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Continue the MEMPHIS Thread of Photos
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Photo by Tim Wheat.
So much of what I see around Memphis is in some state of falling apart. This church is farther along than most, it is unused, tripped and actually falling down. The roof is caving in and windows and walls are failing. It is strange that this is a subject for photos. I don't really wish to show the new stuff in Memphis; in its own way it is also falling down, but in such an early stage you don't notice. Like when Bob Dylan sings: "If you aren't busy being born, you are busy dying."The old stuff has a compelling feeling and this particular church must have been very nice at some point. I look at the inside and I wonder what it was like in the past. I watch as my own 100 year-old home slowly falls apart and I work to keep it together.
Last night the hard rain overran the flashing around the old chimney for the defunct and unused furnace that was in our basement. The basement was filled-in and concreted over in the 1970s, but some of the old steam pipes and a water reservoir still exist. The leak is a remaining part of that system also. The rain leaks in and has damaged the kitchen ceiling. I must stop the leak and I will spend a day on the ladder in the kitchen repairing the ceiling.
By the time I am done with my ceiling repair, some other part of the house will have failed and need repair.
I believe that is why the gradual crumbling of the environment is part of the story of Memphis. Near my home the Mid South Coliseum is ready for the bulldozer. It will soon be razed to make a parking lot for an outdoor soccer field. There are some locals who are working to save it but here in Memphis the old is undervalued while the new is horribly over-prized.
I feel that I am a part of saving the Coliseum, but really muy effort has to go into saving my home. One of this cities great accomplishments was saving the SEARS building and rehabilitating it into apartments, businesses and a school. It is a community in one building. Of course the SEARS building is huge - now called the Crosstown Concourse, but it represents the best of how people can make the old beautiful and useful.
I typically criticize the Memphis Area Transit Authority by suggesting they are working to develop a transportation system for the 1980s. The management seems immune to new ideas and Memphis is decades behind in every aspect of transportation. During the pandemic, they were able to upgrade the fare box from cash only to a magnetic card. That put MATA about twenty-five years behind every other US city rather than fifty years back.
Crosstown is an exception. Most of Memphis is falling down. It will be torn down and replaced by something new. I do feel the loss is greater than the replacement. I suppose my view is that of a dying city. One that cannot adequately replace its structure and soul.
