Dixie Roots: 153 Adams Avenue

Most records I’ve found of the antebellum Klinck family in Memphis show them living at the same address: 153 Adams Avenue. As a fan of the Shelby County Archives and a constant stalker of their website, my first thought upon discovering this address was of one of the Archive’s documentaries, The View from Adams Avenue. Watching, I learned something about the neighborhood that surprised me – and inspired a track of research that continues today - the neighborhood was once opulent. So opulent that it was known as Millionaire’s Row.

So far, I only have little tid-bits of information about the property, which I’ll share in photo form. While the neighborhood was grand and the house likely large, I’m suspicious as to whether it was large enough to support the number of people (including servants) that are listed in various census and slave schedule documents. I continue to search for a farm or country home outside the Shelby county limits.

I’m also interested in the fact that everyone in the Klinck family seems to have lived at 153 at one point or another – even after they married and began families of their own! In 1880, when John G. Klinck’s eldest child, Caroline Kinney, was head of the household, there were no fewer than 11 people living together in the house. Additionally, I’d love to figure out how the property changed hands after John’s death in 1869. By today’s standards, one would assume that with Caroline living there and being the eldest, John left the property to her upon his death. However, it wasn’t common for women to own land then, so I don’t want to assume. 20 years later, a property changed hands between Caroline and her little sister, Mary E. (Klinck) Grader. Unfortunately, the document is almost entirely illegible so I don’t know if the document pertains to 153 Adams or to another property.

Also unfortunate: the house no longer stands. According to the Shelby County Archives, “The address numbering system changed sometime between 1900 and 1905, so 153 Adams would have become 283 Adams. You had trouble finding information on the property because of Urban Renewal in the 1950s-1960s. Run-down, blighted neighborhoods were demolished to make way for something new, and the block of Adams that your ancestors’ home was on was one of these areas."

*Special thanks to the Shelby County Archives and especially to Monty Shane of Victorian Village, Inc who were instrumental in uncovering information about the house!

To view the Adams Avenue documentary.
For more information on the tremendous efforts of Victorian Village, Inc, or to support their cause.