Stax Museum guide: visiting Soulsville in Memphis

The Stax Museum of American Soul Music stands at 926 East McLemore Avenue in South Memphis, on the corner where Stax Records made Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Booker T. & the M.G.'s and Isaac Hayes. The neighborhood calls itself Soulsville. It is the best music museum in Memphis, and most visitors leave it for the last hour of their trip. Give it more.

The story on one corner

Jim Stewart and his sister Estelle Axton started the label as Satellite Records and moved into the old Capitol Theatre on McLemore in 1960. The name Stax came from their surnames: STewart and AXton. Estelle ran a record shop in the theater lobby, and the musicians tried new songs on the kids who came in to buy 45s. The house band, Booker T. & the M.G.'s, was half Black and half white, in a segregated city.

Stax went bankrupt in 1975 and the building was pulled down in 1989. The museum that opened in 2003 is a rebuild on the same spot, with the marquee back over the door. So you are not standing in the original room, as you are at Sun or at Hitsville in Detroit. The collection makes up for it.

What to see inside

Start with the short film, then walk into Hooper's Chapel, a small wooden church built in 1906 near Duncan, Mississippi, and rebuilt inside the museum. It is there because gospel is where this sound began. Studio A keeps the sloping floor of the old cinema, with the instruments set up the way they stood.

Upstairs, Isaac Hayes's 1972 Cadillac Eldorado, with gold trim and white fur inside, turns slowly on its stand. There is a dance floor with Soul Train on the screens. Most people end up dancing, some of them on purpose.

How long, and when

Two hours is right for most people. Check opening days and prices on the museum's own site before you go, as they change through the year. The Stax Music Academy next door teaches teenagers from the neighborhood, so the corner still makes music on weekday afternoons.

Sun, Stax and the Lorraine Motel in one day

Sun Studio on Union Avenue opens early, so do it first. Then drive about fifteen minutes south to Stax and stay through lunch. Finish at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in April 1968. Stax had lost Otis Redding four months earlier, and many historians date the end of the label's first era to those months. Seeing the two museums on the same day makes that history hard to miss.

Still choosing between the studios? Our guide to Sun, Stax or RCA Studio B compares all five famous rooms in Memphis, Nashville and Muscle Shoals.

Stax Museum questions

How long should I spend at the Stax Museum?

About two hours, or three if you are a soul fan who reads every display.

Is the Stax studio the original?

No. The original building was demolished in 1989. The museum, opened in 2003, is a rebuild on the same site with the studio recreated inside.

Is Stax worth it if I am already seeing Graceland?

Yes. If you care more about soul than about Elvis, Stax is the better use of a half day.

Can I see Stax on one of your tours?

Yes. Our Nashville and Memphis tour includes Sun Studio and the Stax Museum with a local guide.