The original Peabody Hotel was at 305 Main St. at Monroe Ave. It was still standing when the new hotel was built at 149 Union Ave. between 2nd and 3rd Streets. The site of the original hotel (which was later torn down) is now occupied by an office building known as the Brinkley Plaza Building.

My gg uncle, James Virgil Johnston, owned a clothing store which was located in the original Peabody Hotel. He was a 2nd cousin once removed to Ann Overton, wife of Robert C. Brinkley that built the hotel.

There are exterior pics of the orginal building, but very few interiors pics. A book has recently been published with many wonderful photos of the new building.

A plaque in the new hotel building states that the Union Ave. location had once been the site of the home of Mr. Minor Meriwether and his wife, Elizabeth Edmonds (Avery) Meriwether, sister of CSA Lt. Col. William T. Avery. She is considered by some to be the first woman to have legally voted in the United States. Her husband had placed some of large realestate holdings in her name and she was therefore paying taxes on the property, but not happy about "taxation without representation". She gathered many of the wealthy women from notable families to support her in her cry the vote and fearing the ire of their own wives, the election commission authorized Mrs. Meriweather to vote in the election of 1872. I have been told that when she once again presented herself to vote in 1873 she found they had a "special" gilt edge ballot just for her, but she refused to cast her ballot; knowing the "special" ballot was so they could recognize hers and remove it before the count. She wrote a memoir, "Recollecting Ninety Two Years" and although few copies still exist there are some available. It contains many interesting facts and observations about the Memphis area. She personally met with Gen. Grant during the occupation of Memphis to complain about conditions. She and her husband eventually moved to St. Louis, MO where they both died.

Mr. Meriweather was my 4th cousin (4 generations removed).
A sister of Mrs. Meriwether, Cornelia Estelle Avery, was married to Spence Hall Lamb, who was a prominent in real estate and who sold the land in 1890 to my gg gf on which I now live.

RE: Jefferson Davis. He resided in Memphis both before and after the Civil War. He and his 2nd wife were frequent guests of Mr.(later CSA Col.) & Mrs. (nee Driver) William R. Hunt at their home which contained one of the best private libraies in the South at that time. The house (begun c. 1835) still stands, although most of the wonderful contents have been sold and it is now in use as a "bed & breakfast" - restaurant/lounge.
In 1869 Davis was made President of the Carolina Life Insurance Co. here in Memphis and was living for a while in the orginal Peabody Hotel. He later had a home on Adams Ave. which no longer exists.

An old "joke" here in Memphis is that there are so many places that claimed "Jefferson Davis slept or ate here" that he must have not have had time to do any thing but eat and sleep and therefore had to move down to Beauvoir to get any work done!