Vollintine Hills Historic District

Infobox_nrhp | name =Vollintine Hills Historic District
nrhp_type = hd


caption =
location= Roughly bounded by Vollintine, Brown, McLean, and Evergreen, Memphis, Tennessee
locmapin = Tennessee
area =
architect= Awsumb, George; Gruber, Herman
architecture= Colonial Revival, Other
added = July 11, 2007cite web|url=http://www.nr.nps.gov/|title=National Register Information System|date=2008-04-15|work=National Register of Historic Places|publisher=National Park Service]
governing_body = Private
mpsub= [http://www.nr.nps.gov/multiples/64500762.pdf Memphis MPS]
refnum=07000684

Vollintine Hills Historic District is an area located in the Midtown area of Memphis, Tennessee, notable for its cohesive collection of 78 post-World War II Minimal Traditional and ranch-style houses built around a former synagogue. "The neighborhood represents the efforts of members of an Orthodox religious group to accommodate their beliefs by developing a synagogue and housing for the congregation within easy walking distance.” [ [http://www.state.tn.us/environment/news/release/2007/Sep/nationalregister.shtml] State of Tennessee, Environment and Conservation Newsroom News Release, September 21, 2007. Accessed 2008-08-22.]

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2007, the area also includes the former site of the Baron Hirsch Synagogue, built in two phases -- 1950-52 and 1955-57 -- in the International Style and set on a 12.4 acre site at the southwest corner of the district.citation|title=PDFlink| [http://http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/hist/pdf/vollintinehills.pdf National Register of Historic Places Registration: Vollintine Hills Historic District] |32 KB|date=January 2, 2007 |author=Judith Johnson |publisher=National Park Service (Section 7, page 1)]

When it was completed in 1957, the main sanctuary of the synagogue was the largest in the United States, according to the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America. [ “Orthodox Synagogue to Be Dedicated November 28-30.” Memphis Commercial Appeal, October 21, 1957.]

Houses within the district are largely “intact and homogenous building stock constructed between 1946 – 1957” in conjunction with the synagogue, and are within walking distance of the former synagogue. They originally served to house its orthodox Jewish congregation." The district has been singled out for its unity by both “its historic building stock and contiguity to the former synagogue.”

Vollintine Hills is notable as a clearly definable geographic area, whose physical development, “defined by the needs of a religious community,” is “readily distinguishable from surrounding properties.”

Although the synagogue was vacated in 1984 and moved to a new location farther east in Memphis, the original building still stands and in 1992 was sold by the congregation to the Gethsemane Garden Church of God in Christ.citation|title=PDFlink| [http://http://www.tennessee.gov/environment/hist/pdf/vollintinehills.pdf National Register of Historic Places Registration: Vollintine Hills Historic District] |32 KB|date=January 2, 2007 |author=Judith Johnson |publisher=National Park Service (Section 8, page 20)] [Members OK Sale of Old Baron Hirsch Site”, The Commercial Appeal, June 1992.] The historic area “continues to be a viable area today, adapting to changing times and needs.”

Vollintine Hills is located approximately four miles east of the downtown Memphis central building district in the northern section of the Midtown area, and is roughly bounded by Vollintine Avenue, Brown Avenue, McLean Boulevard, and Evergreen Street.

References