Overton Park spreads 342 acres of urban forest, cultural institutions, and open green space through the heart of Midtown Memphis, and it is the site of one of the most important environmental legal battles in American history. The park was established in 1901 on land donated to the city, and it quickly became the cultural anchor of Memphis, home to the Brooks Museum of Art, the Memphis Zoo, an open-air amphitheater, and a nine-hole golf course. In the 1960s, the federal government proposed routing Interstate 40 directly through the park.
Citizens erupted in opposition. The case — Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe — went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1971 that parkland could not be used for highway construction if any feasible alternative existed.
The decision transformed environmental law and set a precedent that has protected parks and public lands across the country ever since. I-40 was rerouted. The trees that would have been cleared are still standing around you.
Walk into the old-growth forest at the back of the park — some of those trees are more than two hundred years old. They almost weren't here.