Germantown Overview
Set in the quiet rolling hills of eastern Shelby County is the City
of Germantown, Tennessee—a community known for its strength of character
and its civic pride. Bordering Memphis to the west, Germantown’s
40,000 residents enjoy the convenience of access to big city life
without the hustle and bustle—not to mention taxes—that often comes with
it. With Interstate 40 just to the north and Poplar Avenue (Highway 72)
branching across the southern part of the city, Germantown is
well-situated for those working in Memphis and attractions like the
Mississippi River and Beale Street are only 20 minutes away.
Germantown was first organized in 1833 as Pea Ridge and incorporated in
1841 as Germantown. During World War I, the city changed its name once
again to Neshoba due to popular war-time sentiment, but reverted back to
Germantown later. The city’s municipal buildings including City Hall
and the courthouse, fire and police stations, the independent Germantown
Library, the Germantown Athletic Center, and the Germantown Performing
Arts Center (GPAC) are all within a few blocks of each other. GPAC is
known far and wide for bringing in world-renown performers as well as
the Germantown Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Iris orchestra.
Exclusive open-air shopping centers like Saddle Creek offer independent
and chain retailers found nowhere else in the county in a congenial,
strolling atmosphere with unique, upscale restaurants. In 2008,
Germantown was recognized as one of only 29 cities in the United States
to maintain its AAA bond rating by Moody’s and Standard & Poor.
According to the 2000 United States census, Germantown has the highest
per capita income of all municipalities in Shelby County. Still, the
city maintains its sense of history with retail and services shops
operating in century-old storefronts and houses along avenues lined with
pines and lofty oaks. The city’s love of horses and its relationship
with the Germantown Charity Horse Show is memorialized in
artist-designed statues of horses dotting the landscapes of businesses,
each bearing a different theme ranging from the historic to the
whimsical. Ease of living, strong community standards, a historic
identity, and a vision for the future make Germantown the perfect place
to come home to. |
