Clarence Saunders' Pink Palace

A pink marble mansion in Memphis that Piggly Wiggly founder Clarence Saunders started building and never lived in. A city museum since 1930, it took the Pink Palace name back in 2024.

Memphis architect Hubert McGee designed it, and construction began in 1922 on a 160-acre estate with a lake and an 18-hole golf course. Saunders named it Cla-Le-Clare after his 3 children.

Saunders went broke in 1923 trying single-handedly to corner Piggly Wiggly stock against Wall Street short sellers. That August the unfinished house went to his creditors, and he never spent a night in it.

Garden Communities Corp. of Louisville bought it and, in August 1926, donated the mansion and 12 acres to the city; the rest became Chickasaw Gardens. The first museum opened inside in March 1930.

The house entered the National Register on July 9, 1980, as the Clarence Saunders House. The nomination cites James Chumney’s 1973 Tennessee Historical Quarterly article and Commercial Appeal coverage going back to 1929.

Paid admission covers the marble lobby inside, Burton Callicott’s 1934 murals, and a walk-through replica of the first Piggly Wiggly, from 1916. The facade and grounds are free to see from the parking lot.