Orange Mound

Orange Mound, a neighborhood located in southeast Memphis, Tennessee, was the first African-American neighborhood in the United States to be built by African-Americans.

Built on the grounds of the former Deaderick plantation, the Orange Mound subdivision was developed for African-Americans in the 1890s to provide affordable land and residences for the less wealthy.

Drugs and crime infected the neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s. In the first decade of the 21st century, revitalization efforts were started and show positive effects.

Orange Mound is bounded by Semmes St. to the east and by Kimball Avenue to the south. The Southern Avenue/IC Railroad tracks on the north separate it from the Belt Line, Midtown and University Districts, while Lamar Avenue on the southeast and the CN Railroad tracks (visible at Park Av. & Lamar) on the southwest both separate it from Bethel Grove, South Memphis and the East Parkway District. These streets outline the plantation that originally existed on that ground and cannot be altered.(2)

The neighborhood has a population of approximately 14,400 of which 95 percent are of African-American heritage.

Orange Mound stands on the site of the former John Deaderick plantation. Between 1825 and 1830, Deaderick (whose family donated the land in Nashville on which the Tennessee State Capitol was built) purchased 5,000 acres (20 km²) of land (from Airways to Semmes) and built a stately house there (at what is now the east side of Airways, between Carnes and Spottswood). In 1890, a developer named Elzey Eugene Meachem purchased land from the Deaderick family and began developing a subdivision for African-Americans, selling lots for less than $100. In the 1890s, a typical Orange Mound house was a small, narrow "shotgun"-style house. A tradition says the name comes from mock-orange trees or shrubs on the grounds of the old homeplace. [cit. needed]

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