30 Years on Mud Island
By Devin Greaney
March, 2018
It was a clear Sunday afternoon a few years ago at Greenbelt Park on Mud Island when a hike showed something I had not noticed. It was that time of year when Memphis was getting just getting into summer but not yet the stifling heat and humidity. People were looking out over the Mississippi River, kids were playing, adults running, dogs fetching and families picnicking as the sun was getting lower. Most of Memphians were off work knowing the next day most would be back for the first of five days. Time to savor the last hours of freedom. It was then I noticed this scene evoked George Seurat's "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte." Had George been born a Memphian he would have set his easel here for is 1886 masterpiece.
But that would not have been the scene here in 1886 even in 1986. A visitor during Seurat's time would have found at best a sand bar at the whims of the rising and falling of the river. Even 100 years later it was home to a seldom visited park with only slight access, the causeway from North Second Street. But May, 1988 marked the beginning of the Mud Island most know today.
Three decades have passed since modern residences opened on the island with the opening of the Riverset Apartments at 100 Riverset. Today with the even more apartments and the Harbor town subdivision the community is into its young adulthood with homes, apartments, a school, a grocery, a hotel, a gym and restaurants. The community stood the test of time and remains as vibrant as ever. But as natural a fit as residents and the island seem to be, in the years before its current state was anything but certain. Had history changed we would have had a totally different Mud Island.
Over 100 years ago locals began to notice an annoying sandbar in front of their downtown harbor. The island was home to squatters who built shacks there from the early 20th century until 1964. Call it the wild frontier where no one claimed the land so no one would stop one from living there. In the early 1960’s the island became a peninsula as the Wolf River was rerouted and a causeway built up. From 1959 to 1971 it was home to the Downtown airport, which has since moved to north of the island. Greenbelt Park- the area between the river and residences- was created in 1972 but only a dirt road on the causeway off North Second could access it and its amazing river views. The road was paved in 1975.
Long time Memphis politician Edward H. Crump wanted it dynamited as he called it an eyesore. In 1979 there was talk of moving the zoo to the island as Interstate 40 cutting through Overton Park, was still a possibility. On the southern area of the Island and with much fanfare the theme park opened Independence Day, 1982 along with an amphitheater. A scale model of the river and a museum showing the history and culture of the area were other big attractions.
From 1982 to 1985, there was more talk of an expressway cutting through what is now the neighborhood to connect to the Hernando DeSoto Bridge. In 1989 it Mud Island considered for a rock and roll/ Ancient Egyptian theme park with the name “Racapolis.” In 1994 an idea was floated at city council to give or lease part of the island to a Native American tribe for a casino.
Big changes became practical on New Year's Eve 1987 when the AW Willis Bridge opened connecting then what was then Auction Avenue to the Island. Mud Island would not be the out of the way hidden gem anymore.
Less than five months later the 352 unit Riverset Apartments began accepting move ins onto Mud Island. Rents then ranged from $410 to $680.
The 1990 Cole's City Directory – the first one that includes Riverset- showed 189 entries. The one-time sandbar was now getting respect. As the neighbors moved into the new apartments their commutes had to deal with the sound and equipment of construction and a lot of it over the years. The apartment complex would be dwarfed by even bigger changes as individual luxury homes took shape between Riverset and the AW Willis Bridge. Harbortown would be downtown's next big thing.
Lisa Norris of Harbortown enjoys a Spring afternoon
The homes were inspired by the look of seaside communities like Charleston, Savannah and Mobile but more than just the look of the homes, it captured a zeitgeist of a new aesthetic called many names: "new design movement" "neotraditional" or "new urbanism."
Dr Reza Banai, professor of Urban Planning at the University of Memphis, says In this new aesthetic garages and trash pickup were often in alleys, muting the prominence of garages and driveways in the homes. Front yards were smaller despite the trend since the 1950's of large front yards that kept a buffer between the house and street. Porches provided a way to connect with the neighbors walking by both due to the areas attractive landscaping and amenities such as schools, parks and stores which could be reached easily on foot.
