Annesdale Park Subdivision In Memphis TN

Developed as an exclusive neighborhood in 1903 by Brinkley Snowden and T.O. Vinton, Annesdale Park was the first subdivision in the South planned upon metropolitan lines. It was considered an important display of confidence in the city's future. Early residents included Tennessee Governor Malcolm R. Patterson and State Supreme Court Justice Arthur S. Buchanan.

Annesdale-Snowden 1906

The vision of early developers of Memphis is seen in this classic example of turn-of-the-century neighborhood of American four-squares and bungalows. A combination of two subdivisions, South Annesdale (1906) & Snowden Homestead (1910), the area was developed by brothers Brinkley & J.B. Snowden on land surrounding the family home, Annesdale (1855).

The subject site is a 7.18 acre parcel situated along the south side of Lamar Avenue, just east of Bellevue Boulevard. The site is occupied by the Annesdale Snowden Home which was constructed in 1850 and established by the Snowden Homestead Subdivision. The applicant is requesting to utilize the existing structure as his primary residence as well as be allowed to lease limited areas of the house, and more generously, the grounds for private events such as weddings, wedding receptions, and corporate retreats. The principal structure encompasses more than 8,600 square feet of floor area with over 7 acres of planned gardens and vegetation.

Annesdale Snowden - Memphis, TN

The Annesdale Snowden Historic District is a combination of two early twentieth century subdivisions developed by the Snowden family on land surrounding Annesdale, their family home. The origins of the neighborhood can be traced back to 1850 when Dr. Samuel Mansfield built an Italianate mansion on the outskirts of Memphis on a knoll above the stage route to Mississippi. In 1869, Colonel Robert C. Brinkley bought the home as a wedding gift to his daughter, Annie Overton Brinkley, and her new husband, Colonel Robert Bogardus Snowden. The two hundred acre estate was called Annesdale in her honor.

Colonel Snowden and his sons, John and Robert, built "Annesdale Park" in 1903, recognized as "the first subdivision in the South." After this successful venture, the Snowden brothers developed the Snowden Homestead Subdivision in 1910. The streets were named after the children and the exclusive lots sold for top prices. The homes in Snowden Homestead featured all of the modern conveniences of the era.

Annesdale Snowden comprises nearly 200 early twentieth century homes in a virtually intact setting. Few houses have been added since 1931. This unique, historic setting was recognized by the United States Department of the interior in 1979 when the area was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The City of Memphis recognized the historical importance of the area in 1983 by designating Annesdale Snowden a Memphis Landmark, the first residential neighborhood to be so honored.

Today the area thrives. Significant renovation and restoration of the area's houses have led to a vital, close-knit neighborhood. In Annesdale Snowden, the neighborhood gathers for events monthly such as family-friendly cocktail hour; neighborhood picnics; garage sales; meetings; Easter-egg hunts and holiday parties. Former neighborhood association president Ian Randolph stresses the importance of regular activities, which "creates a safe community, maintains and increases our property value, and add to our residents' quality of life."



Colonel Robert Bogardus Snowden – the first one – poses with other Confederate Army officers; the date and location are unkown. He's the one in the middle, with the sword across his lap. - photograph courtesy Snowden Family

History of Annesdale Mansion

Dr. Samuel Mansfield built the Annesdale Mansion, an Italianate Villa, in 1850. Considered a historic residence, the Annesdale is one of the largest and oldest homes to grace the Memphis area.
It is located in the Annesdale Snowden Historic District. The Snowden family developed this landmark neighborhood during the early twentieth century.

Colonel Robert C. Brinkley bought the estate as a wedding present for his daughter Annie Overton Brinkley, and her husband, Colonel Robert Bogardus Snowden. He named the estate “Annesdale” in her honor.  The Annesdale Mansion and its gardens were home to the prominent Snowden family for more than 160 years. It even served as a Civil War hospital.

In 2010, Ken Robison purchased Annesdale.  Since then, he has gone to great lengths to restore Annesdale back to its former glory.  He preserved the hand painted 14-foot ceilings, Aubusson window treatments and several 9-foot oil painted panels and many other priceless attributes that make the Annesdale Mansion so authentic.

Certain renovations were made to facilitate Annesdale as an event venue. Ken had central heat and air installed, as well as a full catering kitchen. Annesdale was also made handicap accessible.

Annesdale Mansion was thrilled to open its gates to the public Fall 2013! By sharing the history and beauty of the Annesdale Mansion, it will live on as one of Memphis’s most historic treasures.  Let our history be a part of your future.

