This image shows Riverside Drive while it was under construction. The caption on the back of the photograph simply reads, “Riverside Drive (to be tarred) 6-38.” Where along Riverside Drive was our photographer standing in 1938?
SOLVED!!
This was another mystery first solved on our Instagram page. Sunny Franklin pointed out that based on the two mounds in the photograph, this spot is in what is now known as Chickasaw Heritage Park, specifically on what is now Metal Museum Drive, in front of the Metal Museum, looking southeast. An article in the Commercial Appeal on July 12, 1938 describes construction going on in this area at the time, saying, “With the aid of WPA funds, the Engineering Department has built a new drive beginning at Wisconsin Street extending along California Avenue north of De Soto Park and west and south around the park to Wisconsin Street.” This would put the photographer around the coordinates: 35.122982, -90.075364.