History

The Soulsville neighborhood got its name from the marquee of the Stax recording studio, which displayed “SOULSVILLE USA” in response to Motown’s “Hitsville, USA” sign.

Stax produced artists like Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Isaac Hayes, and Booker T & the MGs. But Stax was more than just a studio – it was a place where diverse people with diverse sounds converged to create something new in American soul music.

The sound was not the only unique element of the Stax story:

Black and white working together in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962, you were making more than just music history. During the most explosive period of the civil rights movement… the heartbeat of Stax came from its half black, half white house band, its multiracial songwriting staff, and the songs themselves, which mixed down-home blues and R&B with more than a little country music… But the catalyst that turned R&B into soul music was gospel.

-          Jim Stewart, Stax Co-Founder

The staff was about fifty-fifty (black and white), the creative people were fifty-fifty, and the key rhythm section was Booker T. & the MGs. And by that combination, the feel of the white side and the black side of music, by combining those two, I think we crossed over and touched a lot of people. I think we were instrumental in changing a lot of the attitudes about the black-white situation.

-          William Bell, Stax singer/songwriter

Many of the artists involved in the success of Stax lived in the neighborhood surrounding the studio or knew one another from church or school in the community. The Satellite record shop adjacent to the studio served as a neighborhood hangout and provided an instant focus group for the music being recorded next door.

The circumstances made it easy, almost inevitable, for a diversity of artists to bump into one another – and end up in the studio combining sounds. The setting facilitated what economists today would call “knowledge spillovers” – part of the fuel of a creative economy. It is this sort of convergence that the Memphis Music Magnet model hopes to foster and support through geographic proximity.

To learn more about the history of Soulsville, see the Stax Museum’s About Soulsville page, and the museum exhibit, FROM THE SOUL: An Intimate Portrait of Soulsville, USA.

Rebirth, Assets, and Lasting Potential

Stax boomed in the 1960s, but went bust in the mid-70s. The Soulsville neighborhood, already modest, declined, saddled with problems of disinvestment, flight, and public housing.

But the area has seen significant renewal in recent years, anchored by key developments and the efforts of neighborhood institutions. In 2003 the Stax Museum of American Soul Music was built on the site of the Stax recording studio (torn down in 1989) as an exact replica of the original structure. The development also includes the adjacent Stax Music Academy, which serves at-risk youth through music and mentoring, and the Soulsville Charter School. The Lemoyne-Owen College Community Development Corporation supports the neighborhood through housing and economic development programs, and is developing the new Towne Center at Soulsville, across the street from the Stax Museum. The area’s public housing complex has been replaced with a mixed-income HOPE VI community (College Park) built with new urbanist design principles. Another HOPE VI community (University Place) is being developed adjacent to Soulsville. Soulsville is also home to the Memphis Black Arts Alliance, housed in the FireHouse Community Arts Center, a renovated historic 1910 fire station located at a key neighborhood gateway. Both the Memphis Black Arts Alliance and the Stax Music Academy have tremendous potential as place-based resources for home-growing talent, and solidify the rationale for an arts-based neighborhood revitalization program in Soulsville.

The Soulsville neighborhood remains one of the poorest in the city and still suffers with high unemployment, low levels of education, and a lack of private market interest. But the neighborhood’s mix of rich assets, heritage, geographic location (with close proximity to downtown and thriving midtown neighborhoods), community activism, strong local institutions, organizational capacity, affordable properties, and available land make Soulsville fertile ground for a new creative and collaborative approach to revitalization.

Music Heritage Properties

Soulsville retains an underlying historical music fabric that can serve as a significant asset to the development of the Memphis Music Magnet program. The neighborhood is home to several properties that are tied to important figures in Memphis music, including the former homes of Aretha Franklin; influential blues musician, Memphis Slim; Booker T. Jones; James Alexander of the Bar-Kays; and legendary gospel composer Herbert Brewster’s East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church.

Reclaiming music heritage properties, many of which now lie vacant, by reprogramming them with active uses accessible to neighborhood residents can help promote neighborhood revitalization through physical and cultural renovation.

Figure 1 below shows the Soulsville target area, highlighting selected neighborhood assets and music heritage properties.

Figure 2, a slide from the Soulsville Community Asset map, illustrates the benefits of the neighborhood’s geographic location. Explore the Community Asset Map to learn more about the potential of the Soulsville neighborhood.

Target Area Map

Figure 2. Soulsville Proximity (http://www.urban-advantage.com/SoulsvilleUSA/map.html)