W. C. Handy Home & Museum (relocated)

The 2-room shotgun house William Christopher Handy moved his family into on reaching Memphis in 1909. Hauled from South Memphis to Beale Street in 1985, it is now a museum.

Handy, the bandleader later billed as the Father of the Blues, arrived with his wife and 5 children. They settled on Jeanette Place in the section of South Memphis then called Greasy Plank.

His band worked out of Pee Wee’s Saloon, where he copied out the 1909 campaign tune that became “Memphis Blues,” and in 1914 he rented a room on Beale to finish “St. Louis Blues.”

Memphis Magazine credits the 1985 move and restoration to the Blues Foundation, which kept its first office in the house. The National Register form for the district lists the building as the “Handy House.”

Heritage Tours opens the house Tuesday through Saturday for a small admission, with Handy’s desk and memorabilia inside. The exterior is visible from Beale Street anytime, and the Jeanette Place lot is unmarked.