Any quaint little towns around Memphis? (Dyersburg, Union City: appliances, hotel, luxury) - Tennessee (TN) - Page 5 - City-Data Forum

Smtchll · 07-13-2010, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kabluey

Maybe I'm thinking of a different suburb, but the town I'm thinking about has a town square whose walkability, design (buildings fronting streets), and overall small-town density is unlike any suburb in the Memphis area.

Probably Webster Groves. I hear it's like that, but I've never been there. Kirkwood might be like that too, but I didn't see that part

Kabluey · 07-13-2010, 08:42 AM

Thanks. Maybe it was Webster Groves. All those toy towns melting into each other gets a little confusing. Anyway, our 'burbs could learn a little from that. It sounds like Germantown was trying to achieve that level of walkability with their new development plan.

Smtchll · 07-13-2010, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kabluey

Thanks. Maybe it was Webster Groves. All those toy towns melting into each other gets a little confusing. Anyway, our 'burbs could learn a little from that. It sounds like Germantown was trying to achieve that level of walkability with their new development plan.

Yeah I do love the St. Louis burbs. Clayton is probably my favorite suburb period. It only has a population of 15,000, but it has the downtown of a mid-sized city, very clean, walkable, and upscale. It also has nice charming neighborhoods.

Saint Louis Missouri - City Skyline Pictures Prints Canvas Digital Stock - Black & White or Color Art Cityscapes b&w

SkyscraperPage Forum

The Black Snob: May 2008

Saint Louis/Clayton/The Moorlands - SkyscraperPage Forum

kingchef · 07-13-2010, 05:55 PM

st. louis seems to take a knocking, but it has so many beautiful residential areas. the 20's and 30's must have been really good to st. louis. it is great to see the renewal of those areas. good info, schmll.

Kabluey · 07-13-2010, 10:23 PM

I like Clayton, but it closes at 5. At least it did back around 2000 when I went to school round there. Some of the burbs flat out suck. Some are nice. Just like anywhere else I guess. Except there, the burbs carve out more identities because they have permitted supersmall towns to exist, separate from St. Louis City (b/c city isn't inside the county).

I think the main thing the Memphis burbs could learn is to not be so cookie cutter. Use the town square that defines Collierville and put some steroids into it. Use it to identify the entire burb in some way, not just that square, that's kind of out of the way. G'town passed a development plan that if it returns will give it an identity. Hopefully towns and neighborhoods will do the same. I really think Oxford is charming, and would like to hear more about towns like that around Memphis (not just in TN, but in AR and MS). Walkable. I also wouldn't mind a burb with a midrise or two.

kingchef · 07-14-2010, 06:19 AM

from the little bit i have seen and read, it seems that the germantown plan for downtown is a good one. i believe some planned 8 story hotel (s) and some office buildings, and some low rise housing. possibly one or two midrise buildings for luxury rentals. this last info comes from a developer, who is a friend. germantown is sort of grown as much as it can with the tax base that currently exists. for new infrastructure and general maintainance needs, the citizens will have to grow the city. ***anyone know why computer keyboard begins sticking or delaying letters, and why spell check fails to work on a wing and a prayer scenario? i have tried several mechanical and computer task functions, but can't find a systems error or other report. speaking of highrises, word is that the grandview is soon to begin. i would like to see this occur. it might spur a few highrise condo projects in the poplar corridor. i wish some of that money going into the fayette county projects would be combined w/ state/federal money incentives and the ex-direct insurance fellow would redo the sears crosstown building. what a gem of a place.

Cosmicstargoat · 07-14-2010, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kingchef

i wish some of that money going into the fayette county projects would be combined w/ state/federal money incentives and the ex-direct insurance fellow would redo the sears crosstown building. what a gem of a place.

How the mighty have fallen. I worked at that building, on the truck docks and in the sorting bins, when I was a college student in the 60s. Sears mail order was virtually the only game in town for rural America and especially during the Holiday Season. That place was bursting with merchandise, orders and trucks to be loaded in the middle of the night to go to CSOs in larger rural towns in a 7 state area around Memphis. There was no Internet, Cable Shopping Network or Wal-Mart back then, there was Sears and they lost it all because they did not keep up with changing times. 40 years ago I never would have thought that building would ever be an unwanted, abandoned ghost haunting the skyline, but it is.

JMT · 07-14-2010, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cosmicstargoat

How the mighty have fallen. I worked at that building, on the truck docks and in the sorting bins, when I was a college student in the 60s. Sears mail order was virtually the only game in town for rural America and especially during the Holiday Season. That place was bursting with merchandise, orders and trucks to be loaded in the middle of the night to go to CSOs in larger rural towns in a 7 state area around Memphis. There was no Internet, Cable Shopping Network or Wal-Mart back then, there was Sears and they lost it all because they did not keep up with changing times. 40 years ago I never would have thought that building would ever be an unwanted, abandoned ghost haunting the skyline, but it is.

Oh how I would've loved to see that building in its glory days!! It just breaks my heart to see it abandoned and crumbling.

thenuegeye · 07-14-2010, 02:35 PM

My mother used to frequent that place. I remember waiting in the car with my older brother. I couldn't wait to see what she came out the store with.

Cosmicstargoat · 07-14-2010, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JMT

Oh how I would've loved to see that building in its glory days!! It just breaks my heart to see it abandoned and crumbling.

You would not have believed that place around Christmas time. The bottom floor was a very robust retail store, perhaps the busiest retail outlet in Memphis in it's day. The next couple of floors were business offices and the tower was where a lot of the smaller merchandise was warehoused and sent down those spiral chutes where we sorted in the shipping area behind the tower, according to city and town, and later loaded the merchandise on trucks going as far away as New Orleans. Sears had outgrown Crosstown by the time I worked there and there were satellite warehouses at Broad St., Panama St. and Myers St. in NE Memphis. This is where the larger merchandise like big appliances, furniture, fencing and carpeting were warehoused.

Crosstown was where all the merchandise was accumulated from the satellites and loaded on trucks going to their respective runs. There were about 40 different runs, and we loaded trucks well into the night during the busy season. We serviced and supplied big cities like New Orleans, Little Rock, Paducah, Nashville and all the smaller towns in between. One run, for example, would have Martin, Union City, Dyersburg, Ripley and Covington on the same truck, loaded first stop last. Some nights we worked until 3:00-4:00 AM during Christmas.

Sears paid for my education and helped support my wife and two babies while I was in college. I wince every time I see that building, but time stops for no one.