Silky O'Sullivans, 183 Beale Street, Memphis, TN2
**Beale Street Historic District** - National Register of Historic Places Ref # 66000731, date listed 19661015
Beale St. from 2nd to 4th Sts.
Memphis, TN (Shelby County)
183 Beale St; contributing
Beale Street's entertainment district is an important site in the history of the blues, that influential musical form which has had an impact on American rock, jazz, pop, and symphonic music. Beale Street played a major role in the career of W. C. Handy. Handy's works brought the blues to new heights of general popularity, and made him a preeminent figure in the establishment of composed blues as a form of American popular song.
While working in Memphis from 1905 to 1917 or 1918, Handy wrote songs such as the "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues" that gained a wide audience. On Beale Street was the headquarters for Handy's band. At least once, he rented a room on Beale Street to avoid distractions while he worked on his music. Though Handy left Memphis for Chicago and New York City around 1917 or 1918, Beale Street continued, into the years of the Great Depression, to represent important facets of a time and milieu in which the blues began to exert a major influence in the history of mainstream American music. (1)
References (1) NRHP Nomination Form npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NHLS/Text/66000731.pdf
Silky O'Sullivans, 183 Beale Street, Memphis, TN2
**Beale Street Historic District** - National Register of Historic Places Ref # 66000731, date listed 19661015
Beale St. from 2nd to 4th Sts.
Memphis, TN (Shelby County)
183 Beale St; contributing
Beale Street's entertainment district is an important site in the history of the blues, that influential musical form which has had an impact on American rock, jazz, pop, and symphonic music. Beale Street played a major role in the career of W. C. Handy. Handy's works brought the blues to new heights of general popularity, and made him a preeminent figure in the establishment of composed blues as a form of American popular song.
While working in Memphis from 1905 to 1917 or 1918, Handy wrote songs such as the "Memphis Blues" and "St. Louis Blues" that gained a wide audience. On Beale Street was the headquarters for Handy's band. At least once, he rented a room on Beale Street to avoid distractions while he worked on his music. Though Handy left Memphis for Chicago and New York City around 1917 or 1918, Beale Street continued, into the years of the Great Depression, to represent important facets of a time and milieu in which the blues began to exert a major influence in the history of mainstream American music. (1)
References (1) NRHP Nomination Form npgallery.nps.gov/pdfhost/docs/NHLS/Text/66000731.pdf