Memphis · Downtown – Union Avenue
The Peabody Memphis
Walter W. Ahlschlager's 1925 hotel at Second and Union, where mallard ducks march through the lobby every day at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
- Built
- 1925Current 12-story building opened 1925; it replaced the first Peabody (opened 1869 at Main and Monroe, closed 1923).
- Style
- Italian Renaissance Revival
- Architect
- Walter W. Ahlschlager
- Type
- Grand hotel
- Rooms
- 463
- Area
- Downtown – Union Avenue
- Credentials
- Listed on the National Register of Historic Places; Historic Hotels of America member
The story
Col. Robert C. Brinkley opened the first Peabody in 1869 at Main and Monroe and named it for his friend, philanthropist George Peabody. That hotel closed in 1923 to make way for Lowenstein’s department store, and the owners built a new 12-story Peabody at Second and Union to designs by Chicago architect Walter W. Ahlschlager, opening in 1925 at a cost of about $5 million. Its Skyway and Plantation Roof were centers of Memphis nightlife, with CBS radio broadcasting its bands nationally from 1937. After closing amid downtown decline, the hotel was bought by the Belz family in 1975 and reopened in 1981 after a $25 million renovation; its mallard ducks march through the lobby daily at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m.
Good to know
- Breakfast: available
- Parking: on-site paid
- Pets welcome
- Address: 149 Union Avenue, Memphis, TN 38103
Things to do
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Sources (3)
Last verified October 2026. Details change; confirm with the inn before you book.