My Memories of Hickory Hill (Memphis, Germantown: section 8, for sale, apartments)

[TheGameHHH]

I am only 21 years old and I have lived in the Hickory Hill area since 1991 (moved in 2005). I am old enough to remember certain things of what they used to be. I also would like to see some photos of the area from the late 80's/early 90's to refresh my memory. If you have any pictures, please post them.

Going back in time, I remember

- The farmers market used to be a Sessel's grocery

- The Burlington Coat Factory was once a K-Mart

- There used to be an Exxon gas station at the corner of Kirby Parkway/Winchester across from the Mapco station

- Hardee's being where Popeye's chicken is at now

- When Riverdale was nothing but a grass field

- Aaron's appliance renter center used to be a Sports Authority, and before that Central Hardware.

- The Amco gas station on the same lot as Perkin's restaurant

- An actual Wal-Mart on Riverdale

- A card store in the Winchester shopping center (used to always get pokemon cards from them)

- Kroger on Winchester, with Walgreens right next door on the right

- Circuit City & Mega Market on American Way

- Service Merchandise across from the Hickory Ridge Mall

- Discovery Zone, Fun Plex, X-Site (on American Way)

- The music store on Winchester (blue building which has the yellow ball in the front window)

- Piggly Wiggly on Hickory Hill Rd

- The movie theatre in the Appletree Center

- The BMW dealer on Mt. Moriah

- Putt-Putt on Mt. Moriah

Good ole days

[Tigertate]

I grew up the area as well and I remember just about everything on your list. The area was still pretty nice when I was in High school in the mid 90's. It started tanking shortly after annexation into the city. Some parts are the area are still pretty nice (i.e. the areas that are not really in the City south of Shelby Dr. and east of Ross), but overall the area is destroyed.

[citizenkane2]

There was movie theatre at the corner of Kirby Pkwy and Winchester.

Annabelle's Restaurant was at the front of the Hickory Ridge Mall.

Goldsmith's Anchored the Mall


These were early 80's memories....



Wow....

[noph]

Thanks for this thread!
My teen years were spent in DeSoto. I worked at the Hickory Ridge Mall. My friends and I would hang out all night at the Perkins across from the Winchester court movie.

Annabelle's!!! I hadn't thought about that place with it's mezzanine seating and big wicker chairs in years. I remember green carpet, the big yellow paper butter fly that hung from the sky light and they angel sconce style statues, one wore a hard hat.

the Game left out a laser tag place...There was on Mt. Moriah just across the street from East End Skating Center. The name, along with my youth, has escaped me. It is amazing what a difference a decade of age can make...X-cite (American Way) will always be Children's Palace to me, a giant toy store that was THE place when I was a kid, since we didn't have Toys R Us down here in the dark ages.

The music store was Planet Music. Where you could listen to anything they had BEFORE you bought it...oddly the management couldn't figure out why they had so much shrinkage. That building is one of the few few in that shopping center that isn't fronted to Winchester and is occupied. It is now a Latino Mini-Mall. Pretty interesting to wander around in, but not as neat as Planet Music.

So many businesses just gone...Luby's, Hancock fabrics, the sewing machine place next door, there were two different sports stores, before that a Central Hardware, shoney's....away from Winchester Court/Central Church and back toward the mall there was an HQ, a Rafferty's (my first waitress job), pier one, show biz pizza, Fred P Gattas....and a weird store in the late 80s that I have yet to find someone else who remembers it...JJJazz. They sold contemporary furniture and knick knacks. I sometimes think I dreamed that little store since I've not found anyone else who remembers it.

Remember before they put the expansion on the mall? There was a sit down Chik Fila and a Walgreens with a big weird bubble window. No merry go round, but a 'center stage' area and some weird market thing I barely remember from the 80s.

I was driving Riverdale near Winchester this weekend. Noticed the Ryans is no longer a Ryans. I stopped going to the Majestic several years ago after attending an evening showing on Thanksgiving with my entire family and fearing for the safety of some of my older (and somewhat oblivious to how mean the world is) relatives. Near the Ryans, sort of across from what used to be called The Club Apartments, (near birch run???) there is a little sub division. When I was a kid, I remember a green roofed ranch style home occupying the space that all those houses take up now. I think there might have been some horses even. I'm sure the "new" houses crammed in there are lovely and someone made a nice penny from reworking that plot of land. However, even tho it has been gone for probably two decades now, I miss that mysterious ranch style house. Sure, 80 houses are more valuable than one, but the one house with a big meadow was more pleasing to drive by.

[Anongmous]

It was fine when Riverdale was not punched through form Quince > south. That screwed the neighborhoods of Cotton Plant and Crestridge areas...awful decision

[Tigertate]

The neighborhoods in the Cotton Plant area are still really nice. Those apartments adjacent to Riverdale have more to do with any perceived decline in the area around Crestridge than the extension of Riverdale. Riverdale has connected to Quince for as long as I can remember. I know it has connected since 385 was extended that way (mid to late 90's). When was the connection to Quince made? Also, I don't really consider that area Hickory Hill.

[Anongmous]

Originally Posted by Tigertate

The neighborhoods in the Cotton Plant area are still really nice. Those apartments adjacent to Riverdale have more to do with any perceived decline in the area around Crestridge than the extension of Riverdale. Riverdale has connected to Quince for as long as I can remember. I know it has connected since 385 was extended that way (mid to late 90's). When was the connection to Quince made? Also, I don't really consider that area Hickory Hill.

