3050 Central Ave. Memphis, TN
Circa 1922. Pink and gray marble exterior, its style was called Romanesque American Rambling Design.
The Saunders family never actually lived in this gargantuan mansion.
Clarence Saunders (1881-1953) and Amy “Carolyn” Walker Saunders (1882-1968) in 1903. They divorced in 1928, and Saunders remarried to Patricia Houston Bamberg (1900-1988) in 1928.
It is located across from the Memphis Country Club on Central Ave. The 36,500 square foot mansion had many special amenities: a lake, golf course, shooting range, and a bowling alley. Saunders officially named his palace Cla-Le-Clare for his three children (Clay, Lee Amy Clare), but locals called it simply the Pink Palace.
Clarence Saunders was in the grocery business (including Clarksville, TN working for John Hurst and Joseph Bollin - see homes) and made innovations to change the business model: cash and carry, buying stock in great quantity, organized product aisles and customer self-service. He established Piggly Wiggly Stores about 1917, and they grew quickly to nearly 1,300 stores. [The original Piggly Wiggly store was located at 79 Jefferson St. The date when it was razed is unknown.]
Saunders took his Piggly-Wiggly company public and then became upset because of stock short sellers. A couple books detail the wild adventure of the "country boy" from Tennessee who went to New York and spent a fortune battling against Wall Street speculators. In the end, the "country boy" lost. Because of the vast sum he lost, Saunders wildly lost his business battle regarding his Piggly Wiggly stock, lost his fortune and never completed the home nor lived there. The mansion and its 160 acres were sold. The private greens and gardens on the estate became the new subdivision Chickasaw Gardens. By 1929, Saunders built a new estate at Quince and Park Ave.
In 1930, the developers donated the mansion and 10 acres, and they became the Municipal Museum owned by the City of Memphis - Memphis’ first official museum. The Pink Palace was remodeled in 1977 and again in 1993.
It is now part of a network of landmarks and former homes (Lichterman Nature Center, Mallory-Neely House, Magevney House and Coon Creek Science Center), and in May 2021, the organization was rebranded as Memphis Museum of Science and History (MoSH). The Pink Palace exhibits focus on the cultural and natural history of the Memphis region. See also Clarence Saunders Estate (Annswood, Lichterman Park)
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