A Radical Idea
Harbor Town started as an unusual development, Henry says. It took the public a while to embrace the idea of living in a
community of new homes so different from the typical suburban subdivision and so close to one of the
less desirable areas of downtown. "I have found that in buying a home, people are very cautious,"
Henry says. "It takes an unusual person to do something different in terms of architecture and
location."
Apparently, that problem no longer exists. Harbor Town residents happily stroll with
their babies, walk their dogs, ride bikes, walk for exercise, skate, and sit and talk outside the
bistro. Miss Cordelia's Grocery (named for Henry's mother) remains the community market, a place
where a steady flow of Memphis rhythm and blues greets you before you even enter the door. The
grocery sits directly across the street from The Maria Montessori, the neighborhood school founded
by its headmistress, Maria Cole. Not far away, daycare-aged children learn Spanish at the Foreign
Language Immersion Childcare Center, where no conversation occurs in English.
Views of Harbor Town
Ellen Allanic, who visits Harbor Town to take walks, last lived in San Francisco. She says the
Memphis community is appealing "because of the house variations within a neighborhood. Many houses
are unique." Pausing by the purple martin house at Purple Martin Pond and watching water from a
fountain spray gently, she praises the way the design of Harbor Town reinforces its name. "You get a
real sense of being on the water," Ellen says. "The viaducts are suggestive of other places."
As part of Henry's overall efforts to better the community, Harbor Town holds a significant place in
his vision--but not the only place. His agenda includes a project with the potential to dramatically
improve the nearby community called Uptown, which includes the historical district of Greenlaw. The
long-term HOPE VI project, pursued in partnership with the city and the U.S. Department of Housing
and Urban Development, calls for fixing old but salvageable houses and buildings, replacing
dilapidated structures with bright new dwellings, sprucing up the landscaping, and making the
neighborhood a place for people in different income brackets to call home.
The Future
The HOPE VI project came about as a result of Henry's relationship with the late Civil Rights activist and
attorney A. W. Willis, Jr., whose name adorns the bridge that leads from Greenlaw to Harbor Town.
Henry remembers Willis as a mentor, and he believes the activist attorney would want him to do
something important and good for less fortunate Memphians. Toward that end, Henry and the city hope
a new designation catches on in Greenlaw, one already appearing on signs: Uptown.
Henry figures the transformation of the Greenlaw community will complete his legacy in urban Memphis. "I'm 61," he
says as he drives along, surveying the vast area and contemplating the future. "This ought to do
me." But you wonder whether Henry will ever really be done with downtown Memphis, an area he knows
like the back of his hand, and in a substantial way, by heart.
This article is from the February 2003 issue of Tennessee Living, which runs in select issues of Southern Living.
