Southern Gothic towns in Georgia? (Savannah, Thomasville: 2014, live, plantations)
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a third of downtown is vacant/boarded up and that is according to the Downtown Development Authority. I would say the upper blocks of Broad are doing well but once you get past 9th street it is pretty bleak and not much has changed. There are some very lovely parts of town but it does not take much to find the gritty poverty stricken areas. and they are pretty stark. Harrisburg continues to deteriorate, Bethlehem, East Boundary, The Bottom, Laney/Walker... resembles lower 9th ward New Orleans, especially the predominance of decaying shot gun houses... the difference is that Augusta did not undergo a major natural disaster like New Orleans. There is a reason why so many photographers have come to Augusta to document the blight.. because it is so prevalent. Savannag has these areas too for sure.. but Augusta lacks the tourists and the pretty historic district and thriving downtown that Savannah has.
Savannah, GA is big on "hauntings" and has "hauntings" tours of various houses and cemeteries in the city. And you will get the atmospheric live oaks with Spanish moss (which is neither Spanish nor moss!)
Check out Milledgeville's website (also in GA). I've only been there once, and it was nearly 20 years ago, but it was spooky. Especially after dark. To a lot of people growing up in Georgia, the word "Milledgeville" traditionally had the same connotation as the name "Bedlam" might to an Englishman/woman.
Note I said check out Milledgeville's website before you drive all the way there, in case it's changed in the past 2 decades. It's out in the middle of nowhere, a long way from no-place-much-in-particular but if you decide to visit Macon, at least you can find a road that will take you to Milledgeville.
Then for a look at what an antebellum Southern town can look like when it's been properly restored by a good historical society, visit Roswell. Fifty years it might have been atmospheric enough for you; it was lovely then, too; now it's lovely and also bright and well kept.
a third of downtown is vacant/boarded up and that is according to the Downtown Development Authority. I would say the upper blocks of Broad are doing well but once you get past 9th street it is pretty bleak and not much has changed. There are some very lovely parts of town but it does not take much to find the gritty poverty stricken areas. and they are pretty stark. Harrisburg continues to deteriorate, Bethlehem, East Boundary, The Bottom, Laney/Walker... resembles lower 9th ward New Orleans, especially the predominance of decaying shot gun houses... the difference is that Augusta did not undergo a major natural disaster like New Orleans. There is a reason why so many photographers have come to Augusta to document the blight.. because it is so prevalent. Savannag has these areas too for sure.. but Augusta lacks the tourists and the pretty historic district and thriving downtown that Savannah has.
what is some people's problem with grit. I notice a lot of pumpers on this forum that insist there is nothing wrong with their city (insert city) and it must grow grow grow or change or whatever. Love a place for what it is. Not what it isn't. Right? As to the poverty thing.. well, we continue to remove the social safety net. You get what you pay for. In business, in government, in life. You don't want hobos and grit, don't vote for a Trump. Or a Deal.
I'm from England and coming across to the USA Nov/Dec/Jan to shoot another part of a photography book I'm working on about the South. I was in Louisiana last year and found some great old plantation houses, bayou haunts, dive bars etc. The subject is Southern Gothic, so there's a creepy vibe - historic houses, decaying plantations, Spanish moss, graveyards, poverty, undercurrent of violence - all the good stuff!
My book will be set in the 1960s. I prefer the small town feel, though I did come across a few good places in New Orleans when in La. In general I'm looking for a mix of the upmarket, which I guess I'll get in Savannah, and the beat up elements like old farm buildings, graveyards and anything that looks like it could pre-date the 60s and might have a creepy, vintage or rustic feel, whether it's dive bars, barbers shops, diners, restaurants, crab shacks - anything really.
I found a good mix in Louisiana outside of New Orleans. I'm wondering if Georgian towns offer the same?
Looking for great pieces of history that I can tell a story with that doesn't verge into the surburban, chain store world.
Be really grateful for any advice on the best towns to visit. I'm guessing I should probably steer clear of Atlanta, but perhaps some of the other small cities have something to offer too?
Or perhaps I've got the wrong state entirely and would be better in Mississippi or elswhere? All advice gratefully received!
I like what the Georgians here have said about Georgia, and it probably has had much more of its heritage preserved because it's on the east coast and is a more populous state. However, my home state of Mississippi wouldn't be a bad state for what you're looking for.
