Bailey: Preserving a name and stretching a road in Collierville
A McGinnis sign was uncovered while making repairs to a building on the Collierville Town Square. The property owner is looking to restore the sign. (Abigail Warren/The Daily Memphian)
Clay Bailey
Clay Bailey, a lifelong Memphian, has worked as a reporter in the city four decades. He concentrated on suburban coverage for the bulk of his career, except for a stint as sports editor of The Daily Memphian when it launched in September 2018. He now is suburban editor and also serves as a freelance sports writer for The Associated Press.
A couple of stories out of Collierville this week — the uncovering of an old, old sign and the extension of a long, long road.
Reporter Abigail Warren was banging on the keyboard for both stories — along with the ongoing saga of incidents at St. George’s Independent School -- so it was a busy week for news out of the Southeast Shelby County town.
When they removed the sign from a storefront on the east side of the town square, they uncovered a business name from days gone by.
W.W. McGINNIS
In black lettering.
Over the words “Lumber-Hardware-Paints”.
Longtime residents knew the name. After all, McGinnis has deep roots in town. On the opposite side of the square, McGinnis Oil Company still operates at the corner of Washington and North Main streets, the old gas station once doubling as the office for former Mayor Herman W. Cox.
Warren went through the family tree relying on Bill Cox, who is part of the McGinnis kinfolk, and son of the late mayor. He took the lineage way, way back to T.J. Morris coming to Collierville and opening a lumber business on the square in 1866. And how Morris eventually sold the business to his son-in-law W.W. McGinnis.
That led to the sign on the business that was covered for some time.
Now, Cox and others are trying to save the sign. Clean it up. Reinforce the bricks. Keep it and its historical significance to the town. The old business name is just the latest in an artist touch on the square that includes a couple of murals on the sides of buildings.
As for Winchester Road, Collierville folks want to stretch it out from its current terminus at Cowan Road just east of Byhalia Road to U.S. 72. They are working on exactly where they want it to connect with the highway.
A previous plan had Winchester intersecting with U.S. 72 near Sycamore Road close to St. Mark’s Church. Now, town leaders are considering moving the connection point by extending it through the 133-acre site where Thompson Machinery will relocate.
Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, representing Thompson’s plans, said the company is fine with putting the public road through the property.
Over the years, there have been any number of extensions, relocations and twists to Winchester from crossing the railroad tracks on the western edge of Whitehaven, to road network changes around Memphis International Airport to punching it past Houston Levee Road, when it used to turn north to Poplar Avenue.
Frankly, if the road’s name didn’t change from Winchester to Mitchell Road at Third Street in Memphis, “Winchester” would stretch from near the Mississippi River to the southeastern edge of the Shelby County.
A long and winding road.
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