Guest Column: Remembering when Shelby Farms was almost sold
John Vergos remembers the fight to save Shelby Farms from being sold to developers, fifty years ago this month. (The Daily Memphian file)
John Vergos
John Vergos is co-owner of the Rendezvous restaurant, and a managing director of Novel bookstore. A former Memphis City Council member, Vergos was original chairman of the Penal Farm for Public Use Committee, which kept Shelby Farms from being sold for development in the early 1970s.
“Shelby Farms is and will continue to be one of the great parks of the world. Whenever there are large publicly owned tracks of land, it has been my experience that there will always be pressure to cut off a piece here and there for some unrelated reason. It is imperative to stay vigilant.”
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