Abandoned North and South Memphis: What’s Left Behind

Since she was a curious four-year-old child, Natasha Rawls has had an intense interest (and equally intense fear) of shut-down department stores and abandoned buildings. Though she admittedly suffers from megalophobia (fear of large things and buildings), her drive to explore these derelict places helps her to overcome it and tell stories through compelling imagery.

Abandoned North and South Memphis: What’s Left Behind explores just this: what’s left behind. Whether the cause of abandonment is foreclosure, asbestos, divorce, bad business practices, or only time itself, there is always something left behind to tell a story. That is what this book strives to do.

North Memphis includes what is left of the abandoned Firestone factory complex, American Snuff Company building, and the historic Brick Church on Chelsea Avenue. South Memphis includes the industrial remains of the W. T. Rawleigh Company Warehouse (United Warehouse), St. Thomas Catholic Church, and many others.