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  #1  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 12:47 AM
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Memphis: Unseen Grit

Edit: I've added more photos on page 2.

This thread is specifically for three historic properties in Memphis which are currently vacant and falling into disrepair; Sears Crosstown, the Old Marine Hospital, and the Goyer Lee House, which is part of the Victorian Village.

First up: Sears Crosstown. I know that Sears and Roebuck built a number of these back in the 1920's in Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, and other cities that I can't remember right now. Anyways, Sears Crosstown has been vacant since the early 80's.

Sears Crosstown from Downtown:




















If you have ever read the book House of Leaves, this reminded my of the Great Hall.












Downtown from the roof.



Up next is the Old Marine Hospital, which has been vacant since the early 90's. This building was featured on that ghost hunter show that was on Discovery for a while. I imagine all they found were homeless people. The basement however, was pretty creepy...pitch black and the examiner's table was still in the morgue. No picture of that though, so you'll just have to take my word for it.










































The nurses' house, which is located in the courtyard behind the original structure.





















Inside of the old storage building also on the site.












Last, the Goyer Lee House.













I don't know what's up with the tag on the wall.


If you want some more Memphis, check these out:
The REAL MEMPHIS Beat
The REAL MEMPHIS Beat Part II

Thanks for checking these out!
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Last edited by arkitekte; Jun 29, 2012 at 3:54 PM.
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  #2  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 2:30 AM
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Nice set. Some iconic Memphis locations - and the inside photos are a treat.
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  #3  
Old Posted May 22, 2012, 2:33 AM
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Awesome! Loving those last few fireplaces
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 2:37 AM
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I love these photographs! What year did these buildings close? We have a Sears warehouse similar to this one in the city I'm in. The hospital is in a style popular from the 1920s-1950s. I'm guessing it's from the late 1920s, but it's often difficult to tell. I'm guessing the nurses house is from around 1870 or 1880? The Second Empire house is also great! Thank you for sharing.
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 3:43 AM
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Simply amazing.
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 2:23 PM
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Nice set of pics. I love the roof shot of Downtown. These buildings are nice. I hope they can restore them and use them again for something.
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 5:37 PM
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YES! these are excellent mate, thanks for sharing. the sears building in philadelphia was similar in size and stature, but they demolished that in the 90s in favor of a home depot complex. ugh.
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 5:58 PM
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Thank you !
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 6:41 PM
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Wow, nice pics. That Sears building is epic... very similar to the one in Atlanta.
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 8:00 PM
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Great, very interesting tour and cracking photos
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Old Posted May 22, 2012, 8:15 PM
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Great photos. Damn shame what condition all these fine buildings are in. Sears building seemed like it would be ripe for renovating into condos. Great view from there.
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Old Posted May 23, 2012, 1:37 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Matthew View Post
I love these photographs! What year did these buildings close? We have a Sears warehouse similar to this one in the city I'm in. The hospital is in a style popular from the 1920s-1950s. I'm guessing it's from the late 1920s, but it's often difficult to tell. I'm guessing the nurses house is from around 1870 or 1880? The Second Empire house is also great! Thank you for sharing.
Sears closed in the early 1980's, the Old Marine Hospital closed in the early 1990's (I think the nurses' house was vacant before then, but I'm not for sure), and the Goyer Lee House has been empty for quite some time. Just a quick rumor/fact about the Goyer Lee house is that the original owner owned a number of barges/ ships in the late 1880's and would watch the river from the tower to see when his boats would dock. Anyways, his wife actually drove him into bankruptcy due to her spending habits (go figure).

The Goyer Lee house is on Adams Avenue, about five blocks from where Nathan Bedford Forrest had his "famous" slave depo, Forrest also owned a home similar to this one on Adams Ave. (which had a large plantation behind it as well as the other Victorian Era homes on Adams), but I think it was set on fire after the Civil War, when he went broke. If you look in the skyline photo that I have in this photo, 100 N. Main (tall old Union Planters building at the far right of the skyline, which used to have UP lit in red) sits on top of (or near) that slave depo.

Both Sears Crosstown and the Old Marine Hospital have proposals and management companies which want to restore them and redevelop them into rentals, studios, and condos, but none of them have the adequate funding to do that, and neither does the city.

The Goyer Lee House was actually bought roughly a year ago and the couple that bought it is planning on opening a bed and breakfast. The house was stripped of a lot of its mill work and ornamentation (I guess to keep from looting) and all of them were stored in one of the rooms in the house, which didn't have a door on it. Crappy photo and I forgot to go back in that room to take another photo, but you can get an idea of the ornamentation that had been taken off.



