8504 Macon Rd. Cordova, TN
Circa 1914. Foursquare home in Colonial Revival style
The W.G. Allen House was an unusual style in an agrarian setting. Walter Granville Allen (1851-1917) wed (Alice) Augusta Allen (1857-1942) in 1881. He was a prominent banker, planter, businessman and political figure. His grandparents came to Shelby Co. in the early 1800s and established a great network of plantations in Cordova using Macon Rd. to connect with Stage Rd. (Hwy 64). He became a Justice of the Peace for Dexter and part of the Shelby County Court. He helped establish the Memphis Park Commission and Memphis annexation of 1899.Â
By 1860, Allen’s relatives held a total of 15,000 acres of cotton plantation. By about 1875, the area became known as Allentown. In 1880, he started the first commercial cotton gin and saw mill. When the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis (NC & StL) Railroad built tracks in the area, the community was renamed Dexter.
In 1913, the house burned and was rebuilt.
In 2023, it had been repurposed to be the Cordova Bank & Trust. NR 1990