As a former Frayser-ite, I enjoyed reading this article...
I definitely agree with him that Frayser is one of the prettiest areas (topographically speaking) in the region.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/200...the-jokes/
Frayser works to get past the jokes and the blight
Frayser, situated on some of the prettiest land in Memphis, is tipping between major redevelopment and decay
By Jerome Wright (Contact)
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Half a century ago, it all came down to infrastructure -- namely, sewers.
Frayser, the vast area north of the Wolf River, was growing in the late 1950s. The community's scenic rolling hills and curving, forested roads were attracting more and more people, seeking -- just as they do now -- an escape from an increasingly congested Memphis. Many wanted homes closer to their blue-collar manufacturing jobs at plants such as Firestone, Kimberly-Clark, DuPont and International Harvester.
The population of Frayser had expanded from 2,450 in 1940 to 16,000 in 1953, and continued to grow. The population boom drove a crucial need for better infrastructure to support those new families. There was no money in the unincorporated community, however, to improve roads and bridges, to build schools and parks, to provide adequate fire protection, to supply water to all the area's new homeowners, to build the life blood of any community experiencing growth -- sewers.
The only solution Frayser residents saw was to ask Memphis to annex the 16-square-mile area.
Memphis officials initially said no way. The cost of providing services would be a drain on city coffers when compared with the potential tax revenue.
But Frayser residents didn't give up, and in June 1957, the old Memphis City Commission finally voted to annex the community.
At midnight on Jan. 1, 1958 -- 50 years ago on Tuesday -- 20,000 Frayserites became Memphians.
Initially, it looked as if the annexation would be a financial success for the city, but it soon became evident that any tax surpluses gained from the annexation would be outpaced by spending to meet the enormous infrastructure needs of the area.
Some said it was that economic whammy that resulted in Memphis officials putting off the annexation of Whitehaven for a decade.
Frayser now has about 50,000 residents. It is bounded on the south by the Wolf River; the Loosahatchie River on the north and west, and the Canadian National railroad tracks on the east.
Times have changed. Hardly anyone wants to be annexed nowadays, no matter what city wants them. Who wants to pay the extra property taxes? And until recently, Memphis seldom saw an annexation it didn't like.
Frayser hanging in the balance
Fifty years after becoming part of Memphis, Frayser, the butt of many jokes about its blue-collar nature, is at a tipping point, said Steve Lockwood, executive director of the Frayser Community Development Corporation.
"It still hasn't tipped over," said Lockwood, whose CDC buys and rehabs homes in declining Frayser neighborhoods and then sells them to qualified buyers. "Will it? That remains to be seen. It's a question of whether this is a priority for the city and other entities. Frayser is hanging in the balance."
Frayser is not alone among Memphis neighborhoods in the struggle to remain vital amid changing demographics, the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs and quality retail, neighborhood decline, crime and unfair stereotypes. And if that's not enough of a strain on these neighborhoods, the current mortgage crisis has led to hundreds of foreclosures and vacant properties that drive down neighborhood home values.
Raleigh (Frayser's next-door neighbor), Parkway Village, Fox Meadows, Hickory Hill, Berclair, Whitehaven and, some say, even Cordova are all fighting the same demons and image-damaging stereotyping.
Frayser and Hickory Hill, however, have become the poster children for Memphis neighborhoods that have gone downhill, despite the fact that both still have some very attractive subdivisions.
Some Frayser history
According to several sources, including the late Commercial Appeal writer and Memphis historian Paul Coppock and Frayser Futures, a 2003 comprehensive plan for Frayser growth and development, the word Frayser first appeared on area maps showing the Memphis suburbs around 1877. In September of that year, it was announced that a new post office at "Frayser Station" had been established on the Paducah Railroad in Shelby County.
Long known for its free-wheeling taverns and night spots, Frayser was promised "a lot of changes, yes, sir!" by Memphis Vice Squad Inspector W.P. Huston (center). He and members of his squad were on hand Jan. 1, 1958, to let law-breakers know a new day was dawning.
Frayser was first settled in the 1820s when farmland was purchased from individuals who had been awarded land grants by the state of North Carolina, prior to the creation of Tennessee.
Tradition has it that a Dr. Frayser had a country home there. Memphis at the time had a prominent doctor, John R. Frayser. It was common for men of means to have summer homes in hilly, breezy, remote areas to escape the heat, and as a refuge against yellow fever and cholera.
Italian farmers began arriving in the 1880s and joined with earlier settlers to expand truck and dairy farming in the area. In 1892, Shelby County built a hospital for vagrants on Hindman's Ferry Road, the site of the county morgue and potter's field. The hospital was called the "Pest House."
The first urban-type subdivision was platted in the 1890s by a Birmingham real estate company and named Rugby Hills Estates. Several streets were graded, with the main roadway in the middle of the development later named Overton Crossing.
A bridge across the Wolf River extending Second Street was built in the early part of the 20th century, and in the 1920s a bridge extending Thomas Street (U.S. 51) northward was constructed. In 1935 the Second Street bridge washed away and was not replaced until 1976.
Interest in Frayser as a residential area for the average family took off in 1942 when it was announced that International Harvester was going to build a gigantic plant on the bluff at the western edge of Frayser. The plant went into production in 1948.
Frayser now
Lockwood has headed the Frayser CDC for five years. His agency is funded by United Way of the Mid-South, the Community Foundation and New York-based Seedco, a nonprofit community development organization that, among other things, helps revive low-income communities here and elsewhere in Tennessee.
