Each year, the Peabody Hotel’s holiday spirit – rivaled only by the five resident Mallard ducks who emerge twice daily to the delight of gawking guests – is on display in the Reconstruction Era bar and lobby, festooned with all manner of trappings and trimmings come December.
History
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Taking place Dec.26-Jan.
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Deep in the heart of downtown Memphis, November 6th Street stands as a monument to our American democracy.
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A chorus of Memphis-based voices is in conversation at the Benjamin L.Hooks Central Library.
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Miss Jennie M. Higbee arrived in Bluff City in the late 1800s to teach – first at St. Mary’s School followed by a decade at Female High School – before being named head, in 1875, of the newly established Presbyterian Grammar and High School.
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Origins of this sweet, southern snack stretch deep into a Kentucky coal mine where, according to a traveling bakery salesman named Earl Mitchell, a miner gave voice to his ideal break-time food – a snack “as big as the moon.
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The panoply of flags fluttering along a portion of Summer Avenue speak volumes.
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Lide Smith Meriwether led the first generation of southern feminists in Memphis.
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Many North and South American families experienced grief and loss during the yellow fever epidemics of the 19th century, but the loss that Memphis had to bear was no contest.
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Memphis’ Rhodes College was founded in 1848 as the Masonic University of Tennessee.
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One of the most popular New Year’s traditions is making resolutions.
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African-American river worker Tom Lee saved 32 people from drowning in the Mississippi River in 1925, and is memorialized today at Memphis’s Tom Lee Park.
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Although recognized as a popular wedding venue, the Woodruff-Fontaine House is actually one of Memphis’ most haunted buildings.
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Located in the historic Whitehaven Community, Elvis Presley Boulevard is home to many Black-owned businesses — the most historic of which is Tri-State Bank.
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In 1865, a cash-strapped steamboat captain learned that he could earn $2.75 per head transporting former Union POWs back up north.
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Imagine strolling through Overton Park to find a bear chained to a tree.
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In 1933, Frank Schutt, the general manager of the Peabody Hotel, placed live ducks in the hotel’s fountain as a joke — not knowing that he would inadvertently begin a unique tradition that continues to this day.
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In 1837, the 4th of July wasn’t a day of celebration for the 3,000 Chickasaw people gathered in Memphis that day.
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Julia Britton Hooks was a musical prodigy who moved to Memphis in 1876, and soon became a well-known performer on Beale Street.
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W.C.Handy didn’t discover the blues, but he was the first to put it in writing.
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For over 65 years, the Enchanted Forest has served Memphis as a much-awaited holiday harbinger.
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The original Orpheum Theatre opened in 1890 as the Grand Opera House, burned down in 1923, and reopened in 1928 as the Orpheum we know today – complete with the ghosts of the original building.
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Coletta’s on South Parkway opened in 1923 as “Suburban Ice Cream Company,” where Emil Coletta served up pasta, sandwiches and his own homemade ice cream.
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Downtown Memphis is a living history lesson, complete with a beloved riverfront and the last functioning cobblestone port in the country.
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We know Memphis is home to the blues, Beale Street and Graceland. Few realize, however, that it’s also the birthplace of the modern-day supermarket.
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Originally coined “Satellite” in 1957, Stax Records is largely to thank for the gift of Memphis soul, or the Memphis sound.
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Memphis barbecue has always been delicious, differentiated by its pit-based slow cooking process. But what brought it to the world stage (and table)?
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Since Memphis is named after an ancient Egyptian city, why not throw in a few pyramids?
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The first blues song I heard growing up on Atlanta college radio was “Cross Road Blues,” 1936, by genre progenitor Robert…
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Before 1895, Dockery Plantation was, like much of the Delta at the time, a swampy tangle of gum and cypress…