Click Here to visit the Facebook page of the Annesdale Mansion for Weddings and Events.

 

 

 

The Story Of Annie Cook

 

Annie Cook, prostitute and nurse whose real name is unknown, was reportedly an attractive woman of German descent who grew up in Ohio. She worked for a family in Kentucky, where she was remembered for aiding impoverished smallpox victims. After the Civil War, Cook moved to Memphis and operated Mansion House, an upscale brothel on Gayoso Street. In 1872 her bagnio was one of eighteen in the city.

When the yellow fever epidemic struck Memphis in 1873, Cook dismissed her girls, opened her elegant house to patients, and nursed them through the fever. She repeated her charitable act during the more devastating epidemic of 1878, gaining a reputation for expertise in caring for victims of the disease. Two of her "female inmates" followed her example and volunteered as nurses. Newspaper reports focused attention on Cook's sacrifices; even the "Christian Women of Louisville" commended her generosity and the example she set. On September 5, 1878, Cook contracted yellow fever. She died on September 11.



The Howard Association, a local relief organization, later showed its regard by moving her grave to the association's plot in Elmwood Cemetery. In the Memphis Appeal of September 17, 1878, she was lauded in Victorian fashion as a converted sinner: "Out of sin, the woman, in all the tenderness and fullness of her womanhood, merged, transfigured and purified, to become the healer."



Yellow Fever Epidemic

Epidemic diseases caused great concern for nineteenth-century Tennesseans. Subject to outbreaks of cholera, smallpox, and dysentery, people lived with the stark reality of disease-induced death, especially in the growing urban areas where sanitation was often poor. For residents of West Tennessee, and particularly Memphis, yellow fever posed the greatest threat. The disease caused fevers, chills, hemorrhaging, severe pains, and sometimes a jaundicing of the skin, which gave yellow fever its name. The trademark of the disease, however, was the victim's black vomit, composed of blood and stomach acids. Although its cause was unknown until 1900, yellow fever was transmitted from person to person by the female Aedes aegypti mosquito. Sailors on ships from the Caribbean or West Africa, from which the disease most likely originated, docked in New Orleans, where mosquitoes spread the disease from the infected person to the local population. River traffic carried yellow fever up the Mississippi Valley as long as mosquitoes were available to transmit the disease from human to human. Reprieve came only with the first frost.

Although Memphis had been exposed to yellow fever in 1828, 1855, and 1867, nothing prepared the city for the devastation the fever brought during the 1870's. An 1873 epidemic claimed 2,000 in Memphis, a number which constituted at the time the most yellow fever victims in an inland city. In 1878 a mild winter, a long spring, and a torrid summer produced favorable conditions for the breeding of Aedes aegypti and thus the spread of the fever. When New Orleans newspapers reported an epidemic in late July, Memphis officials established checkpoints at major points of entry into the city.

The efforts at quarantine were not extensive enough, though, and, in any event, most likely came too late. Yellow fever cases were probably developing on the fringes of Memphis as early as late July, and by August 13 the first death was reported in the city itself. With the horrors of the 1873 epidemic fresh on their minds, roughly 25,000 residents fled the city within two weeks. The fever raged in Memphis until mid-October, infecting over 17,000 and killing 5,150. Over 90 percent of whites who remained contracted yellow fever, and roughly 70 percent of these died. Long thought to be immune to the disease, blacks contracted the fever in large numbers as well in 1878, although only 7 percent of infected blacks died. While there is still no consensus among experts explaining this racial disparity in mortality rates, it is likely that repeated exposure to yellow fever over many generations in West Africa provided many blacks with a higher resistance to the disease.

Fleeing Memphians encountered quarantines throughout the South. Some of these, like the one at Jackson, Tennessee, were successful in keeping the disease from spreading. But like the attempts at quarantine in Memphis, most of these efforts were not thorough enough. Hardest hit were the Tennessee towns along the various railroads leading out of Memphis. Germantown, Moscow, Milan, Collierville, Paris, Brownsville, Martin, and LaGrange each experienced staggering losses relative to the size of their communities. Traveling along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad, the fever even spread to a swampy slum district of Chattanooga, causing 8,000 of the city's residents to flee.