The University of Memphis provides money for internships and the CDC, which works closely with the city, also gets income from selling the homes it rehabs.
"We are a community development organization, which qualifies us to receive funds to build and rehab houses. The hardest funds for us to come by are operating funds," Lockwood said.
Over the last three years, the CDC has rehabilitated 35 homes and resold them. Lockwood proudly says there has only been one foreclosure. The CDC is building two new homes in Rugby Park, and plans to build more as funds become available.
"I like the idea of providing a neighborhood with a new look and we hope it spurs other developers to come in and build more," Lockwood said.
From a landscape standpoint, Frayser is probably the most scenic area of Memphis, with rolling hills and large forested lots.
But like many areas of Memphis, including East Memphis, it has problems. The decline was fueled as the big factories shut down and residents who could afford to move did.
Georgian Hills represents the best of Frayser. Ridgegrove in northwest Frayser and an unfinished development of one-story duplexes off Schoolfield and Lakepark are sobering examples of Frayser at its worst.
"What bugs me and keeps me awake at night are the families who bought these homes and they got trapped," Lockwood said.
The conditions of the other neighborhoods in Frayser are somewhere in the middle.
There are the older declining neighborhoods on Frayser's west side; factory-built homes that look like house trailers; newer small homes that are in need of a major fix-up and paint-up; too many rundown apartments and too many grubby-looking retail and commercial centers.
Lockwood and others said Frayser has been hurt further by the construction of too many public-assistance residential subdivisions and apartments. Residents are provided various levels of financial support to individual households and financing plans that can leave property owners vulnerable to downward economic trends like the current mortgage crisis. These properties are prone to deteriorate faster because residents sometimes can't afford to maintain them, and such developments cause builders to shy away from building quality homes nearby.
Living amid blight
Forestine Matthews, 69, lives in Ridgegrove, a disaster of a subdivision northwest of Davy Crockett golf course. It's a neighborhood of small houses that are falling apart; burned-out homes; vacant homes and weed-covered lots, some of which have been turned into dumps.
It's a scary place.
"When I first moved up here it was a nice neighborhood. There were a lot of older people who took care of their homes. Most have died and their homes have fallen into disrepair," Matthews said.
Even though Ridgegrove is a high-crime area, Matthews said no one bothers her. "If I see them doing something, I talk to them in a nice way and ask them to stop."
She bought her home from a cousin and has spent a lot of money to keep it up and make improvements. Her husband died about 15 years ago.
"It angers me that people don't keep their yards cut. You call the city, but they don't do anything," she said.
She cuts the vacant lot across the street.
"I try to keep right around me clean and decent because where you live, you should keep it up. Homeless people live in the vacant houses and drug sales happen in them.
"I can't get any help from the neighbors or the city. If the neighbors got together, we could clean this place up," Matthews said.
She has thought about moving, but because she's retired (from Rhodes College) and has taken out a second mortgage to make improvements on her house, she feels a bit trapped. "With what's going on around me, I couldn't get anything for my house."
Frayser's future
Not all is gloom and doom in Frayser. Every neighborhood is not deteriorating; there's strong housing stock that just needs fixing up. The area is blessed with myriad strong, active neighborhood associations. Churches are heavily involved in trying to keep the area safe and vital.
The robust, attractive Frayser Village Shopping Center at Rangeline and Frayser Boulevard shows that good retail can work in Frayser.
Robert Lipscomb, director of the city's Housing and Community Development Division, said Frayser is on the city's radar for improvements.
A study is being done, for example, on how best to utilize Davy Crockett golf course, probably Frayser's most attractive asset. One of the things being talked about is turning the course into a golfing community, with attractive housing on the north and south ends.
As with many of the city's old public housing developments, the Hawkins Mill Apartments were bulldozed and replaced with an attractive gated community called Crockett Park Place.
The city also was a key partner in getting Nike to build a $107 million distribution center on Frayser Boulevard on the Frayser-Raleigh border.
Besides bringing much-needed jobs, it is hoped the facility will attract more job-producing development.
Beyond Nike, perhaps the biggest indicator that Frayser is not down for the count is development of the 322-lot Wolf River Bluffs subdivision north of James Road at McLean. Homes will be in the $150,000-$200,000 range.
Tim Bolding, executive director of United Housing, which is developing the subdivision with the help of the city, said Wolf River Bluffs will "create a new environment in Frayser. I think it's a great location. ... I hope it's a catalyst for other development."
United is developing the first 35 lots on the 115-acre site and the hope is that private developers will come in to develop the rest.
Bolding thinks the area will be attractive because of the landscape, plus its proximity to Downtown and Midtown.
"We've had a pattern of divestment and declining home values in Frayser and it's time to turn that around," he said.
Turning things around
Lockwood has lived in Midtown's Cooper-Young neighborhood, which was once on the skids, for some 30 years, so he knows that neighborhoods can be resuscitated. Among things that would help Frayser, he said, are major improvements to heavily traveled, two-lane roads such as Hawkins Mill and St. Elmo.
And, he said, the city has to stop approving subdivisions and apartments that further erode the community's esthetics and property values.
Frayser has something other communities don't have, he explained. There are no class jealousies that tend to divide neighborhoods. Many Frayser residents, black and white, are in the same economic boat. This results in a refreshing cohesiveness of purpose, Lockwood said.
"I've heard all the Frayser jokes and they aren't real. We have to re-market and try to do that in light of the current housing market.
"We're still the best deal in town."
Jerome Wright is citizens editor for The Commercial Appeal. Contact him at 529-5380.
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CA article on Frayser
