Downtown Itinerary: History Trail

Discover the captivating history of Downtown Jackson through the self-guided History Trail. This tour highlights significant historical spots, offering a unique opportunity to delve into the stories and heritage that have shaped our city. Thanks to Visit Jackson TN’s collaboration and expertise, we're now able to offer a unique and engaging way to explore Downtown Jackson while staying active and healthy. Download their app or click the link below to view a map of the walking trail.

Visit Jackson, TN  seeks to connect visitors with what is happening in Jackson and West Tennessee.

• Electro Chalybeate Well, 604 S Royal St.

  Thousands visited this artesian well in the early 1900s to drink its mineral water believed to cure internal ailments. Built in 1885, it was once part of a 54-acre park that also included a zoo, large goldfish and lily pond, bandstand, children’s playground, and popcorn stand.

• Jackson NC&SL Railroad Depot, 582 S Royal St.

  The Jackson depot (P&M Division) is owned and has been beautifully restored by the City of Jackson, Tenn. The depot was built by the NC&StL in 1907, and was home to the City of Jackson NC&StL Depot and Railroad Museum, and the Jackson Model Railroad Club. The train museum has since moved to the Casey Jones Home & Railroad Museum, and the depot has been renamed Jaxon Station and repurposed for the Soul Collective, an entrepreneurial incubator for black businesses.

• “Jackson Spoke Here” Historic Marker

  Here in a grove, Oct. 8, 1840, Andrew Jackson spoke before about 10,000 enthusiastic listeners. Accompanied by James K. Polk and Felix Grundy, he was an honored guest at a barbecue. Veterans of the War of 1812, welcomed him upon his second visit. This marker was erected by the Tennessee Historical Commission.

• The Neely House, 575 S Royal St.

  The Murphy Hotel, also known as the Neely House, is a historical hotel in Jackson, Tennessee, U.S. It was designed in the Neoclassical architectural style and is the city's only remaining railroad hotel structure. It has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since February 11, 1993. The Neely House is currently home to Skillet Junction on the first floor and second floor office space.

• Marathon Motor Works, 342 N Royal St.

  This was the original location of the Southern Engine & Boiler Works which became the Marathon Motor Works. William Collier, a Southern Engine and Boiler Works engineer, designed an automobile in 1906, and by 1910 approximately six hundred cars were made in Jackson and sold as Southerns. The two models, a rumble-seat roadster and a five-seat touring car, sold for fifteen hundred dollars. The discovery of another auto also called Southern led Collier to name his models Marathon.

• Former Site of Merry High School, 225 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

  Named in 1922 for its first principal, Austin Raymond Merry, (1856-1921) who pioneered its development from the elementary level and operated over three years, at the beginning, without cost to the city. It was moved from Church Street to this location on Tanyard Street in 1935 with A.J. Payne as principal, succeeded by C.N. Berry in 1949. It was the only high school for blacks in the city. The school was relocated on Lane Avenue at Royal Street in 1957 and was integrated by court order with formerly all white Jackson Central in 1970 to form Jackson Central Merry High. This marker was placed on July 4, 1981 by the Merry High Class of 1941.

• Austin Raymond Merry, 800 S Highland Ave.

  When the Jackson school system organized in 1879, the first black educator and principal hired was Austin Raymond Merry. Professor Merry pioneered the development of the first school for African Americans in Madison County. He established the South Jackson School for Colored which was the forerunner of what was to become Merry High School. Professor Merry received his B.A. and Masters degrees from Fisk University in the 1800's and was the first African American in Jackson, Madison County to have a college degree. Mr. Merry dedicated his life to making a quality education available to Jackson and Madison County Black youth.

• "Big Maybelle Smith" Historic Marker, S Highland Ave & Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr.

  Big Maybelle Smith was born in Jackson on May 1, 1924. She became an award winning R&B singer until her death in 1972. She was “discovered” while singing in a church that was once located in this location right here in Jackson, Tennessee!

• Mother Liberty CME Church, 456 S Highland Ave.

  In 1870, a group of 41 former slaves organized the historically black denomination in Jackson, formerly known as the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America. The religious group has since expanded widely across the United States, Jamaica, Haiti and 27 African countries.

• M.D. Anderson Home, 111 E Orleans St.

