Midtown is home to many cultural attractions, institutions of higher education, and noteworthy pieces of architecture.
Midtown is characterized by vintage residential housing, a blend of independent and chain retailers, and high-rise buildings.
Multiple historic districts[3] are located in Midtown, and commercial corridors such as Overton Square and Cooper Street developed before World War II in an urban style.
Cleveland Street in Crosstown is the heart of the Vietnamese population in Memphis,[4] with multiple Vietnamese-owned businesses and a Buddhist temple.
Interstate 240 provides the western border for the neighborhood, separating Midtown from Downtown and the Medical District.
Due to the historic eastward expansion of the city, automobile traffic in Midtown is primarily served by east–west arteries.
[5] Historically, Madison Avenue was the location of the "Dummy Line", the main east–west streetcar line that went from downtown to the Mid-South Fairgrounds (east along Madison, south down Cooper, and east along Young), and many commercial and residential structures along the avenue date to the beginning of the twentieth century.
Christian Brothers University is located adjacent to the Lenox neighborhood on East Parkway.
Overton Park is home to the Memphis College of Art, which moved to its current location from Victorian Village in the 1960s.
The historically black LeMoyne-Owen College operates in Soulsville, a neighborhood to the south of Midtown.