2025 Centurion Award winner

A. Schwab

Best Historic Shop in Memphis · Memphis, TN

Shop · Memphis, TN · Since 1876

The overview

The oldest business on Beale Street

A. Schwab has stood on Beale Street since 1876, the oldest business on the strip and the last of the original storefronts still operating. The creaky-floored dry-goods store keeps a working soda fountain and candy counter downstairs and a museum of century-old merchandise upstairs.

Its motto — 'If you can't find it at Schwab's, you're probably better off without it' — still fits a shop stocked with hats, harmonicas, hoodoo candles, and Memphis souvenirs, a genuine relic of Beale Street's heyday.

The award record

Every award, on the record.

Each Centurion Award is a dated record tied to one year’s evaluation — earned annually, never carried over. Open a year for the full citation and verification details.

2025

Best Historic Shop in Memphis Memphis, TN · Awarded under the 2025 evaluation View the 2025 award →

Awards run one calendar year and renew only if the business clears the bar again. Selection is by published criteria, never for sale.

Visit A. Schwab

Location163 Beale St, Memphis, TN 38103
In business since1876
Find them onFacebook · Tripadvisor · Yelp

A signal you can check.

This page is the standing record for A. Schwab (2025). It was not bought, voted on, or sponsored — only winners are published, and an award that stops holding up is revoked, not quietly removed.

Run a business like this one?

If you’ve put in the years, you may already clear the bar. Evaluation is free, private, and never for sale.