The 1858 house at 220 N. Randolph Street terminating the west end of Salem Avenue, with its portico supported by attenuated octagonal columns, was designed and built by Spires Boling as his own residence. Today it houses the Ida B. Wells-Barnett Museum and Cultural Center of African American History. Wells-Barnett, the firebrand daughter of Boling’s slave and master carpenter James Wells, became a journalist and early advocate for civil and women’s rights in Memphis and Chicago. At 310 Salem, the most lavish Queen Anne residence in town is the Judge L. A. Smith House (1905) designed by Barber and Kluttz of Knoxville. Precut wooden members with visible identifying markings suggest that it was one of the firm’s mail-order designs.
At 330 Salem, Greek Revival Oakleigh, built for Mississippi Central Railroad developer Jeremiah W. Clapp in 1858, has four giant fluted portico columns, their capitals modeled on Boling’s favorites, those from the Tower of the Winds in Athens, and an elaborate entrance frontispiece with jigsawn crests. The window lintels with acroteria are cast iron, and the second-floor balcony is wrought iron. Also by Boling and similar to Oakleigh are Montrose (1858; 335 Salem) and Wakefield (1858; 495 Salem).