In the early 1900s, the land that is now Legends Park was a traditional African American community called Queen Bee Bottoms, home to roughly 550 families. In the 1930s, with the advent of Franklin Roosevelt’s WPA and its funding for public housing and the formation of the Memphis Housing Authority, Dixie Homes was completed in 1938, with 81 buildings and 636 units at a cost of $3.2 million.

Dixie Homes was home to a number of prominent members of the Memphis community, including Dr. W. S. Martin, founding head of Collins Chapel Hospital and owner of the Memphis Red Sox and Dr. J.B. Martin, pharmacist, co-owner of the Red Sox, owner of Chicago American Giants and President of the Negro League.

During the 1940s and 1950s, Dixie Homes was a vibrant community with its own social clubs, a kindergarten, a credit union, a tenant association and its own newspaper. The 1960s and 1970s saw continued growth and activity of the tenant association and street improvements as a result of the widening of Poplar.

The 1980s and 1990s brought more than $20 million in improvements to the Dixie Homes area as well as the implementation of social programs to support college and entrepreneurial aspirations.

In recent years, settling of buildings has caused structural and sewage problems. A $20 million federal HOPE VI grant in 2005 is being leveraged with city, private and federal funds to provide a development budget of $63 million for Legends Park.