Long after cold weather brought relief from the fever, Memphis still felt the effects of the epidemic. Yellow fever exacerbated the already dismal financial situation in the city to the point that the legislature revoked the Memphis city charter in 1879. The fever also contributed to substantial declines in the Irish and German communities as well as the general population. Despite all the horrors, however, the impact of yellow fever on Memphis was not all negative. Leaders of the black community were able to use their numerical advantage during the fever to place blacks on the police force as patrolmen for the first time in the city's history. Contrary to the prevailing trend in other southern cities where blacks disappeared from police forces soon after Reconstruction ended, blacks remained on the force in Memphis until 1895. Perhaps most importantly, after yellow fever visited the city once again in 1879, Memphis leaders embarked on ambitious sanitation reform. Although the fact that yellow fever did not strike the city in epidemic proportions again is less the product of sanitary reforms than of the immunity acquired by many in the Mid-South during 1878, the new sewer systems and better water supply did do wonders for public health as a whole, particularly in preventing outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, and other water-borne diseases.

There were many stories of heroism that arose out of the Yellow Fever outbreaks of the late 19th century, but none stand-out as much as the story of Annie Cook.

Cook, whose real name is lost to history, moved to Memphis following the Civil War and took up the infamous position of Madame at the Mansion House brothel. The brothel was a well-known fixture on Gayoso Street and regarded as an upscale establishment, catering to the wealthy gentleman of the community.

In 1873 this world came to a sudden halt as a Yellow Fever epidemic took hold of Memphis. Many people fled the city for the safety of the country. Some stayed behind to help victims, including Cook. She dismissed her girls and turned the once upscale brothel into a hospital to treat the victims of the disease.

When an even more devastating Yellow Fever epidemic struck in 1878, Cook again closed the Mansion House and turned it into a hospital. Inspired by her unselfish giving, several of her employees stayed to work in that effort, too.

Cook caught the attention of local reporters, who told of her good deeds, leading to a commendation from the Christian Women of Louisville. Unfortunately, Cook contracted Yellow Fever in the 1878 outbreak and died on September 11. Her work, however, was not forgotten.

The Howard Association, a Memphis relief organization, showed their respects for Cook by having her grave moved to Elmwood Cemetery, a spot more befitting the heroin of Mansion House.

Source: tennesseeencyclopedia.net 

America The Beautiful

America

America The Beautiful

O beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above thy fruited plain

America, America
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea

For beautiful for spacious skies
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain
America, America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crowned thy good, with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

I am the flag of the United States of America

My name is Old Glory.
I fly atop the world's tallest buildings.
I stand watch in America's halls of justice.
I fly majestically over institutions of learning.
I stand guard with power in the world.

Look up at me and see me.
I stand for peace, honor, truth and justice.
I stand for freedom.  I am confident.
I am arrogant.  I am proud.

When I am flown with my fellow banners,
my head is a little higher, my colors
 a little truer. I bow to no one!

I am recognized all over the world.
I am worshipped - I am saluted.
I am loved - I am revered.
I am respected - and I am feared.

I have fought in every battle of every
war for more then 200 years.
I was flown at Valley Forge,
 Gettysburg, Shiloh and Appamatox.
I was there at San Juan Hill, the trenches of France,
 in the Argonne Forest, Anzio, Rome and the
 beaches of Normandy, Guam. 
And yes, Okinawa, Korea, Khe Sanh & Saigon.

Yes, I was there.  I led my troops.
I was dirty, battleworn and tired,
but my soldiers cheered me
and I was proud.

I have been burned, torn and trampled
on the streets of countries
I have helped set free.
It does not hurt, for I am invincible.

I have been soiled upon, burned, torn
and trampled on the streets of my country.
And when it's by those whom
I've served in battle - it hurts.
But I shall overcome - for I am strong.

I have slipped the bonds of Earth
and stood watch over the uncharted
frontiers of space from my vantage
point on the moon.
I have borne silent witness
to all of America's finest hours. 
But my finest hours are yet to come.

When I am torn into strips and used as bandages
for my wounded comrades on the battlefield,
When I am flown at half-mast to honor my soldiers,
Or when I lie in the trembling arms of a grieving
parent at the grave
of their fallen son or daughter, I am proud.

My name is Old Glory, long may I wave.
Dear God in heaven, long may I wave.

Independence Day History

Timeline For Independence

 

On July 4, 1776, thirteen colonies claimed independence
from England 's King George III.  And thus was born the
mightiest nation on earth: The United States of America.

Leading up to the signing, there had been growing unrest
in the colonies surrounding the taxes that the American colonists
were required to pay to England . The major objection was
'Taxation without Representation': the colonists had no say
in the decisions of the English Parliament since they did not
send representative to sit in the English House of Commons.

