Downtown Memphis stretches from the Mississippi riverfront east to Danny Thomas Boulevard and from the expressway south to the South Main arts district. The riverfront itself — Tom Lee Park and Riverside Drive — offers wide views across the water to the Arkansas bluffs, and the park fills with festivals in spring and summer. Beale Street, running east from the river, is the historic heart and still the place for live music on any night of the week. The downtown core mixes office buildings, older commercial blocks, and a scattering of significant historic structures: the Peabody Hotel has anchored the intersection of Union and Second since 1869; the Cotton Exchange building a few blocks south once set the price of cotton for the world.
South Main, the southern end of downtown, has become Memphis's arts district over the past two decades. Galleries, boutique coffee shops, antique dealers, and independent restaurants occupy storefronts that were derelict not long ago. The First Friday art walk on the first Friday of each month draws crowds to a dozen or so gallery openings along the strip. The National Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel are at the edge of this district, making South Main both the most culturally serious and the most relaxed part of downtown.