Peabody Hotel Memphis, Tennessee

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

The Hotel Peabody, located in downtown Memphis and known to generations of travelers and local residents as "the South's Finest-One of America's Best," was for over fifty years the symbolic center of the social, cultural, and commercial life of the MidSouth region. Completed in 1925, it was the largest and most elegant hotel in the south and represents the area's finest example of the opulence, grandeur, and complexity which characterized the era of the grand hotel.

In 1923 ground was broken for the new twelve-story, 625 rooms, $5 million structure which was to occupy the entire block between Union Avenue, Second and Third Streets and an un-named alley between Union and Gayoso Streets. Built to replace the old Peabody which had stood at Main and Monroe Streets since 1869, both hotels were named for financier George Peabody, who had been a close friend of founder Robert Campbell Brinkley.

With its grand opening ball in 1925, the new hotel quickly established a reputation as the center of social life for the entire region. The Peabody's Night-Cap Club, Venetian Dining Room, and open-air Marine Roof (later partially enclosed and known as the Skyway) soon became^institutions among the socially elite of both Memphis and the rich Mississippi River delta areas of West Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi. The later 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s saw a steady stream of the wealthy and prominent flock to the Peabody to dine and dance to the music of such entertainers as George Hamilton, Les Brown, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Dorothy Lamour, and the Andrews Sisters. Beginning in 1937 the music of the Peabody's bands was broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.

As David Cohn wrote in 1935, "The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard's, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby, where ducks waddle and turtles drowse, ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta..."

In addition to its significance in the social life of the region, the Peabody performed important commercial and civic functions. From the mid-1950s until the 1960s it was the city's prime convention hotel. The hotel's lower two floors contained forty retail shops and offices, as well as the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary, Kiwanis, and Civitan clubs. The entire third floor consisted of suites reserved for the commercial displays of visiting sales representatives.

The Hotel Peabody, located in downtown Memphis and known to generations of travelers and local residents as "the South's Finest-One of America's Best," was for over fifty years the symbolic center of the social, cultural, and commercial life of the MidSouth region. Completed in 1925, it was the largest and most elegant hotel in the south and represents the area's finest example of the opulence, grandeur, and complexity which characterized the era of the grand hotel.

In 1923 ground was broken for the new twelve-story, 625 rooms, $5 million structure which was to occupy the entire block between Union Avenue, Second and Third Streets and an un-named alley between Union and Gayoso Streets. Built to replace the old Peabody which had stood at Main and Monroe Streets since 1869, both hotels were named for financier George Peabody, who had been a close friend of founder Robert Campbell Brinkley.

With its grand opening ball in 1925, the new hotel quickly established a reputation as the center of social life for the entire region. The Peabody's Night-Cap Club, Venetian Dining Room, and open-air Marine Roof (later partially enclosed and known as the Skyway) soon became^institutions among the socially elite of both Memphis and the rich Mississippi River delta areas of West Tennessee, eastern Arkansas, and northern Mississippi. The later 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s saw a steady stream of the wealthy and prominent flock to the Peabody to dine and dance to the music of such entertainers as George Hamilton, Les Brown, Benny Goodman, Harry James, Dorothy Lamour, and the Andrews Sisters. Beginning in 1937 the music of the Peabody's bands was broadcast nationwide on CBS radio.

As David Cohn wrote in 1935, "The Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The Peabody is the Paris Ritz, the Cairo Shepheard's, the London Savoy of this section. If you stand near its fountain in the middle of the lobby, where ducks waddle and turtles drowse, ultimately you will see everybody who is anybody in the Delta..."

In addition to its significance in the social life of the region, the Peabody performed important commercial and civic functions. From the mid-1950s until the 1960s it was the city's prime convention hotel. The hotel's lower two floors contained forty retail shops and offices, as well as the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce, and the Rotary, Kiwanis, and Civitan clubs. The entire third floor consisted of suites reserved for the commercial displays of visiting sales representatives.

The three decades following World War II saw the slow but steady decline of the Peabody. Plagued by a series of major fires, several changes in ownership, and threatened by the increasing popularity of the new motels, the Peabody's traditional stature as a Mid-South landmark gradually became more memory than reality. Despite its acquisition and restoration by the Sheraton Hotel Corporation in the late 1960s, the pressures of a declining downtown Memphis eventually proved insurmountable and the Peabody was forced to close. Acquired by its present owners in 1975, studies are underway to determine the feasibility of re-opening the hotel.