Mallory-Neely House
c. 1852 • 652 Adams
It is believed that it was Isaac B. Kirtland who built the Mallory- Neely House in 1852. Kirtland later sold the home to Benjamin Babb in 1864, who built its second story before reselling it to James Columbus Neely in 1883. Neely moved to Memphis around the time the house was first being built. During this period, Neely formed a business partnership with William Goyer (who lived in the James Lee house). In the 1890s, Neely extensively renovated the house, adding a third story, heightening the tower, and enlarging the home to have a total of twenty-five rooms.
J.C. Neely died in 1901, leaving the house to his wife and children. The house became the full property of his daughter Frances (Daisy) Neely who married Barton Lee Mallory. Daisy lived in the home for eighty-six years of her life, passing away at the age of ninety-eight in 1969. The house remains largely unchanged due to Daisy’s extensive long occupancy of the Mallory-Neely House. The Italianate-style home still holds the same gas lights, elaborately painted ceilings, carved woodwork, and stained-glass windows that Daisy enjoyed during her years at the Mallory-Neely House.
The Daughters of the American Revolution operated the house as a museum from 1973 to 1985 and gifted it to the city of Memphis in 1985. The Mallory-Neely house has been operated as a historic house museum by the Memphis Museum of Science and History since 1987.
The home has been named one of the finest examples of High Victorian Style found in the country by National Geographic and is the only historic property in Memphis to retain most of its original furnishings.
Copy Source: With gratitude to Perre M. Magness, author of the book Good Abode, for portions of this narrative.