Overton Park
Overton Park is a large, public park in Midtown Memphis, Tennessee. The park grounds contain the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis Zoo, a 9-hole golf course, the Memphis College of Art, Rainbow Lake, Veterans Plaza, the Greensward, and other features. The Old Forest Arboretum of Overton Park, one of the few remaining old growth forests in Tennessee, is a natural arboretum with labeled trees along trails.
History
The property, once known locally as Lea's Woods, was purchased by Memphis on November 14, 1901, for $110,000 ; it was located along the city's eastern and northern boundary at that time. Overton Park was designed by landscape architect George Kessler as part of a comprehensive plan that also included Riverside Park and the Memphis Parkway System. The planning began in 1901, and Overton Park was established in 1906. The park is named in honor of John Overton, a co-founder of Memphis. Overton's name was selected in a competition to name the new park conducted by the Evening Scimitar, a local newspaper; the three choices in the voting were Memphis founding fathers Andrew Jackson, Overton, and James Winchester. The official naming occurred on July 25, 1902.In the 1960s and 1970s Overton Park was the subject of controversy when 26 of its were slated by highway planners to be demolished to build Interstate 40 through the park to make it easier for suburban commuters to get to downtown. A small number of residents of midtown formed a group known as Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, and challenged the plan in court. Ultimately, the United States Supreme Court ruled in their favor in the landmark case Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe.
Nevertheless, the City of Memphis and Tennessee Department of Transportation continued to propose a number of alternatives for routing Interstate 40 through Overton Park, including building the highway in a tunnel, or in a deep trench. In 1978, Citizens to Preserve Overton Park successfully nominated the park to the National Register of Historic Places, thus guaranteeing that Federal funding could not be used for projects that damaged the park's historic integrity without approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior. The Memphis Commercial Appeal called the National Registration the "final nail in the coffin" of efforts to route Interstate 40 through Overton Park.
Beginning in June 1974, the road system within the interior of Overton Park was gradually closed to motorized vehicles on weekends and holidays, which were called "People's Days". Although initially there were some objections, the new policy gained popularity, and the closures were made permanent on April 13, 1987, except for official vehicles.
When the entirely white Hein Park community walled off access to Overton Park through West Drive, predominantly black neighbors from across Jackson Avenue sued under the Civil Rights Act of 1866. In 1981 a narrowly divided U.S. Supreme Court found the barrier was legal, although dissenting Justice Thurgood Marshall admonished that "a group of white citizens has decided to act to keep Negro citizens from traveling through their urban "utopia" and the city has placed its seal of approval on the scheme."
Overton Park was selected for inclusion in the 2009 Landslide Program sponsored by The Cultural Landscape Foundation. This program "spotlights great places designed by seminal and regionally influential landscape figures, which are threatened with change."
By vote of the Memphis City Council on December 6, 2011, the nonprofit Overton Park Conservancy assumed management of of Overton Park. The 10-year agreement covers the East Picnic Area, Greensward, Formal Gardens, Old Forest State Natural Area, and Veteran's Plaza. The Levitt Shell, Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis College of Art, Memphis Zoo, and the Overton Park Golf Course are managed independently.
Brooks Museum of Art
The Brooks Museum is a privately funded, nonprofit art museum located in Overton Park. Founded in 1916, the Brooks Museum is the oldest and largest art museum in the state of Tennessee.The facility consists of 29 galleries, art classrooms, a print study room with over 4,500 works of art on paper, a research library with over 5,000 volumes, and an auditorium. The collection has over 7,000 works of art, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and examples of the decorative arts.
In 2017, the Brooks Museum announced that they will be relocating to a facility in downtown Memphis.
Levitt Shell
Overton Park also includes the famous Shell theater, where Elvis Presley gave his first paid concert on July 30, 1954.The Overton Park Shell was built in 1936 by the City of Memphis and the Works Progress Administration for $11,935, as part of the New Deal. Designed by architect Max Furbringer, it was modeled after similar shells in Chicago, New York, and St. Louis. The WPA built 27 band shells; the Overton Park Shell is one of only a few that still remain. After various changes in ownership, the Shell was renamed in 2007 as the Levitt Shell at Overton Park and a large-scale renovation underwritten by the Levitt Foundation was begun. The renovation was conducted by Memphis firm Askew Nixon Ferguson Architects with state-of-the-art audio and visual design. With the completion of the renovations on September 8, 2008, free concerts are now once again held in the Shell.
Memphis College of Art
Memphis College of Art is a small, private college of art and design located in Overton Park. It offers Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Fine Arts, Master of Arts in Art Education and Master of Arts in Teaching degrees. Some of the majors include graphic design, drawing, painting, printmaking, book arts, computer arts, photography, animation, and illustration.Founded in 1936, it moved into the Overton Park facilities in February, 1959. There are around 450 students each year, with 350 being undergraduate and 100 being graduate students. It is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. Memphis College of Art provides a rigorous curriculum in an intimate, diverse community. It has enabled generations of leading artists, designers and educators to flourish professionally and contribute valuable ideas to society. Unfortunately, due to economic problems, as of October, 2017, the college is no longer enrolling new students, and will close after graduating the present student body.
Memphis Zoo
Overton Park Zoo began in 1906, when a resident of Memphis couldn't keep his pet black bear in his backyard. He had it put in a pen in the park, which attracted many people, inspiring the idea to place more animals on display. The Memphis Zoo is now one of the largest in the United States, attracting 1 million visitors per year. The zoo houses two pandas, who are local celebrities, as well as three polar bears, brought in to the Northwest Passage exhibition which opened in March 2006.The Memphis Zoo is home to more than 3,500 animals representing over 500 different species. The Zoo has been a major tenant of Overton Park for more than 100 years. The city-owned land currently designated to the Zoo was defined by the Overton Park master plan in 1988. The Zoo is set on, of which approximately are developed.
In 2008, the Memphis Zoo was ranked "#1 Zoo in the U.S." by TripAdvisor.com. In independent surveys commissioned by TripAdvisor, the Memphis Zoo scored a 90 percent overall satisfaction score, almost 25 percent higher than the national zoo average.
The Zoo has completed over $77 million for renovation and expansion since the early 1990s. The Zoo's animal inhabitants reside in one-of-a-kind exhibitry, such as Northwest Passage and CHINA - home to giant pandas Ya Ya and Le Le. The Memphis Zoo is an accredited member of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.
In February, 2008, the Memphis Zoo cleared of old growth forest in the Old Forest Arboretum at Overton Park in order to begin construction of the Zoo's new Teton Trek exhibit. The Teton Trek exhibit will feature animals native to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem such as grizzly bears, elk, gray wolves, trumpeter swans and sandhill crane.
The Zoo's decision to clear old growth forest to build the Teton Trek exhibit has been criticized by Citizens to Preserve Overton Park and Park Friends Inc, who subsequently pursued a successful, 16-month campaign to have the Arboretum designated as a State Natural Area by the Tennessee General Assembly.
The Zoo's conservation department's mission statement is "To use science and technology for greater understanding of the natural world's ecosystems, to preserve the biodiversity of our plants and animals and to educate the public on conservation priorities."