‘Secret Memphis’ chronicles civic oddities and goes deeper into the familiar
I like to think I know my city pretty well, but the first entry in “Secret Memphis,” a new book from “I Love Memphis” blog editor Holly Whitfield, introduced me to something 2.5 miles from my house that I did not know was there.
That’s the Bettis Family Cemetery, a little plot of green tucked between Cash Saver and Home Depot in Midtown, which holds remains from a family that settled in Memphis in the early 19th century. (A very Memphis “pro tip”: The “grocery store next to the cemetery has a great selection of local and craft beer.” )
Who knew? Not me.
Holly Whitfield
Whitfield’s book, subtitled “A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure,” highlights close to 100 Memphis places from the oddball (“Sex Pistols Taco Bell”) to the sober (Slave Haven Underground Railroad Museum).
And no matter how well you know Memphis, you’ll probably come across things you don’t know about (for me: the chicken coop at the Memphis Botanic Garden, the story behind the “Captain Harris House” in Cooper-Young) and places you’ve been meaning to check out for years but haven’t yet. For me, the latter group includes the Crystal Shrine Grotto at Memorial Park and the jade and Judaica at Downtown’s Belz Museum.
“The Belz Museum is a great example,” Whitfield said. “I had been there several years ago for I Love Memphis and had been shocked that such an interesting place was right there and no one had ever said anything to me about it. So while that wasn’t a place I discovered in the course of writing the book, that’s the kind of energy that inspired me.”
“Secret Memphis,” part of a series published by the St. Louis-based Reedy Press, was a year in the works for Whitfield, who chronicles the city daily via I Love Memphis, and it arrives accidentally at a somewhat odd, perhaps poignant time, amid a pandemic where many of us haven’t been getting around as much as we once did.
For me, flipping through “Secret Memphis” fed an urge to more greatly explore the city, especially when those opportunities fully return.
“Of course, I didn’t plan to release this book during a pandemic, and it’s not ideal,” Whitfield said. “But some of these places you can go and check out now and others, put a bookmark in there and let it be an inspiration when you have your staycation.”
Whitfield is a Hattiesburg, Mississippi, native who’s been a Memphian since 2005, lured north by the undergraduate architecture program at the University of Memphis, before shifting toward writing.
“Memphis had its own plans for me,” Whitfield said.
In compiling “Secret Memphis,” Whitfield learned more about some parts of the city and developed deeper connections to others.
“I didn’t really know a lot of the stories from Elmwood Cemetery, like No Man’s Land, which was poignant to see related to the yellow fever epidemic and what we’re going through now. And my mom told me that I had to look up the story of Georgia Tann, which I didn’t know about before I started working on this book.”
Tann operated the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in the 1920s though 1940s, an adoption agency that was later revealed to have engaged in extremely shady practices, including kidnapping infants. A memorial to 19 of the organization’s victims is at Elmwood.
“That’s one of the sadder stories in the book,” Whitfield said. “There are some heavier stories, especially related to the city’s history of racism, and it doesn’t shy away from that. But they’re mixed in with more lighthearted or quirky stories.”
Among those is the cross-wielding, fiberglass Statue of Liberty on Winchester, aka the “Statue of Liberation Through Christ,” and the revelation (to me at least) that Hank Williams and Desi Arnez once frequented the Green Beetle on South Main.
Whitfield says that one of her favorite haunts in writing “Secret Memphis” became the French Fort neighborhood, tucked away along the river bluff just south of the interstate. There, three “Secret Memphis” entries sit together.
“I really like Chickasaw Heritage Park and have found myself there more often than I would have thought,” Whitfield said. “That’s where the (Chickasaw ceremonial) mounds are, down by the Metal Museum. You have the Metal Museum grounds and the mounds and the view of the river and you can peer through the iron bars at the Marine Hospital. I’ve found myself there when I need a quiet moment or when I want to take somebody somewhere cool. So that place is special to me.”
Who knows, maybe “Secret Memphis” could help you discover your next special Memphis place.
“Secret Memphis” is available at Burke’s and Novel book stores. You can also order directly from the the book’s dedicated site, where Whitfield is signing copies.
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I Love Memphis blog Holly Whitfield Elmwood Cemetery Georgia TannChris Herrington on demand
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Chris Herrington
Chris Herrington has covered the Memphis Grizzlies, in one way or another, since the franchise’s second season in Memphis, while also writing about music, movies, food and civic life. As far as he knows, he’s the only member of the Professional Basketball Writers Association who is also a member of a film critics group and has also voted in national music critic polls for Rolling Stone and the Village Voice (RIP). He and his wife have two kids and, for reasons that sometimes elude him, three dogs.
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