Bickford, Bearwater and the Town of Chelsea: A Brief History of Growth and Decline in One of Memphis' Oldest Suburbs

Throughout my life, I have been connected, in some way, to the Bickford-Bearwater Neighborhood of North Memphis. This neighborhood was the final destination of my ancestors on their exodus from rural Mississippi. The neighborhood is located north of Chelsea Avenue, east of the Wolf River Harbor, south of the Wolf River and west of US Hwy 51 (Thomas Street). The entire area has seen longitudinal changes. These changes can be attributed to a host of socio-economic factors; changes that have had positive and negative effects on the region, the neighborhood and the people.

Originally developed as an industrial suburb, the Town of Chelsea was established in the late 19th century. Many of the residents within the area were drawn to the industrial boom Memphis encountered during the Cotton Era. Those who worked in the cotton mills developed shanty like villages along the Wolf River, the Gayoso Bayou and the Mississippi River. As the working poor, migrants to the area were not just sharecroppers and farmers whose land could no longer be farmed. They were also Irish, Asian, Polish and Blacks that had come to the big city for a better life. The emigration to Memphis caused a swell in industrial areas’ periphery. Without money, many lived along the rivers in fishing villages and working class neighborhoods like the Pinch District, Greenlaw, Bearwater, Mollentown and New Chicago. Most of these areas hosted make-shift dwellings with no running water or hygienic facilities.

These areas were breeding grounds for the mosquitoes that traveled up the Mississippi River with the riverboats from New Orleans. These riverboats brought potential business leaders, migrants and slaves. One thing they did not inventory on the riverboat; Yellow Fever. After Memphis won its fight with Yellow Fever, the Department of Health created new policy that developed the Urban Renewal Program. The Urban Renewal Program for the city of Memphis was developed to eradicate the slum villages that had sprung up around industries along the Mississippi and Wolf Rivers. Now, many residents were remnants of the Yellow Fever Epidemic.

In 1826, the town of Chelsea was annexed by the city of Memphis and a local park was named after a prominent business man who had made his money from cotton as well. William Bickford, where half of this neighborhood gets its name, had been an advocate of open green space and parks from his experiences growing up in New England. With Urban Renewal removing most of the sub-adequate housing, many of the middle management workers within the local factories started to build wood framed bungalows that were Victorian/New England replicas of homes in the north. Those who weathered the Urban Renewal of the early 20th century found themselves with land options and new developments sprung up around the region.

As companies and industries boomed, factories and plants were spread across the area along the Wolf River. They created massive concrete structures that would employ residents of the region. The entire North Memphis area was the place where the uneducated could find employment. The area businesses included International Harvester, Firestone, Anderson-Tully, Kimberly-Clark (KTG) and several other companies that were housed in the industrial parks. In 1983, the shift from agriculture was nearly complete. International Harvester could no longer afford to run its Memphis operations. They decided to close the local facility and move its entire cotton picker and combine production business to Minnesota. One month later, Firestone Tire and Rubber closed its North Memphis operation as well. Soon all of the other business followed suit. Many of the business that remained are global businesses and household names like Kleenex and AmiPro. However, these companies have no positive input on the community, nor have they tried to develop the neighborhood of Mollentown that sits just outside of their fence.

Many neighborhoods have maintained their names over time; creating a sense of place in what appears to be the “land of the lost”. These areas defined earlier in this essay have seen economic stability and loss, political incline of community leaders and social degradation of neighborhood residents. During the early 1900s to the mid-1980s, the southwestern section of the North Memphis saw economic increase with jobs. These jobs led the working class whites to relocate outside of the area, leaving, known then as middle-class, blacks the ability to move out of surrounding dilapidated housing to more structurally sound residences. During the 1960s, many blacks within the region found themselves homeowners. They created civic clubs, addressed social issues and educated there children right inside the neighborhood. Many of the residents were still working at the neighboring factories and put their monies directly back into the neighborhood by supporting local black-owned business. The challenge then became to create sustainability once the factories had closed. Many of the black residents who had new found opportunities to better themselves outside of the neighborhood with better jobs and homes desired to move out to the suburbs with their white counterparts.

Diasporas of the urban core found remaining residents with no educated internal support or any economical way out. Many of the residents developed addictions to controlled substances. The Crack epidemic found itself rampant among black residents. Buying and selling illegal substances created income and poverty. Concentrated poverty is very evident in the area. The median household income according to the census bureau is only a little over $8000. Business began to close due to the number of robberies and thefts. The area became generally unsafe even for those who lived within its boundaries.

In the neighboring area of Greenlaw, the same exact things were happening. This neighborhood's major crime contributor was the public housing facility, Hurt Village. Many studies and movies have discussed the issues of this area and the surrounding public housing challenges. A team of economic developers decided that they would create a better living environment for the area surrounding the cities most celebrated children’s hospital, St. Jude Children’s Research Center. With pressure from St. Jude, the city of Memphis, Henry Turley and the Bells Corporation acted as the driving economic forces for the area. Hurt Village was removed with a HOPE VI grant from Housing and Urban Development. The new housing development was renamed Uptown and an overlay district was implemented for the impact zones. These impact zones include several of Uptown’s surrounding neighborhoods. With a white economic force in conjunction with government, the community members really did not stand a chance in a fight for first right of refusal to move into the new development. This local example of gentrification created new policy in dealing with communities where residents would be forced to leave behind social networks and develop new ones in unfamiliar neighborhoods.

During the removal of Hurt Village, the surrounding parcels of land were purchased, bull-dozed and new homes were built for new mixed-income residents. Those surrounding parcels that were not developed still sit empty to this day. Many of them are overgrown with weeds, dilapidated and blight has become the number one issue among residents. Many find themselves apathetic to the city’s efforts to control the issue. However, with the increase of city owned property, government and city offices are finding it difficult to fund mowing and maintaining the lots. MidSouth Peace and Justice Center issued a “blight watch” where local neighborhoods are being challenged to come up with creative ways to address the vast number of vacant lots and abandoned homes that plague our neighborhoods.

As a community organizer for the Bickford-Bearwater Neighborhood, it was my suggestion that the neighborhood team up with the Wolf River Conservancy and the neighborhood companies to apply for a Brownfield Redevelopment Grant that would address the environmental injustice that has been long ignored by the neighborhood's companies and the residents alike. By partnering with local business leaders, the community should be able to have assessments of hazards, see clean-up surrounding companies, have a job training program implemented and their neighborhood renewed. The power of partnering with the area companies would allow community members and stakeholders the opportunity to design some type of benefits agreement that would include job development and sponsor economic redevelopment throughout the region.