WikiPortallus: Vollintine Hills Historic District.html

Vollintine Hills Historic District

(U.S. Registered Historic District)

Location:

Roughly bounded by Vollintine, Brown, McLean, and Evergreen, Memphis, Tennessee

Architect:

Awsumb, George; Gruber, Herman

Architectural style(s):

Colonial Revival, Other

Added to NRHP:

July 11, 2007¹

NRHP Reference#:

07000684

MPS:

Memphis MPS

Governing body:

Private

Vollintine Hills Historic District is a historic district located in the Midtown area of Memphis, Tennessee, notable for its cohesive collection of 78 post-World War II Minimal Traditional and ranch-style houses built around a former synagogue. "The neighborhood represents the efforts of members of an Orthodox religious group to accommodate their beliefs by developing a synagogue and housing for the congregation within easy walking distance.”²

Houses within the district are largely “intact and homogenous building stock constructed between 1946 – 1957” in conjunction with the synagogue, and are within walking distance of the former synagogue. They originally served to house its orthodox Jewish congregation." The district has been singled out for its unity by both “its historic building stock and contiguity to the former synagogue.”³

Vollintine Hills is notable as a clearly definable geographic area, whose physical development, “defined by the needs of a religious community,” is “readily distinguishable from surrounding properties.”³

Although the synagogue was vacated in 1984 and moved to a new location farther east in Memphis, the original building still stands and in 1992 was sold by the congregation to the Gethsemane Garden Church of God in Christ.⁵⁶ The historic area “continues to be a viable area today, adapting to changing times and needs.”³

Vollintine Hills is located approximately four miles east of the downtown Memphis central building district in the northern section of the Midtown area, and is roughly bounded by Vollintine Avenue, Brown Avenue, McLean Boulevard, and Evergreen Street.

References

^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2008-04-15).
^ [1]State of Tennessee, Environment and Conservation Newsroom News Release, September 21, 2007. Accessed 2008-08-22.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Judith Johnson (January 2, 2007), National Register of Historic Places Registration: Vollintine Hills Historic DistrictPDF (32 KB), National Park Service (Section 7, page 1)
^ “Orthodox Synagogue to Be Dedicated November 28-30.” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 21, 1957.
^ Judith Johnson (January 2, 2007), National Register of Historic Places Registration: Vollintine Hills Historic DistrictPDF (32 KB), National Park Service (Section 8, page 20)
^ Members OK Sale of Old Baron Hirsch Site”, The Commercial Appeal, June 1992.