Welcome to Metro Memphis

About Memphis
Memphis was founded in 1819 on the fourth Chickasaw Bluff overlooking the Mississippi. The original town was planned and laid out by three prominent Tennesseeans - James Winchester, John Overton and future President Andrew Jackson - primarily as a landsale venture with the name provided by Winchester, who foresaw the group's fledgling city become as great as its ancient namesake on the Nile. The founders wanted their city to be more than a profitable land venture, though. In plotting out the town, they made certain that it would contain ample room for parks and stipulated that the land along the scenic river bluffs should remain a "public promenade". Their legacy: a stunning panorama of the mighty Mississippi.

Although its first decades were rocky ones, Memphis' natural harbor facilities ensured that the city would, eventually, thrive. By the time the Civil War broke out, Memphis was the sixth largest city in the South, the third largest inland port in the country and one of the world's largest trading centers for cotton, the crop which was the backbone of the antebellum Southern economy. Memphis fell early in the war to Union troops and, as a result, emerged from the conflict unscathed (when compared with other Southern cities). But what the war didn't ruin, disease did. During the 1870s, the city was decimated by several yellow fever epidemics and lost so much of its population that the city charter was revoked for the better part of a decade. Community financial leaders refused to give up their homes and led by Robert R. Church, born a slave and the South's first black millionaire, invested in rebuilding Memphis. In an attempt to ensure that disease would never have such dire effects on the city again, a vigorous public health foundation was established in Memphis. In part a direct result of these efforts, Memphis emerged as a major regional and national medical center.

By the dawn of the twentieth century, Memphis was once again, and remains today, a thriving trade center. At the same time, it is also one of the country's most "livable" cities. Incorporating a host of parks, museums, and similar amenities into its busy structure. The founders' "public promenade" is still there, stretching along the river bluff. Its a place to sit back and enjoy the many blessings - natural and man-made - which Memphis has to offer