Most Memphians know about the lovely Japanese Garden in Audubon Park, and the arched red bridge there may be one of the most photographed attractions in Memphis (especially popular with yearbook photographers). Those of us of a certain age may remember the older Japanese Garden in Overton Park, a lavish construction that was destroyed because of anti-Japanese sentiment following the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.
But few people, I’ll wager, remember the Japanese Garden that was constructed downtown — mainly because it was located in a rather unusual location: on the roof of the 100 North Main Building. I managed to find a photo of the garden (above), along with a trio of attractive visitors, in the old Press-Scimitar archives at the University of Memphis Special Collections Department.
