Bartlett

Bartlett's historic townsquare and railroad crossing

Bartlett is a city in metropolitan Memphis, Tennessee. It has several buildings of historic interest, and a walkable Historic District". In 2018, the population of Bartlett was almost 60,000. The Trail of Tears runs along Stage Road through the city. It commemorates the forced relocations between 1830 and 1850 of approximately 60,000 Native Americans from their ancestral homelands in the Southeastern U.S. to areas west of the Mississippi River that had been designated as Indian Territory.

Understand

History

The community from which the city of Bartlett grew was first called Union Depot and Green Bottom. It was the last major way station in Tennessee along the stagecoach route from Nashville westward and came into being about 1830. When the Memphis & Ohio Railroad took the place of the stages, Bartlett continued as a depot. This was a farming community, with major plantations along Stage Road.

On November 1, 1866, with a population of less than a hundred, it was incorporated as a city and the name was changed to Bartlett. Upon incorporation, Bryan Wither was named the city's inaugural mayor. It was named for Major Gabriel M. Bartlett, a planter, whose homeplace was on the old Raleigh-Somerville Road (Stage Road) which is now Bartlett Station Plaza. Bartlett grew rapidly in the 1970s and 1980s largely due to white people leaving Memphis.

Get in

From Memphis, drive along U.S. Interstate 40 northeast, and you will go along the southern side of the city. To get to the downtown region, you can go on U.S. 64 (Stage Road) from the interstate.

Get around

The city has quite a suburban feel, having many of the wide boulevards common in modern American towns and cities, and developments between those boulevards.

See

• 1 Center of Shelby County. Feel like being in the center of things? There is a sign and gardens marking the location. (updated Jun 2018)

Nicholas Gotten House

• 2 Nicholas Gotten House. This building is named after a Confederate veteran and has since begun housing a museum. (updated Jun 2018)
• The John H. McFadden House, 3712 Broadway. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places. 
• Davies Manor Plantation. A historic property that includes the oldest log home in Shelby County open to the public, 32 acres of plantation land, and numerous outbuildings. These outbuildings range from a tenant cabin to a commissary, a gristmill to an outhouse. The property has several gardens, including a kitchen garden and a medicinal herb garden. There is a walking tour and nature trails available for visitors who love the outdoors. 
• Nicholas Gotten House, 2969 Court Street. It houses the Bartlett Museum, a local history museum operated by the Bartlett Historical Society. The white frame structure was built by Nicholas Gotten in 1871 in the New England saltbox style. A saltbox is a wooden frame house with a long, pitched roof that slopes down to the back. 

Do

• Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, 3663 Appling Road, ☏ +1 901 385-6440. Concerts and theatrical shows. (updated Jun 2018)
• 1 Stanky Creek Trails (Nesbit Park), 5760 Yale Road (There is a parking area on Yale Road). (updated Jun 2018)

Eat and drink

• 1 Side Porch Steakhouse (End of Shelby Street; corner of Shelby Street and Stage Road). (updated Jun 2018)

Sleep

• 1 Best Western Galleria Inn & Suites Hotel, 8635 US Highway 64, ☏ +1 901-372-0000, fax: +1 901 388-7231. 24-hour free coffee bar, non-smoking rooms, free parking, meeting room facilities, free high-speed internet, safety deposit box, air conditioning, business center, fax, refrigerator, satellite TV, daily newspaper & hot tubs. (updated Jun 2018)

Go next

• Jackson
• Memphis

Routes through Bartlett

Little Rock ← Memphis ←	W  E	→ Jackson → Nashville
Searcy ← Memphis ←	W  E	→ Jct → Fayetteville → Chattanooga
Little Rock ← Memphis ←	W  E	→ Jackson → Nashville
Clarksville ← Paris ←	N  S	→ Memphis → Pine Bluff