Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum Gets New Home

Rock 'n' Soul museum marquee
Photo by Charles Pannell

With the grand opening of the FedEx Forum this month, the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul museum also gets a new home. Currently located in the Gibson Guitar Factory, this Smithsonian affiliate is slated to move across the street into more spacious (10,000 square feet) quarters in the new FedEx Forum.

The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum negotiated a 25-year lease with the Memphis Grizzlies, which has the management contract for FedEx Forum.

The Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum focuses on music as a catalyst for social change and tells the story about the evolution of the Memphis sound and how it influenced culture and lifestyles around the world.

Exhibits at the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum range from hand written lyrics and vintage juke boxes to Ike Turner's piano and Dick Clark's American Bandstand podium.

The museum will include a showcase exhibit at the new venue, on the Third Avenue South side of the FedEx Forum. This stretch of road (Highway 61) was better known as "Blues Highway" by many legendary musicians who traveled through the Delta to play on Beale Street.

Access at both museum locations is excellent with level entrances, accessible restrooms and good pathway access to all of the exhibits.

For more information about the Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum visit memphisrocknsoul.org.

And for more information on accessible tourist attractions, lodgings, entertainment venues and transportation in Memphis, check out the Autumn 2004 issue of Emerging Horizons. There's lots of fun things to see and do in the birthplace of rock and roll!