I agree most with this statement: “The problem I have with the Heritage Society is that they spend all their time getting injunctions keeping people from tearing down old buildings but they don’t provide any funding for preserving and using the buildings.”

I think what this is really about is the area HOAs, a select group of Midtown residents and the Heritage Society attempting to pick and choose what businesses they want near them. If the Heritage Society wants this building to stay, why didn’t its members band together to buy it?

While some might like to drive by the lovely, old crumbling buildings, they add to urban decay. They slowly fall apart and become magnets for graffiti, trash and vermin. If no other viable use can be reasonably found, then they should make way for places that can serve the public.

I don’t even want to think about this. Memphians spend millions of dollars for McMansions, but can’t cough up the money to keep the Hunt-Phelan’s stuff with the house. Last I heard the Magevney House was closed to the public. Just bulldoze the whole city already and call it a day, my will to fight died when we lost the Memphis Belle.

I love old buildings too, when they serve a purpose i.e. are preserved and of use as museum, cool office space, etc. What I don’t love are old, neglected, run-down, rat-infested buildings that drop bricks on you as you walk by.

The problem I have with the Heritage Society is that they spend all their time getting injunctions keeping people from tearing down old buildings but they don’t provide any funding for preserving and using the buildings.

St. Jude had a nasty run-in with them 10 or 15 years ago over some buildings on the SJ campus. The Heritage Society stopped SJ from tearing down the buildings, but wouldn’t DO anything with them themselves. They wanted SJ to pay to have the buidlings renovated. Now, no offense, but SJ is in the business of saving children’s lives, not saving old buildings. Obviously, they’re not going to spend their money – donor dollars – on preserving the buildings.

So still they sit, taking up space on the campus and what’s won really? They’re there, but they’re not providing any historical relevance. No one is driving by SJ and saying, oh, look at those lovely old crumbling buildings.

We should get a group together and stand in front of the bulldozers like true activists. Or can they arrest us for that now?

I live in Collierville, and we still have a lot of our old buildings sticking around. But I have to wonder how long they will stay. With the way our world is changing, history will be something only read about in books. We are on our way to having banks on every street corner, when we are all too poor to save. It’s very sad, really.