Editor’s Note: Some might tell you that Memphis is the biggest small town in America. We would say that Memphis is a patchwork of small towns — in the form of distinctive neighborhoods — stitched closely together into the form of a city. So we’re highlighting some of the city’s best towns, if you will, by spotlighting some of our classic neighborhoods. Maybe this will remind you to revisit an area you don’t call home, or to identify more strongly with the one you do.
The other neighborhoods we’ve spotlighted here are nice indeed. But if you want a place with oddities and attractions unlike anything else in Memphis — no, make that anywhere else in the country — take a close look at Whitehaven, past and present.
It’s hard to believe this sprawling hub of commerce — today it seems a vast complex of trucking companies, car dealerships, warehouses, and various industries — was originally laid out as a residential development — a place to escape the “big city” north of Nonconnah Creek. Hoyt Wooten certainly thought so. Don’t remember the name? Well, the owner of the Wooten Radio Electric Corporation — better known as WREG, this city’s first radio and TV station — built a Spanish Revival mansion on Highway 51 South. Nothing too unusual about that, but in the 1950s, nervous about the Cold War, Wooten constructed the world’s largest private bomb shelter beneath his backyard. This 13-room concrete bunker was spacious enough to hold 50 of his closest friends, with enough supplies to live underground for two months.
Do I really need to name a considerably more famous Memphian who also sought refuge in Whitehaven? Weary of fans jamming his East Memphis neighborhood hoping for a glimpse of the future King of Rock-and-Roll, Elvis Presley moved down the street from Wooten. For $102,000 — a fortune in 1957 — Elvis bought the old white-columned Toof mansion, perched on a hill alongside Highway 51. He quickly transformed it into Graceland, and though it’s traditional on the outside, two words suggest how distinctive it is inside: Jungle Room. But smirk all you want at the interior design; as far as we’re concerned, anybody who sold as many records as Elvis was entitled to do what he wanted with his own house, now the centerpiece of a sprawling complex of hotels and museums that have drawn millions of visitors here from around the globe.
That’s two entrepreneurs who called Whitehaven home, but plenty of other Memphians — Whitehaven was annexed in 1970 — started rather unusual business ventures here. Starting at Airways and Democrat, you could dine at a World War Two-themed establishment built to resemble a bombed-out French villa called the 91st Bomb Group Restaurant. Then turn onto Brooks Road and catch a show and a meal at the Olde West Dinner Theater, grab a beer and pizza at Shakey’s, play 18 holes of golf (in the dark, if you preferred) at an illuminated course open 24 hours a day, or take a spin at the Skatehaven roller rink.
Another attraction, not for the kiddies, was just a block away from Brooks — Hernando’s Hide-A-Way, a genuine honkytonk that became like a second home to Jerry Lee Lewis. If the Killer didn’t entertain you, then you could plunk your money down on what we’ll call Chicken Squat Bingo. But the word wasn’t squat, and we think you can figure out how the numbers were, uh, selected.
Yes, this and more — including our city’s first indoor shopping mall — were happening down in Whitehaven. And while we’re talking about entrepreneurs, let’s mention one of our own. Bob Towery, publisher of the Whitehaven Press, embarked on a bold venture in April 1976. That’s when the premiere issue of this magazine rolled off the presses — on Brooks Road, where else? We started life in Whitehaven, and quite frankly, we’re proud to be in the same league as Hoyt and Elvis and Jerry Lee and all those bingo chickens.
