NO FACTORY AT GRAVES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL! By Dr. Yvonne D. Nelson, Certified Nonprofit Consultant Whitehaven is a community that was established in the southern most portion of Memphis, Tennessee, during the 1950s and 1960s. The area, which is a mostly bedroom community, has an assortment of land uses and property types that include a combination of newer and older single-family homes, commercial retail, light industrial, schools, churches, and other land uses. Known today as the second most visited home in America and one of Tennessee’s largest tourist attractions, Graceland, the former home of Elvis Presley, sits approximately 1.4 miles east of Graves Elementary School, the focus of this article. Graves Elementary School (GES) originally sat on 11.0 acres of land. The land was originally owned by Robert E. C. Hagerty Jr., Emily N. McMahon, Evelyn N. Hagerty, Frances H. Melvor, Elma M. Hagerty, and Mildred N. O’Brien. The land itself was the 11 most southeastern portion of the Hagerty tract, Section 1, Range 8, as identified in the offices of the Shelby County Register of Deeds. The land was purchased by the Shelby County Board of Education on June 5, 1952. The original school building was built the following year in 1953. To accommodate the growing community, the first addition to the structure was added in 1956 and a second addition was constructed in 1964. The following decade the community was still growing and a decision to widen Winchester Road was made in 1972. At that time, 0.4931 of the 11.0 acres were acquired by the City of Memphis for widening purposes, thus leaving the remaining 10.189 acres of property. The 443,833 square feet of land is bordered to the north by a 4.08-acre lot owned by Unity Christian Church, runs 825 feet west along Graves Road where 13 small-to-medium sized homes were built in the 1990s, and 850 feet east along McCorkle Road where larger single-family homes on much larger lots were built. Approximately 560 feet of land also home to medium to larger single-family homes sits south of the school on Winchester Road. Graves and McCorkle are both two-to-three lane streets and the widening that took place in 1972 increased the original two-lane Winchester Road to a six-to-seven lane street. All of the streets are fully improved with asphalt paving, poured concrete curbs, gutters, sidewalks, and streetlights. The terrain of the property in question can be referred to as level to rolling with paved asphalt driveways and parking areas, poured concrete curbs and gutters, metal barrier posts with cable wiring, poured concrete sidewalks, brick planters featuring landscaped flower beds, an asphalt paved basketball court and an empty spot where donated playground equipment I wrote a grant to obtain based on our neighborhood’s desires once sat. D. 18
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