Step into MEMPHIS’ history, our music, our food, our heritage, our art, and our culture when you join the CENTER for SOUTHERN FOLKLORE on a walking tour through the city.
1 hour & 15 minutes
Our most popular tour is a one hour and fifteen minute jaunt up and down the legendary 177 year old BEALE Street! Known worldwide as the "HOME of the BLUES", BEALE was voted #1 MOST ICONIC STREET IN AMERICA by USA TODAY! Visit the locales of the very origins of the MEMPHIS BLUES, while discovering how BEALE was developed, and evolved into the mecca it is today. See where many of the blues masters cut their teeth and became legends back when the blues was just a baby. Experience the history of BEALE STREET's unique African-American business, culture and much, much more.
We'll stop by W.C. HANDY PARK (c.1930 - the park is an homage to the FATHER of the BLUES), ROBERT CHURCH PARK, (founded a slave who went on to become the South's first African-American millionaire).
A. SCHWAB (c.1876 - a 3 story "walk back in time general store") which boasts the title of the oldest continuously operated establishment on BEALE,
Then onto LANSKY BROTHERS, the "Clothier to the King", where BERNARD LANSKY clothed ELVIS and permanently changed how America dressed. Walk into the past and find the lost locations of the DOMINO LOUNGE (BB Kings original house band’s home), THE PALACE THEATER, where the "Funky Chicken" himself Mr. RUFUS THOMAS "Walked the Dog" every Wednesday night hosting talent shows which spawned the careers of BOBBY "BLUE" BLAND, ISAAC HAYES, ROSCUE GORDON, and more ... all the while learning about how the music and culture continues to grow to this very day.
BEALE STREET TOUR TIMES
TIMES: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM (on the hour with ONE HOUR NOTICE REQUIRED)
$20.00 per person
THE DOWNTOWN STROLL
A 90 minute walk through MEMPHIS' nearly 200 year old downtown district. Visit our most historical buildings and the beginnings of the our city's founding. While discovering how our unique Southern culture continues to grow to this very day. Walk back into the CIVIL WAR days, stopping at the site of the 1862 BATTLE of MEMPHIS on the mighty MISSISSIPPI RIVER. Stroll down COTTON ROW, the street where cotton was King and shaped the city in the early 1900's. View scenic historical parks from the 1860's and haunted alleys with names like DEADMANS ALLEY and WHISKEY CHUTE. Hear how the 1878 Yellow Fever epidemic nearly erased MEMPHIS from the map, before moving back to the present at the SOUTH's grand PEABODY HOTEL, where you will witness the daily "MARCH of the WORLD FAMOUS PEABODY DUCKS". Stroll in the footsteps of DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING's LAST MARCH and much, much more!
HISTORIC DOWNTOWN TOUR TIMES
9:45 AM - 11:30 AM or 3:45 PM- 5:30 PM
(ONE HOUR NOTICE REQUIRED)
TOUR PRICES - $25.00 Per person
MANY MORE TOURS AVAILABLE...SEE THE SERVICES AVAILABLE on this PAGE
http://www.southernfolklore.com
