A Historical Community Hopes to Make a Historical Comeback

The Vance Avenue neighborhood, south and east of the Fedex Forum, has seen its fair share of change throughout the years, most especially depopulation and disinvestment in the past few decades. The 38126 zip code currently experiences high poverty and crime rates, numerous vacant lots and buildings, neglect, homes and other buildings in physical decline, and high unemployment all symptomatic of an urban area experiencing blight. “Although this district once included some of the best examples of turn-of-the 20^th century architecture in Memphis, it was decimated by urban renewal efforts in the 1960s-70s. What was not torn down during urban renewal has been lost to demolition because of neglect or arson. Thus, this area has been left with a patchwork of historic buildings in a variety of states of disrepair” (Memphis Heritage).

Memphis’ boom years, around the middle of the 19^th century, propelled Beale Street, Linden Avenue and Vance Avenue into a fashionable district for the wealthy to build homes as the city rode on the back of the large cotton industry. At the turn of the 19^th century, growing popularity of the new development occurring in the streetcar-accessible Central Gardens and Annesdale Park districts began to pull residents away from Vance. In the 1920’s, the district began to shift from mostly wealthy residents to low income as the historical homes were turned into businesses and boarding houses accommodating workers for the adjacent industrial district. This early era of the area ended with the building of segregated housing projects, Lamar Terrace and Foote Homes, in the mid-1930’s-1940’s despite objections by residents. “The impact of these projects shifted the area completely from high income to low income”. Institutions, businesses, and residents that had the resources and opportunity moved East. “The area continued to decline and the urban renewal program swept through in the 1960’s created large vacant spaces along Beale Street, Linden, Pontotoc, and Union Avenues. Many of these empty tracts still exist to this day and have been added to as more houses have suffered from neglect and deterioration only to be demolished along with their past neighbors” (Memphis Heritage). The area was once listed on the National Register of historical places, but was bumped from the list due to loss of so many historical structures.

Today, the area remains in a state of disrepair. The neighborhood poverty rate is 69%, is experiencing a rising violent crime rate, and comprises a majority of children attending low-performing schools. “It so blighted that fewer than a hundred people in the area live outside of Cleaborn and Foote Homes [as of 2009]” (The Memphis News). This of course has attracted the eyes of many, resulting in multiple overlapping and compounding revitalization efforts including: the City’s Department of Housing and Urban Development Triangle Noir Plan (totaling $1 billion over 10 years), the Center City Commission and its focus on the “SoFo” area, the University of Memphis and Rhodes, as well as many other neighborhood level efforts by the local businesses, religious institutions, and social organizations.

Securing a Choice Neighborhoods Planning Grant of $250,000 and Hope VI funds totaling $22 million in 2010 and an additional Choice Neighborhoods Grant in 2011, a collaboration of institutions was formed to create the Vance Choice Neighborhood “to provide planning and implementation funding for neighborhood redevelopment processes” (VCN). Some of the participating organizations include the U of M and the Vance Avenue Collaborative, Memphis City Schools, MIFA, Memphis Housing Authority, and private contractors. Community meetings for the residents are being held by the Vance Avenue Collaborative in order to ensure a redevelopment outcome that reflects the wishes of the current residents. Of course, potential threats to the project linger such as gentrification, developers’ interests overriding residents’ interests, and planning/implementation fatigue. However, all involved remain cautiously optimistic about the transformation of this historically important community as this is the first time the City has been so open to a resident-driven planning process. We shall see if these new efforts of inclusion will result in a historical comeback towards a viable and vibrant community.