Monday, February 3, 2014

Born And Razed In Memphis..,


The Zippin Pippin that was at the Memphis Fairgrounds was dismantled and sold to a Park in Ohio. Elvis Presley loved to rent out the Park and ride this wonderful wooden roller coaster. The Fairgrounds was closed and a Salvation Army was built on some of the property.


The Jefferson Street Laundry was torn down and and a Parking Garage was put in it's place. 


They built a few Central Parks in Memphis, the prices were better than other fast foods, but they were built in some bad locations and soon were closed.


Henderson's Pharmacy, became Mueller's Drug Store which eventually became the Dillard Square. Henderson's moved up Poplar Avenue in the same building as Joe Crone's Pure station. Today, that location is a Jiffy Lube.


McCrorys was like a dime store and carried things for the home and family. This one above was located at Poplar Plaza at Highland and Poplar Avenue. I'm not sure of the year that they left Memphis but it was a great place to shop. 



The Luah that was owned by Dobbs House was a great place to eat on Poplar Avenue across from East High School. They served Polynesian food and I always loved the fried bananas. I believe that the building is still there but the Luah has been gone for several years.



Memphis Fairgrounds is just a memory now. It was a great place for families to go and it wasn't so overcrowded that you didn't have to wait long to ride the rides. The picture above was of the entrance to the Fairgrounds Park in the 1950's.


Wax figures from the Memphis Zoo were fun to collect and the best part was you could watch the machine make it after you deposited your coins. When it came out is was still warm to the touch and if you held it to tightly it would warp its shape. I had forgotten about it until I saw the picture on Memphis Memories. Somewhere I still have a Black Bear, that I got many years ago at the zoo. 


The 91st Bob Group was a war setting as a restaurant. It was located off of Democrat Road where the FedEx planes are now. When you ate in the restaurant you could see planes landing at the Memphis Airport. This building was torn down to expand FedEx.



The Seessels Grocery Stores are just another memory in Memphis. They were sold to Schunks and later bought out by Kroger. This store looks like the one that used to be across from the Raleigh Springs Mall before it was torn down, it was at the corner of Yale Rd. and Austin Peay Highway.

Source: Internet