Zooming in on 421 Monroe Avenue

This building, it lingers in my mind. The dead birds, the leftover merchandise hanging on the walls, the hand-painted plywood sign, all these things accumulate into an encapsulation of the 1970's Memphis, the pre-yuppy Brooklynification Memphis, the pre-tamp'n'tap, Tart (I myself do love some fine French pastries!), wine on tap, olive boutique Memphis. (now, I wasn't here in the 1970's but know it through photographs and its relationship to my experiences of 1970's New York and San Francisco) This neighborhood maintains a sense of that time, quickly yeilding to a Memfix makeover. The danger is that we address the surface, we paper over decades of ethical problems, we take Jim Crow, riots, the undoing of Brown vs. Education and we put a bird on it. The challenge is to use art to reinvigorate the neighborhood while at the same time drawing attention to the real concerns, the problematics of our city.

So, I looked at this building and I sketched it. I photographed it and I looked at its recent history.

It sits at this specific place on the corner of Monroe Avenue and Lauderdale Street.

Longitude: -90.042808

Latitude: 35.141303

Exactly parallel this building in another city in another country (at the same latitude but at a different longitude is this building (check out that picturesque tree):

This is the neighborhood in Japan that sits exactly parallel to the Edge:

The building at 421 Monroe was built in 1917. it was the first Cadillac dealership in Memphis. Later it was a Diesel Mechanics School, then a motorcycle parts store, and then a garden-supply and tractor supply store (which could account for all of the belts on the wall in the photo below).

During the 1950's the building was a diesel mechanics training school, part of a chain around the country (and Canada) that offered correspondence courses and in-shop training. They had a couple of buildings in Memphis (one on South Main).

In 1917, the Amagliani brothers – John, Mike, Gene, Joe, and Frank – opened Memphis Motorcycle Co. The store’s first location was on Cooper, but it later moved to 190 Union Avenue, on what is now the grounds of AutoZone Park. Memphis Motorcycle Co. was one of the first Schwinn dealerships, selling Schwinn bicycles, Henderson motorcycles, and Whizzer motorbikes, as well as some Indian brand motorcycles. The store also distributed bike parts throughout the Southeast.

Here is an excerpt from the Feb. 2006 Commercial Appeal obituary for Mike Amagliani:

"Mr. Amagliani was the owner of Memphis Cycle & Supply and the Schwinn dealerships of Memphis Motorcycle and Mt. Moriah Bicycle Shops. He was a Sergeant in the Army and served in WWII in the European Theatre. After the war, he was active in the American Legion, Post 1 and was a member of the Knights of Columbus and the Moose Lodge; and was an avid golfer and bowler. During the 1950's, he was Secretary and Prize Sponsor of the St. Jude Fishing rodeo for the Italian Society."

The motorcycle parts store and then the garden supply store were both during the time when the building was owned by the Amagliani family. Later they owned a Schwinn dealership on Summer Avenue that only closed recently, after the owner was stabbed during a break-in and later decided he'd had enough.

Here are the Amaglianis with their cards:

The garden supply and tractory supply wholesaler was founded in 1963. It employed six people and had an estimated annual income of $720,000 (that doesn't seem possible to me. It's what I found on web site: Manta http://www.manta.com/c/mmfr0bc/memphis-cycle-supply-co)