City guide

architecture in Memphis.

6 buildings worth a detour, each with what to look for. Open them on the map, or walk them with the iPhone app, which collects each one you photograph.

Styles you'll see Renaissance Revival Chicago School

Landmarks

The buildings that define the city's architecture.

Landmark

Pyramid Arena

Rosser International · 1991

The Pyramid Arena is a 32-story, 321-foot stainless-steel-clad pyramid completed in 1991 and designed by Rosser International, a firm known for large-scale arena and stadium work. It was one of the largest pyramid structures in the world when it opened, built as home to the Memphis Grizzlies and the Memphis Tigers. Decades later it was converted into a Bass Pro Shops megastore with a hotel and observation deck, one of the most widely retold adaptive-reuse stories in the country.

Notable buildings

Worth a stop when you're nearby.

Landmark

Mason Temple

1945

Mason Temple, built in 1945, is the world headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, a large brick sanctuary with a street-facing entrance. It is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building is best known as the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop," delivered April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination.

Photo: Jim Roberts , CC BY-SA 4.0

Renaissance Revival

Orpheum Theatre

Rapp and Rapp · 1928

The Orpheum Theatre is a Renaissance-style movie palace built in 1928 by Rapp and Rapp after the original 1907 Grand Opera House on the site burned in a 1923 fire. Rapp and Rapp were the preeminent movie-palace architecture firm of the 1920s, also responsible for the Chicago Theatre and the Paramount Theatre in New York. The theatre is listed individually on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo: Claire H. from New York City, USA , CC BY-SA 2.0

Renaissance Revival

Peabody Hotel

Walter W. Ahlschlager · 1925

The Peabody Hotel is a Renaissance Revival hotel completed in 1925 and designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager, who also designed New York's Beacon Theatre and Roxy Theatre. It is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Since 1933 it has been home to the March of the Peabody Ducks, a twice-daily procession through the lobby that has become a nationally famous Memphis tradition.

Photo: Bjoertvedt , CC BY-SA 4.0

Landmark

Sun Studio

Sun Studio is the small storefront studio at 706 Union Ave where Sam Phillips recorded Elvis Presley's first sides in 1954, along with Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, B.B. King, and Howlin' Wolf. It is widely called the birthplace of rock and roll, one of the most retold origin stories in American music. The studio is a designated National Historic Landmark and is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo: No machine-readable author provided. JeremyA assumed (based on copyright claims). , CC BY-SA 2.5

Chicago School

Toof Building

The Toof Building is a Chicago School commercial building in downtown Memphis, notable as a rare specimen of that style found outside Chicago. It is individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo: Thomas R Machnitzki , CC BY-SA 3.0