Chickasaw Gardens is an established upscale neighborhood in midtown

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Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

Geography

Chickasaw Gardens is located between Central and Poplar Avenues, near the center of the Interstate 240 loop. The Memphis Pink Palace Museum and Planetarium, the Central Library of the Memphis Public Library System, and the

University of Memphis } The University of Memphis (UofM) is a public research university in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1912, the university has an enrollment of more than 22,000 students. The university maintains the Herff College of Engineering, the Center for Ea ...

are nearby.

Setting

Chickasaw Gardens features a lake, sometimes called Memphis Lake or Chickasaw Gardens Lake, home to ducks and other birds. There is a concrete path leading around the west side. Neither fishing nor boats are allowed. Running parallel to the lake is a ditch, along the west side of the lake. It is surrounded by a fence. The west end goes to

Orange Mound Orange Mound, a neighborhood in southeast Memphis, Tennessee, was the first neighborhood in America to be built by and for African Americans. Built on the grounds of the former Deaderick plantation, the Orange Mound subdivision was developed for ...

and under Central Avenue, while the east end goes under Poplar Avenue and beside the East High School football and track field. Crossing the ditch, there are vehicular bridges and a foot bridge — closer to the southeastern side of the lake, right beside the south car bridge. Most of the streets in Chickasaw Gardens are named after different Native American

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

s. Examples include

Catawba Catawba may refer to: *Catawba people, a Native American tribe in the Carolinas *Catawba language, a language in the Catawban languages family *Catawban languages Botany *Catalpa, a genus of trees, based on the name used by the Catawba and other N ...

Lane,

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

Road,

Chickasaw The Chickasaw ( ) are an indigenous people of the Southeastern Woodlands. Their traditional territory was in the Southeastern United States of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee as well in southwestern Kentucky. Their language is classif ...

Parkway, and

Natchez Natchez may refer to: Places * Natchez, Alabama, United States * Natchez, Indiana, United States * Natchez, Louisiana, United States * Natchez, Mississippi, a city in southwestern Mississippi, United States * Grand Village of the Natchez, a site o ...

Lane.

History

Chickasaw Gardens is located on land that was originally part of the estate of

Clarence Saunders Clarence Saunders may refer to: * Clarence Saunders (grocer) (1881–1953), American grocer, pioneer of supermarkets * Clarence Saunders (athlete) (born 1963), Bermudian high jumper {{hndis, Saunders, Clarence ...

, the Memphis inventor of the first self-service grocery store named 'Piggly Wiggly'. The Chickasaw Gardens lake was originally constructed as part of an elaborate garden with rustic bridges and a playhouse for Saunders' children. Saunders lost his fortune in 1923 during the stock market crash, and the estate was sold to developers. A number of the houses in the neighborhood were designed by prominent Memphis architect George Mahan.

Movies

'' The Firm'', the 1993 film based on a

John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. (; born February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas) is an American novelist, lawyer and former member of the 7th district of the Mississippi House of Representatives, known for his popular legal thrillers. According to the Ame ...

novel, has many scenes filmed in Memphis. The home used for the residence of the main characters is in a different neighborhood, Belle Meade. ''

21 Grams ''21 Grams'' is a 2003 American psychological drama film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu from a screenplay by Guillermo Arriaga. The film stars Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Danny Huston and Benicio Del Toro. The sec ...

'', which featured

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He has won two Academy Awards, for his roles in the mystery drama ''Mystic River'' (2003) and the biopic ''Milk'' (2008). Penn began his acting career in televisi ...

and

Naomi Watts Naomi Ellen Watts (born 28 September 1968) is a British actress. After her family moved to Australia, she made her film debut there in the drama '' For Love Alone'' (1986) and then appeared in three television series, '' Hey Dad..!'' (1990), '' ...

and was nominated for two

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

s, was partially shot in a Chickasaw Gardens house.21 Grams film locations.
The Worldwide Guide to Movie Locations: Exploring film locations around the world.

External links

Chickasaw Gardens Home Owners Association
website.

References

{{coord, 35.1288, -89.9630, display=title Neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee