Memphis has no more storied address than the Peabody Hotel, where, as the saying goes, the Mississippi Delta begins in the lobby. The original Peabody opened in 1869, and the current building, a Gilded Age masterpiece of Italian Renaissance architecture, opened in 1925. For generations, the Peabody was the social and cultural hub of the Mid-South.
Cotton brokers and planters gathered in the lobby to do deals; politicians held court in the suites; visiting dignitaries and celebrities required rooms here as a matter of prestige. Author David Cohn wrote in 1935 that the Mississippi Delta 'begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel and ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg.' He meant it as shorthand for the power and culture that radiated outward from this spot. The hotel fell into decline in the 1970s and was closed, then magnificently restored and reopened in 1981.
The Grand Lobby with its travertine marble fountain remains essentially unchanged. Walk in and look up. This room has witnessed more history per square foot than almost anywhere in the South.