Memphis’s history is
mostly unwritten
The public archives hold only 5 old photos of Memphis. The rest are in attics, shoeboxes and the historical society. Help start the collection.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusMemphis, also known as Old Memphis, is a town in Pickens County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2020 census, Memphis had a population of 29. As long ago as 1850, it was listed as an incorporated community on the U.S. Census, but did not appear again on the rolls until its reincorporation in 1976. In 1981, it had the "dubious" distinction of being ranked the poorest incorporated community in the United States according to the U.S. Census. As of 1984, then-Mayor Jimmy Williams (b. c1922) stated the town received just $2,000 per year from state tax receipts and federal revenue-sharing funds and a sum total of $40 in the bank. It was hoped the completion of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway w…
Its population held steady between the last two censuses: 29 people in 2010, 29 in 2020. Half of its homes were built before 1985.
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Memphis yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Start Memphis’s collection
The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Memphis’s history is told.
0 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🗓️Date a photo5 archive items have no date+2 🔁Retake an old viewTown of Memphis: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Memphis, decade by decade
2000
unknown5 items
Nothing in Memphis is on the National Register yet
That’s true of most small towns. It doesn’t mean Memphis has no history, only that no one has written up a nomination. The closest listed place is Parks E. Ball House in Aliceville, 6.6 miles away.
Memphis and the nearest listed places
How a place gets listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Town of Memphis and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (5). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.