Once a year, Elmwood Cemetery opens up the costume trunks for its tribute to the souls whose verve and everyday heroism figure large in local history.

This year — for the 20th anniversary of City of Soul, the walking tour peopled with costumed characters of times gone by – Elmwood is celebrating some of its better-known Memphis legends.

Those include Robert Church, the first Black millionaire in the South; Boss Crump, politico and onetime mayor; and Napoleon Hill, the everyday guy who bet big on the Gold Rush but made a fortune in cotton instead.

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The two-night City of Soul is Oct. 13-14. Tours will run on the half hour, starting at 5 p.m. and running through 7:30 p.m.

The night will include the Good Groceries food truck, tarot-card readings, a gift shop and the tours, which last an hour.

“Because this is a big anniversary, we’re pulling out some stories that have been favorites in the past, a kind of retrospective,” said Kim Bearden, executive director.

The stories start with Robert Church and his wife, Anna, a noted music talent in Memphis at the turn of the 20th Century. 

Church is credited with rebuilding the city after it was decimated by yellow fever.

“Because this is a big anniversary, we’re pulling out some stories that have been favorites in the past, a kind of retrospective.”

Kim Bearden

“Robert Church’s life contained multitudes,” Bearden said. “He was born an enslaved person. He is freed because the Civil War happens during his lifetime. He experiences life as a free person under a transitional time in American history. Then, he lives through yellow fever and becomes a millionaire.”

He used his money to buy property abandoned when people fled the city.

“Robert Church helped build the city back up,” Bearden said. “But he also was a philanthropist. He built Church Auditorium. It was the first place in Memphis, not a church, in which African Americans could congregate for celebratory purposes, political purposes, community gatherings and not be hassled.”

The auditorium, at Beale and Fourth streets, was demolished in 1921.

The tour is designed to showcase the stories enshrined at Elmwood, but in some cases to also show the tensions, including the long enmity between Robert Church Jr., Church’s son, and Boss E. H. Crump, both from the Holly Springs, Mississippi.

Their politics were completely different, and Church Jr. chafed under the fact that Crump manipulated the Black vote in the city, Bearden said.

The roles of Robert Church and his wife, Anna, will be played by Dee and Tim Dotson. Willy Bearden will portray Crump.

City of Soul is the cemetery’s largest fundraising event. Proceeds offset maintenance costs at the 80-acre cemetery, located at 824 S. Dudley St. and established in 1852.

Tickets are $22 online. Discounts are available for seniors, students and veterans. Parking is free.