Lamar Terrace was described at its opening as “a small city within a city.” It had its own park, clinic, civic and resident organizations, softball and basketball teams, and Scout troops. Many of the former residents who grew up in the complex in the 1940s and 50s gathered annually for reunions in the recent past – more than 50 years after many of them had lived in the community at Lamar Avenue and Interstate 240. In an article in The Commercial Appeal chronicling one of the recent reunions, a former resident remembered the neighborhood as “one big family.”

In 2004, the Memphis Housing Authority was awarded $22.5 million in federal HOPE VI in funding to revitalize and remake Lamar Terrace as University Place. Demolition started in 2005, construction began in 2006 and the last phase of development was completed in 2009.