  Monroe Dunaway Anderson is known as the "father" of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He was born June 29, 1873 on McNairy Hill at the present site of 111 East Orleans Street. Educated in Jackson City Schools and at Union University, he was a banker, philanthropist, and founding partner of Anderson, Clayton & Co., the world's largest merchandiser of cotton during the mid-20th century. His $19 million estate was as of 1939, the largest charitable fund created in the state of Texas. Anderson's generosity not only helped establish the world's largest medical center but also libraries, auditoriums, college buildings, and, on the campus of Lambuth University, a planetarium. He is buried with his family in Jackson's Riverside Cemetery.

• M.D. Anderson Memorial Plaza + Monroe Dunaway Anderson Marker, 111 S Highland Ave.

  Monroe Dunaway Anderson is known as the "father" of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas. He was born June 29, 1873 on McNairy Hill at the present site of 111 East Orleans Street. Educated in Jackson City Schools and at Union University, he was a banker, philanthropist, and founding partner of Anderson, Clayton & Co., the world's largest merchandiser of cotton during the mid-20th century. His $19 million estate was as of 1939, the largest charitable fund created in the state of Texas. Anderson's generosity not only helped establish the world's largest medical center but also libraries, auditoriums, college buildings, and, on the campus of Lambuth University, a planetarium. He is buried with his family in Jackson's Riverside Cemetery.

• Sue Shelton White Suffragist Monument, 101 E Main St.

  The only Tennessee suffragist jailed for burning an image of President Woodrow Wilson in a bonfire in February 1919. She helped lead the way to the passage of the 19th Amendment in the Tennessee General Assembly. Later, in Washington, D.C., she helped write and implement the Social Security Act.

• Civil Rights Woolworth Sit-In Exhibit, 101 E Main St.

  In the fall of 1960, young college students fought to end racial segregation in a southern town through sit-in protests at Woolworth's store. The activists endured threats, harassment and had objects thrown at them when they chose to sit at the “whites only” lunch counter within the store. This protest sparked a movement throughout the city as demonstrations moved on to other businesses downtown in an effort to fight Jim Crow laws and end segregation. An exhibit at City Hall honoring the “freshman four” civil rights pioneers from Lane College including Shirlene Mercer, Kimmie Davis, Wesley McClure and Ernest Brooks, Sr.

• Davy Crockett’s Farewell, 100 E Main St.

  Site of Davy Crockett’s farewell speech-This marker with a quote by David Crockett is on the northeast side of the Madison County Courthouse. According to some reports on this site in 1835 Congressman Crockett, defeated for reelection, told the citizens of Jackson and Tennessee "You can go to hell, but I am going to Texas!" He went to Texas where he died in the Battle of the Alamo.

• "Lynching in America" Historic Marker (Madison County Courthouse)

  Thousands of African Americans were victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States between the Civil War and World War II. The lynching of African Americans during this era was a form of racial terrorism used to intimidate black people and enforce racial hierarchy and segregation. Lynching was most prevalent in the South. Community leaders who spoke out against this racial terror were themselves often targeted by violent mobs. Millions of African Americans fled the South to escape the climate of terror and trauma created by these acts of violence. Of the more than 237 documented racial terror lynchings that took place in Tennessee between 1877 and 1950, at least three took place in Madison County. This marker was erected in 2020 by Jackson-Madison County Community Remembrance Project and Equal Justice Initiative.

• 61st US Colored Infantry Regiment, 100 E Main St.

  In June 1862 the Union Army established a headquarters in Jackson. The provost marshal's office located at the court house was the recruiting station for the Union Army. In May 1863, during the Civil War, over 100 African American men from Madison County joined the Union Army to help establish the United States Colored Troops authorized by the War Department's General Order 143 on May 23, 1863. Enough men enlisted to form Companies A & B of the 6lst Regiment U. S. Colored Infantry Regiment.

• Madison County Confederate Monument, 100 E Main St.

  To the Confederate dead of Madison Co. Federal records show they had from first to last two million six hundred thousand men in service, while the Confederates all told had but little over six hundred thousand. Madison County furnished the South more soldiers than she had voters.

  History is an impartial witness to its philosophic judgement. We commit the motives and deeds of our immortal dead.

• Madison County World War I Memorial Fountain, 100 E Main St.

