Best Towns in TN for young families

[tigerphan]

Originally Posted by Ginsaw

This is an interesting point. The way I would try to explain the growth pattern is, the growth is a natural extension from Memphis itself based on the route followed. What does that mean? Well, I think it's an elongated if you will, extension of Memphis' Poplar Avenue. Poplar's no different than the other old federal highway "main lines" (that incidentally originally followed railroad rights of way) thru town excepting that it flowed thru the most important residential and commercial parts of Memphis and it's also East Memphis, which back in the day was the name of the game in future up-scale development, so everything followed it. And you had Germantown as its obvious eventual destination.

Makes sense.

The area along Poplar was linked by rail long, long ago. There were a couple of civil war era battles along that line. That's one of the reasons I think the older parts of Rossville, Collierville, and Germantown actually resemble small towns despite an explosion of residential growth in the 20th century....similar to some of the northern and western Chicago suburbs. Their downtowns are situated on the rail line, which is eventually where Poplar was routed.

Olive Branch and Southaven don't have the same look or feel to me. It's not a bad thing since they are all suburbs at this point, but it feels less like a cohesive community than the areas along Poplar.

I think that rail line through Memphis and out east along Poplar will be a great place for a regional passenger rail in the future since so much of Memphis's growth is along that route from the river all the way out into Fayette county. Can you imagine hopping on a train in Collierville or Germantown and getting off at University if Memphis, the Poplar/240 business district, or downtown?

[TheKernel91]

What I find interesting in Memphis growth patterns, since Memphis started on the river which is the western side of town geographically, you can drive from downtown to east and see how time progressed from older to newer. East memphis/ southeastern Shelby county and Cordova/Germantown/Collierville etc. is new up to date. Driving from there to west it's like you go back in time once you hit downtown, its real cool.

[eastmemphisguy]

Olive Branch also has an old town along railroad tracks. So do Bartlett and Arlington. All of those towns were founded in the 19th century. Southaven, on the other hand, was founded just a few decades ago. Much as they would like you to forget it now, the town's name is a portmonteau of South Whitehaven.