The connection with Quince was 'planned' many years ago, and everybody sorta cringed then because that segment of Cotton Plant/Germantown was sort of isolated and a desirable area to own a place. Years ago I took a chance and built over there, but soon sold for another location because we thought the area might be vulnerable somewhat. The area is still 'okay' but way too accessible now to the Winchester corridor in my opinion. I think the whole Crestridge road area has gone downhill, notwithstanding east of the Riverdale Road intersection (the city of Germantown limits are one block just to the north, but most people don't know that it seems even now).

When Fogleman got the go-ahead on the so-called apartments (it used to be controlled by a single ownership, now I think one section has nothing to do with the other), Fogleman pulled a 'fast one' I believe, in that he merchandised the 'development' initially as condos, etc, but then shifted to the apartment strategy. Then it started allowing section 8 families, with a ton of misbehaving young rug rats running around, and thug-acting residents raising hell, loud uncouth people, trashy cars in the lots, break-ins ensued, etc etc...The neighbors in the SF residential area surrounding the complex went ballistic. Those true nice townhouse condos that were built along Crestridge start going downhill as well. It still is undesirable in my opinion.

The wrong people moved in, and ran it in the ground, like a lot of areas in Memphis, TN over the years

[Tigertate]

Originally Posted by Anongmous

The connection with Quince was 'planned' many years ago, and everybody sorta cringed then because that segment of Cotton Plant/Germantown was sort of isolated and a desirable area to own a place. Years ago I took a chance and built over there, but soon sold for another location because we thought the area might be vulnerable somewhat. The area is still 'okay' but way too accessible now to the Winchester corridor in my opinion. I think the whole Crestridge road area has gone downhill, notwithstanding east of the Riverdale Road intersection (the city of Germantown limits are one block just to the north, but most people don't know that it seems even now).

When Fogleman got the go-ahead on the so-called apartments (it used to be controlled by a single ownership, now I think one section has nothing to do with the other), Fogleman pulled a 'fast one' I believe, in that he merchandised the 'development' initially as condos, etc, but then shifted to the apartment strategy. Then it started allowing section 8 families, with a ton of misbehaving young rug rats running around, and thug-acting residents raising hell, loud uncouth people, trashy cars in the lots, break-ins ensued, etc etc...The neighbors in the SF residential area surrounding the complex went ballistic. Those true nice townhouse condos that were built along Crestridge start going downhill as well. It still is undesirable in my opinion.

The wrong people moved in, and ran it in the ground, like a lot of areas in Memphis, TN over the years

Can't say I disagree; especially about the apartments. I have noticed first hand how the apartments in that area went to crap after the projects downtown were demolished. Section 8 renters started showing up in droves. With them, came increased crime. The property values in the single family areas around the apartments have flat lined. Homes are selling for what they sold for in the 90's. However, the neighborhoods just off of Cotton Plant seem really nice, in my opinion. They are almost a mile away from the apartments and you rarely see any riff raff over there. The property value over there is not as strong as other areas of East Memphis in the 38117 and 38120 zips, but it is pretty solid (similar to the nicer areas of Cordova). I personally would not have any problem living over there. Looking at the crime tracker, it looks like there is rarely any crime in those neighborhoods (Memphis Crime Tracker - crime.commercialappeal.com). There are actually some great deals in that area.


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3177 Plantation Cove | Memphis TN Homes for Sale | Crye-Leike[0]=Shelby&cid[0]=3295

[sillykriss83]

I grew up in Whitehaven, the better part in the Graceland area close to Elvis Presley's house. My parents and I were frequent visitors of the Southland mall and it was so tiny/boroing compared to the Hickory Ridge Mall/Mall of Memphis/Raliegh Springs. Now that I'm 28, it's so funny that Southland Mall is the last one standing with 2 original anchor stores. I do have so many great memories of Hickory Hill......and always wanted to live there..........but living there from 1999 and watched it go down to nothing when I hauled in 2003, I'm glad i moved when I did.

[sillykriss83]

1.I used to love going to the Old country Buffet where DZ (Discovery Zone) used to be next door to.
2.Rafferty's at the corner of Winchester and Ridgeway, which is now (due to the 2008 windstorm) an open space of land.
3. The daily visits to Kroger (next door to Burlington) that is now a Superlo foods.
4. The Fun Fair arcade at the corner of Kirby Parkway and Raines.
5. The many visits to O'Charleys (the building that is in front of New Direction Christian Church)
6. Frequent visits to Applebee's ( Southern Hands, a soul food eatery is there now)
7. Target at the corner of Hickory Hill and Winchester (now a Big Daddy's pawn......huh????)
8. All of the apartments were beautiful and clean......even the Marina cove, that died viciously around 2000-2001. The only ones I can think of now that are worth living in and paying full price for rent are the Monticello and the Eton Square, and idk if they will be able to survuve much longer.
Hickory Hill was annexed at the end of 1998. Honestly, it didn't go fully downhill until late 2004-2005. That's when it started to look like an extension of the now ruined Parkway Village. That's why I, along with many other residents of Shelby County 38141-38125 are fighting and doing everything we can to keep our little section the county. We work hard and pride our lawns/houses/cars and do not want to see the equity go down.