Thanks for the comments!

I plan on making another thread similar to this one once I get enough photos of some other vacant properties around town.
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Old Posted May 23, 2012, 4:09 PM
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Abandoned building threads... always a treat here at SSP. Nice work.
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Old Posted May 23, 2012, 4:19 PM
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Nice! We have one of those Sears buidlings in Minneapolis...the store closed in 1994, it was rehabbed a few years ago into Allina heaths HQ, apartments/condos, and a very nice global marketplace, with a Sheraton hotel and a transit station added next door. It's called "Midtown Exchange". I didn't realize these buildings were almost clones across the country!



Ah, and here it is even mentioned in a memphis news article.


http://www.memphisdailynews.com/edit....aspx?id=58775

Interesting, thanks for that!
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Old Posted May 23, 2012, 7:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by giovanni sasso View Post
YES! these are excellent mate, thanks for sharing. the sears building in philadelphia was similar in size and stature, but they demolished that in the 90s in favor of a home depot complex. ugh.
Yeah, its a shame. Also, I was eating at the Old Country Buffet a few years ago across the parking lot from that Home Depot when an ex employee came in and shot the manager. Anyways, I had no idea that an old Sears building was once there. What's the older industrial building with the smoke stack next to the Home Depot?

Quote:
Originally Posted by MNMike
Nice! We have one of those Sears buidlings in Minneapolis...the store closed in 1994, it was rehabbed a few years ago into Allina heaths HQ, apartments/condos, and a very nice global marketplace, with a Sheraton hotel and a transit station added next door. It's called "Midtown Exchange". I didn't realize these buildings were almost clones across the country!
I don't know why I forgot Minneapolis had one, especially since I read that article you posted about it probably not even a month ago. Anyways, the one in Minneapolis looks amazing.
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Old Posted May 23, 2012, 8:28 PM
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  #17  
Old Posted May 23, 2012, 11:54 PM
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ark, great job. no doubt you have captured a new angle of the skyline, and you did a good job. i was surprised to see so much deterioration inside the sears tower. however, i hope development plans come about for it.

the marine hospital is just too grand to allow it to go the way of hell. how beautiful. i wonder who got the railings and newel posts? can you imagine restoring those old doors, and use them as wainscoting. i saw some pieces of corbels and some other really nice architectural work in some of the shots. was the object that appeared to be a torchere' or plant stand made of wood, brass, or iron? those columns and the presentation of the building are wonderful. i wish about 6 million would be put out on restoring this structure. make it a public building. perhaps a south library, school, etc. that ornamental gate---how many thousands of dollars to reproduce it today?

those marble fireplaces make me get a wide on! lol looks like carara, but it may quite possibly be from around knoxville, which was, at one time, a provider of great tn marble. did anyone notice the little cherub bust on one of the fireplaces. i would appraise these, just from looking here, that they are worth about 8-10 thousand, maybe a bit more. love this entire thread, and i love those who recognize what's out there that just goes to ruin, so many times replaced by steel buildings and concrete slabs. shameful.

thanks ark. we need to get some attention to these postings by you to the powers that be, and get some politics and power involved in saving these.
again, what a great job.
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  #18  
Old Posted May 23, 2012, 11:58 PM
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in that goyer lee house, was that a large, completely in tact mirror or were my eyes playing tricks on me?

nice work.
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Old Posted May 24, 2012, 2:29 AM
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All of those buildings deserve an adaptive re-use. Both the Sears Warehouse (of a different design) in Dallas and the Montgomery Ward Warehouse in Fort Worth have been converted into residential uses.
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Old Posted May 24, 2012, 2:57 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kingchef
thanks ark. we need to get some attention to these postings by you to the powers that be, and get some politics and power involved in saving these.
again, what a great job.
For the most part, the attention is there, and pressure is being put on the city to do something, no one has the money though. However, the Chisca looks like it will be saved, and that is awesome. I might be able to go inside of it in the next month or so.


Quote:
Originally Posted by the pope View Post
in that goyer lee house, was that a large, completely in tact mirror or were my eyes playing tricks on me?

nice work.
Actually, multiple large completely in tact mirrors. Also, in the bottom left corner, that might be another mirror that wasn't hanging up; I can't remember. Anyways, I don't understand how they haven't been broken over the years, but the Goyer Lee House actually has a crew that comes in and cleans and keeps the property a little more secure and somewhat in repair.

But seriously, if someone up to no good was to break in, I doubt anyone is dumb enough to break those mirrors. They're awesome. Plus, a mirror that big would be like 28 years of bad luck. Lol
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