Rather than attempting to negotiate a satisfactory settlement,
King George sent troops to the colonies to quell any rebellion
that might break out.  The following timeline will give you some
idea of the history that lead to the signing of the Declaration
of Independence and America 's break away from British rule.

 

1774 - The 13 colonies send delegates to Philadelphia ,
Pennsylvania to form the First Continental Congress.
While unrest was brewing, the colonies were far from ready to declare war.

April 1775 - King George's troops advance on Concord , Massachusetts ,
prompting Paul Revere's midnight ride that sounded the alarm:
"The British are coming, the British are coming."
Thus began the American Revolution at the battle of Concord .

May 1776 - After nearly a year of trying to settle their
differences with England , the colonies, once again,
send delegates to the Second Continental Congress.

June 1776 - Admitting that their efforts were hopeless,
a committee was formed to compose the formal Declaration of Independence.
Headed by Thomas Jefferson, the committee also included John Adams,
Benjamin Franklin, Philip Livingston and Roger Sherman.

June 28, 1776 - Jefferson presents the first draft
of the declaration to congress.

July 4, 1776 - After various changes to Jefferson 's original draft,
a vote was taken late in the afternoon of July 4th. Of the 13 colonies,
9 voted in favor of the Declaration; 2, Pennsylvania and
South Carolina voted No; Delaware was undecided and New York abstained.
John Hancock, President of the Continental Congress,
was the first to sign the Declaration of Independence.
It is said that he signed his name "with a great flourish"
so "King George can read that without spectacles!"

July 6, 1776 - The Pennsylvania Evening Post is the first newspaper
 to print the Declaration of Independence.

July 8, 1776 - The first public reading of the declaration takes
place in Philadelphia 's Independence Square . The bell in Independence Hall,
then known as the "Province Bell" would later be renamed the "Liberty Bell" after its inscription -
"Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants Thereof. "

August 1776 - The task begun on July 4, the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, was not actually completed until August.
Nonetheless, the 4th of July has been accepted as the
official anniversary of United States independence from Britain .

July 4, 1777 - The first Independence Day celebration takes place.
It's interesting to speculate what those first 4th festivities were like.
By the early 1800s the traditions of parades, picnics,
and fireworks were firmly established as
part of American Independence Day culture.

Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence,
twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.  Eleven were merchants,
nine were farmers or large plantation owners.
One was a teacher, one a musician, and one a printer.
They were men of means and education who launched
the Ship of State which you and I have inherited.
Yet, they signed the Declaration of Independence, knowing
full well that the penalty could be death if they were captured.

When these courageous men signed, they pledged their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor to
the cause of freedom and independence.

Five signers were captured by the British and brutally tortured as traitors.

At least twelve of the fifty-six had their homes pillaged and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army.
Another two had sons captured.

Nine fought in the War for Independence and died from
wounds or from hardships they suffered.

So have a Happy Fourth Of July
and appreciate your freedom!

Have You Ever Played McDonald's Monopoly? You'll Want To After Reading These 11 Facts

Monopoly at McDonald's is BACK! Turns out, it's had an unusual history.

1. Monopoly at McDonald's started in 1987, with over $40 million worth of prizes.

2. The winners of the million dollar prize receive their payout over the course of 20 years.

That's $50,000 per year, to be exact.

3. To win the million dollars, you have to collect both Park Place and Boardwalk.

There's a 1 in 11 chance you'll find Park Place. But there's a 1 in 651 chance you'll find Boardwalk. The odds of getting them both? 1 in 3.5 billion.

4. Someone beat the odds of finding both pieces. In 2010, Jon Kehoe won the million dollar prize.

He bought a McRib and a drink with money from his final unemployment check.

5. You probably won't win the million dollars, but there's a 25 percent chance you'll win an in-store prize, like a small coffee or medium fries.

6. A team of eight people rigged the game from 1995 to 2001. One of those was the Chief of Security at Simon Marketing, the group which ran the game.

McDonald's tried to sue Simon Worldwide, but actually lost. They had to pay the company $16.6 million.

7. An envelope containing the million prize was sent to St. Jude Children's Hospital in 1995.

The people who rigged the game were the ones who sent the check.

8. The game would be illegal without a "no purchase necessary" clause.

9. Sales go up by one to six percent while the game takes place.

10. 4.2 billion game pieces were created between 2003 and 2011.

All of those pieces could circle the Earth one and a half times.

11. LeBron James is the spokesperson for the game.

Not that he needs the money or anything...

 

Source: omgfacts.com