Germantown, a suburb of Memphis, is set in the rolling hills of Shelby County. The town is known for its strength of character and civic pride. In the city center is the "Old Germantown" neighborhood, anchored by a railroad depot (a 1948 reproduction of the 1868 original) and railroad tracks that recall the community's earliest days of development as an outpost along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad.

With Interstate 40 just to the north and Poplar Avenue (Highway 72) branching across the southern part of the city, Germantown is well-situated for those working in Memphis and attractions like the Mississippi River and Beale Street are only 20 minutes away.

Germantown is known nationally for its horse farms. The city hosts many horse shows and competitions annually - most notably the Germantown Charity Horse Show in June. The city’s love of horses and its relationship with the Germantown Charity Horse Show is memorialized in artist-designed statues of horses dotting the landscapes of businesses, each bearing a different theme ranging from the historic to the whimsical. Other major annual events include the Germantown Festival, an arts and crafts fair, in early September.

The city’s municipal buildings including City Hall and the courthouse, fire and police stations, the independent Germantown Library, the Germantown Athletic Center, and the Germantown Performing Arts Center (GPAC) are all within a few blocks of each other. GPAC is known far and wide for bringing in world-renown performers as well as the Germantown Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Iris orchestra.

Exclusive open-air shopping centers like Saddle Creek offer independent and chain retailers found nowhere else in the county in a congenial, strolling atmosphere with unique, upscale restaurants.

Germantown is known for having excellent fire and police services. In addition, Germantown is one of only 29 cities in the nation that maintains a triple-A Bond rating from both Moody's and Standard & Poors.

Still, the city maintains its sense of history with retail and services shops operating in century-old storefronts and houses along avenues lined with pines and lofty oaks.