OUT WITH THE OLD… IN WITH THE NEW - FIRE STATION #43 GETS A MAKEOVER! As Whitehaven began to develop in the late 40s and early 50s, “the problem of names for streets came up,” according to Anna Leigh McCorkle, author of Tales of Old Whitehaven. Although the book doesn’t mention the fire station currently situated on Holmes Road just east of Hwy 51 - Elvis Presley Boulevard, it does mention that older street names, “such as Holmes had been called for the families who lived along them.” As the story goes, back in the days when judges still worked “circuits,” traveling by horse or horse and buggy from town-to-town to “hear cases,” it was on “one hot, dusty afternoon in the late 1840s when a tired horseman, Judge Augustus B. Longstreet, rode up to the old Holmes place on Tchulahoma Road.” Yes, the story goes on to tell how the Judge suggested the site for the Longstreet United Methodist Church, but that is not the story being told here. “By 1847 the first Longstreet church building was erected on Holly Ford at Holmes Road.” The Holmes family was one of the church’s founding member families. Also mentioned, but not for discussion here, is the Nonconnah Baptist Church that sits at Tulane and Shelby Drive and the “New Nonconnah Colored Church, which may not be the same edifices at that time.” however, it was around this time when “T. J. Beasley and Van Court Neel, two Whitehaven old-timer families, purchased land opposite one another and Beasley Road, which later became Holmes Road, was born.” There is a lot of history in Whitehaven and its history continues to be made. One of the firemen at Fire Station 43, 14 15 which currently sits at 1253 E. Holmes Road, told of stories about the facility being the place where County residents brought their water bills for payment before the area was annexed into the City of Memphis in the mid-70s. The first room inside the office’s front door still has an old Boy Scouts banner under a 1970s map of Memphis on the wall and the tower area, where the old fire truck hoses used to be hung to drip dry still exists, but is not in use. The building is loved by those who understand and appreciate its history, but most are ready for it to be replaced with a more modern facility. For example, many of the rooms only have one electrical socket with 2 updated 3-prong plugs. A ground breaking ceremony was held on Friday, September 6, 2019, to officially mark the new station being built. Although no additional progress has begun as of today, construction is expected to take a full year. Drawings reveal the new, two-story building will include a multi-purpose room that will be available for community meetings and events. 24
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