Quick Facts
- Date: May 22, 1819 (widely used for civic observances based on the first recorded sale of a Memphis town lot)
- Location: Fourth Chickasaw Bluff above the Mississippi River
- Founders: John Overton, Andrew Jackson, and James Winchester
- Town Plan: A rectilinear grid with four public squares; today’s Court Square preserves that vision downtown
- Surveyor: William Lawrence
- Name Origin: Chosen for the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis
- Incorporation: 1826
Main Story
High ground along the Mississippi made the Fourth Chickasaw Bluff a logical place for a town. On land long associated with the Chickasaw, investors John Overton, Andrew Jackson, and James Winchester organized a new settlement in 1819 and named it “Memphis” after the ancient city on the Nile. They hired surveyor William Lawrence to lay out a modern plan featuring a street grid and generous public squares.
While historians have used different milestones to mark the city’s beginning, Memphis’s practical founding date is recognized as May 22, 1819—the day the first town lot sale was recorded. That transaction put the planned city onto the public record and set in motion its development along the riverfront.
Within a few years, the grid and squares shaped the nascent downtown. Court Square, set at the plan’s heart, remains a visible link to those origins. Memphis’s strategic perch on the river soon attracted trade and travelers, establishing the community’s trajectory as a transportation hub and setting the foundation for later growth in rail, cotton commerce, and culture—threads central to Memphis history and the future Beale Street music corridor.
Legacy
The 1819 founding imprinted a civic blueprint that still guides downtown Memphis. The enduring public spaces, the river orientation, and the name itself—evoking a storied world city—helped define Memphis’s identity as the Bluff City. From that recorded lot sale to today’s 901, the city’s origins continue to inform its role as a crossroads of commerce, culture, and community.
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