Memphis – Only Elvis and Graceland? Part 1

Part 1: The Peabody Ducks and Slave Heaven Underground Railroad Museum

Memphis – home of Elvis, Graceland and the Sun Studios. What if you do not visit any of these? What else is there in Memphis? There is Peabody Ducks, the Slave Heaven Underground Museum, Beale Street and more. I wasn’t expecting much but in the end I really liked Memphis.

Memphis Without Elvis and Graceland

To be clear about that right in the beginning: we did not visit Graceland and the Sun Studios. We wanted to see a different Memphis, less Elvis-ish. Moreover, we found these sights overpriced and did not want to support that.

The Peabody Ducks

That all was a bit weird: the Peabody Ducks. The Peabody Hotel is a luxury hotel in the city center. The hotel has been there since 1925 and the Peabody Duck Tradition was introduced in the 1930s. The hotel has a very classic style (according to Wikipedia the style is called Italian Renaissance). To me that basically means: big, colorful carpets with patterns, very characteristic for old hotels, lots of gold colors, opulent ceiling lamp and fountain, very little daylight in the lobby, everything seems a bit dark. Five ducks, called Peabody Ducks live in the fountain. In fact, the really live on the hotel’s rooftop terrace but they move to the fountain every morning at 11. In order to do that the “duck master” – the guy responsible to take care of the ducks – walks with them to the elevator, arrives in the lobby and the ducks walk to the fountain. At 5 pm they go all the way back from the lobby to the rooftop terrace.

The fountain is in the middle of a big lobby. The lobby also has a bar and several tables. You are only allowed to sit on these chairs; everyone sitting on the floor was sent somewhere else. We watched everything from the first floor which is basically a square gallery from which you can see very well.

We were in the hotel almost an hour before everything started (around 4 pm). All the seats in the lobby were already taken. The ducks’ walking path to the elevator is marked; there is even a red carpet. Visitors are allowed to stand behind that red carpet. It’s not a long way, maybe 10 meters. The hotel is full of people, everywhere, in the lobby, on the gallery. You need to be there at least 30 minutes before 5, otherwise you may not be able to see very well.

After our 1-hour-wait, the duckmaster appears and orders the ducks to walk to the elevator. The ducks follow and woddle to the elevator. After two minutes, everything is over.

Of course, we did not have to be there that early but in the end it was a lot of waiting for basically nothing. It was funny, indeed. But after all, the question is why did so many people come for that and why were we even there ourselves?

If you are in the area at 11 am or 5 pm and have some time left, you can come here and see the ducks. I would not cancel other things or hurry to do that. The Peabody Hotel is a nice place, an old traditional hotel. Imagining that this duck tradition has existed for more than 90 years is funny. The ducks are regular ducks, the ones that live in every river at home, male duck green head and grey/white body and the female brown (mallard duck).
The ducks are very well aware of their big moment. We first came to the hotel at 1 – 2 pm and the ducks were totally relaxed and swimming in the fountain. At about 4.30 pm they grew a big bitter looked a bit like the fountain was a throne and did a lot of cackling.

The Hotel’s theme is very obvious: ducks. A gift shop has hundreds of varieties of ducks souvenirs (ducks on clothes, toys, dishes, ducks as stuffed animals, soap dispenser, statues, ducks, ducks, ducks, …)

What is it people say? The South has its own traditions, everything is a bit odd. The Peabody Ducks are definitely part of that.

Slave Heaven Underground Railroad Museum

In the 19th century some houses in the South offered shelter to runaway slaves. These houses gave them some time to relax and recover and offered a safe route to the next house. This network of houses and routes is called “Underground Railroad”. Don’t take that name literally; there are not underground tunnels and roads. Memphis is a Southern city relatively far north. The runaway slaves had already made a long way when they came here. That is why Memphis was an important place to stop and recover.

Refugee slaves were running in the night, in daylight they had to hide. Burkle Estate had a secret underground cabin that could not be found by inspectors.

The Burkle Estate is a medium-sized house from 1849. It was built the German emigrant Jacob Burkle. A door in the front looks like a main entrance. In fact, the main entrance is in the back, not facing the street. Almost no one takes the right door; most people just walk in the front door. The lady from the museum welcomes everyone and guides the visitors through some secondary rooms to the main entrance at the back of the building.
You can book a guided tour. Pictures and stories of individuals are used to tell the story of slavery. In a group you walk from one room to the other. They tell many short stories, for example a female slave has three kids, 10, 6 and 2. The slave is sold and the new owner only wants to buy two kids. Which two kids will the owner buy? The two older ones because they can work and pick cotton, the youngest one cannot.

These stories are painful, more than painful, cruel and strongly inhumane. But they were not new to us. Some of the US-Americans seem to never have heard that. They were obviously shocked. If my impression is right and the average person in America does not know these things, these museums have an important education job to do.

The final stop of the tour is the music room. The tour lady sang a slavery song and deciphered the song’s secret code. The song is indeed a pledge for freedom. The lady was a very good singer, very impressive. We really liked it; just like that out of the blue we heard some great singing.

The tour also shows the underground hiding place for runaways. This place made the house a safe house, part of the Underground Railroad.

The tour is good because of the stories the guides tell. Even when you have already heard a lot about slavery, you get to hear new things. At the exit, they sell some books about slavery, freeing slaves and the Civil Rights Movement. They do not have many books but the ones they have are outstanding. Many unknown writers, nothing from the bestselling lists. I bought a book about Nate Turner’s slave rebellion.

Even though, slavery is one of the darkest chapters of US history, it is an important one. You cannot go to the South without visiting at least one museum about that issue. They do a lot of educational work there and try to tell the story of slavery as good as possible. The plantations do the same. There are many exhibitions about Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement as well. Do visit at least one of these museums, exhibits or tours.

The museum is a bit outside town. From Beale Street, it’s 4 km. Burkle Estate is in a housing area. At first, we were not sure if that was the right place. It looked like a standard house where people live. We parked at the street right in front of it.
Wikipedia says some historians doubt if Burkle Estate ever really hosted runaway slaves. I don’t know anything about that, I can only tell the things they said in the museum.

This article continues in Part 2:

Memphis – Beale Street, Downtown Memphis and National Civil Rights Museum