Sears Crosstown in Memphis: From Catalogues to a Concourse

When it opened in 1927, Sears Crosstown, now Crosstown Concourse, was the southeastern regional warehouse and distribution center for the Sears Catalogue mail—order empire. Each day, more than forty—five thousand orders were processed by more than 1,500 workers. As a result, Sears Crosstown became known locally as “the Wish Building.” For more than half a century, the iconic building and its surrounding neighborhood flourished until the decline of Sears in the 1980s. For decades, the once d...