The West J. Crawford House was built in 1877 on Lauderdale Street. It was once one of several Italianates on the street, but it is now the last one. Initially, it was part of a National Register of Historic Places historic district, but the area was delisted after many homes were burned. The home was relisted in 2024. A contributing carriage house can be seen to the left of the home.
The porch was added in 1905. The Crawfords moved into a new home in 1914. The house sat empty until Santina Virga Carimi purchased it in 1924. The house stayed in the family until Jennie Carami’s passing in 2010.
Griggs Business and Practical College began as a private home for Joseph Minter and Elizabeth Gregory in 1858. Mrs. Gregory stayed in the brick Italianate home until her death in 1920.
In 1949, Reverend S. A. Owens and C. J. Gaston purchased the home to serve as the permanent home of the Griggs Business and Practical College. The school began five years earlier in Emma Griggs’s home. It was one of three Black colleges in Memphis. Griggs taught the “practical arts” of sewing, cooking, and other domestic activities. Griggs passed away before the school opened in its Vance Avenue location.
Fortunately, the school thrived until the 1970s and the decision was made to close it.
The school was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
Advertisement in The Commercial Appeal in the September 7, 1952 edition
The Church of God in Christ (C. O. G. I. C.) was founded in 1897 by removed Baptists Charles Price Jones (1864-1949) and Charles Harrison Mason (1864-1961). The temple is named after Charles Mason, who is interred inside the building. C. O. G. I. C. is the nation’s most prominent Black Pentecostal church.
The Temple began construction in 1940. Henry Taylor was the architect, and Ullyses Ellis was the head of construction. According to the Tennessee Encyclopedia, “The three-story building was constructed of brick, stone, reinforced concrete, and steel. The main auditorium’s seating capacity was five thousand. The balcony seated two thousand, and the assembly room under the balcony also had the capacity to seat two thousand. The temple had a baggage-check registration room, post office, barber shop, beauty salon, first aid and emergency ward, nursery, male and female rest rooms and shower baths, shoe shine parlor, thirty-six administrative offices, two industrial kitchens, two cafeterias, concession area, photographic booth, an elaborate indoor and outdoor sound system, and a modern heating and cooling system. The cost of building Mason Temple was almost a quarter of a million dollars.”
Charles Mason
The church was very active during the Civil Rights Movement. It was the last place Martin Luther King Jr. spoke before being assassinated. He delivered his “Mountaintop” speech.
The Art Moderne building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
The Dr. Christopher M. Roulhac House, located at 810 McLemore Street in Memphis, Tennessee, was built in 1914. The eclectic American Four Square was originally home to the Halpern family, but in 1926, the Roulhac family moved into the home.
Dr. Roulhac graduated from Howard University Medical School in 1910 and moved to Memphis in 1913. He was a surgeon at Mercy Hospital and served as a medical examiner for the Universal Life Insurance Company. He also taught at the University of West Tennessee and was a trustee for Owen College.
Alma Rouhlac Booth, Dr. Rouhlac’s daughter, lived in the home until 2005. In an article about the house, she reminisced about how she was so entranced with a dollhouse replica in the backyard that she was excited about moving into the house. After Mrs. Booth moved, the home was sold to a couple who opened a bed and breakfast. Unfortunately, it looks like it closed in 2016.
It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
I love Art Deco, so during my recent trip to Memphis, I knew I would need to visit this school. Memphis architect Noland Van Powell designed the Fairview Junior High School for the Edward Lee Harrison architectural firm. Opening in the fall of 1930, it was built at the cost of $335,000. The Art Deco style was unusual for Memphis. The building stood out with the buff-colored bricks since most schools in town were built with red bricks. It got its name because it was next to the fairgrounds.
During the 1937 Mississippi River flood, the school served as a hospital. In 2012, it went through an $8 million renovation. Luckily, most of the Art Deco details were intact and kept during the renovation. It is now known as the Middle College High School.
It was put on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
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