversations we have about Memphis, the more we will accomplish.”
Paul Young will serve as mayor of a city with a rich history. “I do believe people across the world recognize Memphis for our culture, our music, our civil rights efforts,” he says. “But I also want them to know that Memphis is not just about its history. It’s about its now, and the current opportunities that exist that will allow them to thrive here.”