  This fountain was erected by the surgical dressings workers of the World War in admiration of the living and to honor the dead who answered their country's call.

• Greyhound Bus Station, 407 E Main St.

  The Greyhound station was built in 1938 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1993 for its architectural significance in the style of art deco. Before it accepted its final Greyhound bus in October 2018, it was the last original Greyhound station in Tennessee still being used for its original purpose. Now it is currently Doe's Eat Place.

• Ulysses S. Grant Headquarters, 535 E Main St.

  In 1862 when the Union forces occupied Jackson during the months following the Battle of Shiloh, General Ulysses S. Grant made his headquarters in this area of Jackson from late September to early November.

• St. Luke Episcopal Church, 309 E. Baltimore St.

  St. Luke's Episcopal Church is a historic church in Jackson, Tennessee. The congregation was formed in 1832, the first of five new Episcopal congregations planted in West Tennessee that year. The church building dates to 1845, although it was only partially completed that year. It was consecrated by Bishop Otey on May 14, 1853. The church's bell and its hand-pumped organ were installed in 1852. The church has a brass altar cross that is a copy of a cross in a Westminster Abbey chapel. The church was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.

• New Southern Hotel, 118 E Baltimore St.

  ​​The New Southern Hotel was built in 1927 and was considered not only a showplace for downtown Jackson, but also the center of social life for the area. From the opening date until well into the 1970's, The New Southern Hotel hosted meetings, fundraisers, weddings, and major events.

  *It still serves as an event space today along with providing affordable senior housing.

• Union Bank of Tennessee Robbery, 120 E Baltimore St.

  Citizens of Jackson awoke on the morning of February 4, 1859, to discover that the local branch of the Union Bank of Tennessee had been robbed of $17,300 in paper currency and $5,700 in gold coins. Tragically, the bank's clerk, 28-year-old George E. Miller had been brutally murdered in the robbery. Despite a diligent search by local authorities, the murderer (or murderers) was never brought to justice. Memories of the unsolved crimes resurfaced – literally – over 125 years later, when city workers unearthed a mysterious cache of gold coins believed to be part of the bank's stolen money.

• First United Methodist Church, 200 S Church St.

  In 1826, the Reverend Thomas Neely organized Jackson's First Methodist Church. Its first house of worship was built in 1831 on the southeast corner of Church and Chester Streets. During the Civil War, Union forces used the church's 1851 edifice as a hospital. In 1870, First Methodist played a major role in organizing the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, which is now known as the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. This sanctuary formally opened on September 6, 1914

• Legends of Tennessee Music at the Carnegie, 305 E College St.

  The Carnegie began as Jackson's first public library. Now the building is devoted to telling stories in a different way. A Civil War Exhibit occupies the basement. Its small theater is a perfect, intimate venue for music and plays, and the first floor is devoted to the music of West Tennessee.

• The Carnegie Center of Arts & History Library, 305 E College St.

  Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie donated millions of dollars to cities across the world to build libraries. One such donation was made to Jackson. The present Carnegie Center for Arts and History, located in downtown Jackson, opened in 1903 as the Jackson Free Library, the town's first library, financed by Jackson City Council funds and a matching $30,000 grant from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. In 1968, the Carnegie was replaced by the newer larger Jackson-Madison County Library and was allowed to fall into disrepair from 1968 to 1987.

• "Gil-Scott Heron" Historic Marker, 305 E College St.

  Rose Newhouse’s mural honors the memory of Jackson native and Civil Rights activist, Gil Scott-Heron, who is also known as the “Godfather of Rap”. He was one of the first three African American students to integrate Tigrett Middle School. It was completed on September 21st, 2023.

• Riverside Cemetery, 300 Riverside Dr.

  Established in 1830, many of the region's pioneers are buried here including the founder of Jackson, Dr. William Butler and M.D Anderson, known as the "father" of the Texas Medical Center in Houston, Texas.. Also found are veterans of all wars from the Revolution to World War II. In two sections lie unnamed Confederate soldiers who participated in the Battle of Jackson during the Civil War.

• Illinois Central Railroad Division Office, 245 Sycamore St.

  This building was constructed by the Illinois Central Railroad circa 1920. It was used as their division headquarters, and as a communications center for the adjacent yards. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places.