Hunt-Phelan Home

1828 antebellum mansion used as headquarters by both Confederate and Union commanders

The Hunt-Phelan Home is one of the oldest surviving structures in Memphis, built in 1828 by slave trader George Vance and later owned by the Hunt and Phelan families. The house saw the full sweep of Memphis history: it was here when the city was a muddy river trading post, here through the yellow fever epidemics, here through both world wars. Its most dramatic chapter came during the Civil War, when it served successively as Confederate and Union headquarters.

Guided tours of the interior take visitors through the period-furnished rooms and explain the house's complicated history without flinching from the darker elements. The gardens are well-maintained and the house is in better shape than many comparable properties. It is a short walk from the Beale Street entertainment district.

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A story
The Hunt-Phelan Home served as Confederate General Leonidas Polk's headquarters before the fall of Memphis in 1862. After Union forces took the city, General Ulysses S. Grant used it as his own headquarters — making it, as far as is known, the only private residence in the South to have served successive headquarters of both sides in the Civil War. Grant's army also used the grounds as a freedmen's aid camp, helping former enslaved people begin new lives after emancipation.

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