Steve Pike, Mayor Jim Strickland, an Maria Munoz-Blanco
Photos by Michael Donahue / story by Jesse Davis
The Memphis Pink Palace Museum is as iconic in our city as Elvis’ pink Cadillac, pulled pork barbecue, and The Peabody ducks. Recently, the complex on Central Avenue began a series of upgrades, starting with the relatively newer features, including the former IMAX theater — now a CTI Giant Theater with 3D capabilities — and the planetarium.
Grace and Ryan Henderson with baby Cooper
Most recently, the older section known as the “Mansion,” which was once the entire museum, has been renovated, reorganized, and remodeled. After a months-long closure to complete the ambitious project, the Pink Palace celebrated the grand reopening of the Mansion on Saturday, December 8th, after an exclusive members-only preview the previous Thursday.
Steve Masler, manager of exhibits at the Pink Palace, helped supervise the renovation of the Mansion. “Renovation is too simple a word,” Masler says. “We’re changing the mindset of the way we’re presenting things all over the museum.” The work is part of a carefully considered plan to update the museum as a whole to make better use of its space and resources.
“We began planning this close to five years ago,” Masler says, explaining that he and Caroline Carrico, exhibits project coordinator, went back to the drawing board, beginning by hanging giant sheets of paper on the wall of a conference room to make outlines. In some ways, Masler says, the project began in “the normal way any exhibit would be done. But this was a little more scary. This is an icon of Memphis, and I didn’t want to be the one who broke it.” All the work Masler, Carrico, and their team put into the project was to “develop a storyline,” which, Masler says, “became the Mansion telling its own story.”
Steve Masler
That’s a story that many Memphians already know: In the early 1900s, Memphis businessman Clarence Saunders made a fortune with his invention of the first self-service grocery store, Piggly Wiggly. He then brought in stonemasons from Scotland to began construction on the largest private home in Memphis. Before the pink-granite residence was finished, however, one of the hundreds of stores in what had become a national franchise failed. Investors in the stock market used the relatively isolated failure as an excuse to try to short-sell the Piggly Wiggly stock — for a profit, of course.
“Saunders did not play well with others,” Masler says, explaining that the businessman tried to corner the market on his own shares, borrowing money to do so, and was left with a $20 million debt. The entire story is fascinating — and fascinatingly detailed in the exhibits of the updated Mansion — but the short version is that Saunders was forced to declare bankruptcy. Standing at the edge of what would become Chickasaw Gardens, the unfinished Mansion — which Memphians dubbed the “Pink Palace” — was sold at auction, purchased by the Garden Corporation. After touring a cluttery museum in downtown’s Cossitt Library, in 1927 Helm Bruce, the Garden Corporation chairman, donated the newly acquired property to the city of Memphis. The Pink Palace opened to the public as the city’s museum in 1930. Major expansions, in 1977 and 1994, provided more exhibit space.
Jason, Melissa, and David Gilbert
The updated Mansion walks visitors through an early American country store, much like the one Saunders worked in when he was young, followed by a full-scale replica of one of his first Piggly Wiggly stores. The smaller rooms and exhibits in the Mansion are connected by a walkway reminiscent of Memphis’ Main Street in the 1920s. That’s where visitors will find one of W.C. Handy’s trumpets and a stained-glass window from one of the first African-American-owned stores in Memphis, the beautiful glass shining after more than 30 hours of restoration work.
Many of the museum’s well-known oddities previously displayed in the Mansion — the shrunken head, stuffed tropical birds, and ornate glass — now reside in a wing dedicated to former museum directors of the Pink Palace, telling the story of the evolution of the museum as its mission became more regionally focused. As visitors walk through, what grows increasingly clear is how the story of the Pink Palace mirrors the story of Memphis.
Elise Frick and Lee and Annette Askew
The crown jewel of the updated Mansion is the Clyde Parke Miniature Circus, restored and enshrined in its own room. The stuffed polar bear, which previously guarded the Mansion’s entryway, now resides in the circus room, facing the animal menagerie, an example of the staff’s attention to detail. Masler led visitors to the room just in time to watch the parade of circus performers move around the ring.
As the delicate wooden figures, hand-carved by Parke more than 40 years ago, come to life, the intricate machinery controlling them is visible in mirrors beneath the platform. The workings of the elaborate circus are as entrancing as the thing itself. The colorful parade marches twice around the circus, taking six minutes to do so.
Masler says the design is meant to suggest a “tiny circus in a giant jewel box,” proudly on display for a rapt audience, much like the Pink Palace puts the story of Memphis on display for visitors.