Home ownership at Harbortown began July 23, 1990 when Danny and Jeanette Richardson purchased 860 Riverpark for $385,000. Another early resident was twelve-year-old Liz Barnes (now Rincon) who moved to 138 Harbor Village with her parents Cliff and Dr Paula Barnes and brother, Johnathan, from Fayetteville, Arkansas in 1992.
"We had a pool. My bedroom faced the bridge and Johnathan's faced the Pyramid ( now Bass Pro)," she remembers. She took to her bike exploring the "up and coming neighborhood" as she remembers it. But even then it "felt transitory" with "zero sense of community.” Today she says the Island has improved. As a political consultant she has attended "countless political events" and the retail environment has given it more of a feel of permanence than she remembered from the early 1990's. Until the opening of Miss Cordelia's store in January, 1998, residents headed to Midtown for their grocery shopping.
By November, 1991 newspaper reports said an estimated 1,100 people called the island home so it was no longer on its way to becoming a community. It was clearly here to stay and by that time it was had to imagine other plans for the island were on the table over the years.
Harbortown viewed from Greenbelt Park
As for the place that started it all, The Riverset, the complex seems to have aged well. A walk through shows tennis courts, pools and a work out room. The pines from the nursery are now towering shade trees that look like they could have been there a century. Rents range from $835 to $1215, which is about in line with inflation, a refreshing change from many downtowns that have gentrified out a lot of long time owners and renters. A check of license plates in the parking lot showed tags from Alaska to Vermont to Florida, California and Nuevo Leon, Mexico: thirty-three different states. Some may be just visiting but it is still showing a diverse lot for a city where the question "where did you go to high school?" is a popular conversation icebreaker.
As for the future, there are plans to close Monroe at Front and create a pedestrian bridge to the Mud Island theme park. Considered as new tenants will be the Brooks Museum and a 250- foot-tall aquarium. Trees will be planted at some of the open spaces near the southern end flag poles rise today. Ambitious plans yes, but keep in mind less than a year before Riverset began taking tenants the slack water port behind today’s residents on the East side of the island was a barge graveyard covered with rusting hulks whose days pushing products from the Gulf of Mexico up the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Ohio had long since passed.
In thirty-plus years the world too has changed along with the island. Residents have gone from phones in their home to phones in their pockets. Words like "Google" "Netflix" and "Facebook" have been added to their vocabularies. But this has not changed: joggers and walkers of the late 1980's to today all still drawn to the trails of Mud Island by the river first accompanied by Sony Walkmans, then Discmans now smartphones. But it’s that experience of living in both urban and suburban, in a mixture of the big city and small town plus amazing vistas that drew people then, today and times to come.
After all, those sunsets never get old.
Sources:
Greenway Park Opens
Memphis Press-Scimitar 9/11/1972. P 19
Rockopolis reference
SHLENKER SCRUBS EGYPT AS THEME FOR MUD ISLAND Commercial Appeal. July 10, 1990
Riverstet Rentals in 1988
Commercial Appeal. July 10, 1988. F1
Riverset Holds Grand Opening. Commercial Appeal July 28, 1988.pB4
Crump wanted to blow up island
Mud Island Makeover
The RDC wants to nip sags and tuck bags at a park that's seen better days
Memphis Daily News Nov 30, 2009
Casino story
Casino idea deals island to Indians. The Commercial Appeal April 29, 1994
Mud Island Expressway
Commercial Appeal May 23, 1983 p A7
Mud Island Zoo
Commercial Appeal Dec 1, 1979 p. A1
Home Owners
First Home Bought On Mud Island. The Commercial Appeal. August 2, 1990. P CE7
Squatters on the island
Memphis In Black and White. By Beverly G. Bond and Janann Sherman. 2003
The Future
The Commercial Appeal. Memphis plans $125 million Mud Island aquarium, new home for Brooks. October 17, 2017
Riverfront Concept Plan Intersects with Many Others About Key City Asset. Memphis Daily News. July 20, 2017