None of the Deep South states (Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and maybe South Carolina) are bad at all for what you describe as the "Southern Gothic" vibe. It's just that none of them, except maybe Georgia and South Carolina in their low country, have a particular "Voodoo" vibe like Louisiana or New Orleans. And that's okay.
What definitely is present, at least in most of the Deep South, is the Southern Gothic vibe. Maybe not the one with the Spanish moss, but definitely the decaying plantations, graveyards and historic houses, and the poverty, the undercurrent of violence.
The South is definitely still gripping with the social implications of slavery and the plantation economy, as well as the devastation of the countryside in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
By far the best city for you to visit in Mississippi would have to be Natchez. Natchez is home to the most Antebellum homes PER CAPITA on the National Register of Historic Places or National Historic Landmarks, (NRHPs and NHLs are both designations by the U.S. Department of the Interior (designations similar to Listed Buildings by the British Government) of any city in the United States. Check the website for the Park Service in Natchez at https://www.nps.gov/natc/index.htm
The overwhelming majority are still privately held, although some operate as private museums, and the Melrose plantation house and William Johnson House Townhouse are effectively units of the National Park Service operated as museums. The National Park Service museums do a good job interpreting the historical background of the area and of the individual houses and their role in local and American history. For the most prominent private homes, check them out during the Spring or Fall Pilgrimage, more information at Natchez Pilgrimage Tours.
For a good example of the "decaying plantation" Southern vibe in the city limits of Natchez, Arlington house is a good example. Keep in mind it's been abandoned since suffering a fire in 2002 according to the Mississippi Heritage Trust and has been on the Mississippi Heritage Trust's 10 most endangered places in Mississippi in 2009. It currently is on a private lot, but is located in the town proper and is generally abandoned and neglected, so you probably won't have much trouble in visiting Arlington as long as the absentee landlord isn't visiting (which is rare, as far as I know). Arlington is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark. It has its own page on Wikipedia, and I am sure you may be able to find links to web pages about it from there.
Another Abandoned plantation to visit near Natchez is the Prospect Hill Plantation. Founded in 1808 in the days of the Mississippi Territory by South Carolinian Isaac Ross, The plantation is famous for its association with the American Colonization Society that took slaves to what is now Liberia in what was called the Mississippi-in-Africa colony. According to the its Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Hill_Plantation), In 1836, Isaac Ross died, and in his will he willed that all his slaves be liberated and resettled in Liberia. A good book on the history of the plantation and of its descendants that colonized Liberia is "Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today" by Alan Huffman (Mississippi in Africa: the saga of the slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and their legacy in Liberia Today; Huffman, Alan; New York: Gotham Books, a division of Penguin Books. Pub. Jan. 2004). In order to access it, you may have to contact its current owner, the Archaeological Conservancy of America, Southeast Regional Office. The regional director, according to its website found at Contact Us - Archaeological Conservancy
The Archaeological Conservancy
P.O. Box 270
Marks, MS 38646
(662) 326-6465
I don't know if they do tours, but I bet it wouldn't hurt to try to call and ask about visiting the site.
While on the road in the area, you definitely want to check out the ghost town of Rodney. The town was founded as a river settlement by the French in 1763 and acted as a trading post during French colonial rule, but was named in honor of Thomas Rodney, a brother to a signer of the American Declaration of Independence who was from Delaware. Rodney's population peaked at 210 in 1850 according to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. However, after the American Civil War, the Mississippi River, upon which Rodney was founded, changed its course, so Rodney was no longer a river town. This took the lifeblood of the economy out of the town, and it has remained a ghost town practically ever since. For good information for your book on the town, check out the description of the town found on page 8 of the official National Register nomination form for the town found here: Rodney Nomination Form Link
Nearby is Windsor Ruins, located in Claiborne County, north of Rodney. Windsor is the ruins of what may have been one of the largest plantation homes in the South. burned by a fire started by a discarded cigarette in 1890. It was used by the Confederates as an observation post during the Civil War, and was saved from destruction in 1863 by Catherine Daniel, the wife of the plantation owner, who offered it to the Union soldiers to be used as a war hospital while her husband, Smith Coffee Daniel II, was serving for the Confederacy elsewhere. See the Wikipedia page on Windsor Ruins for more information. There will be plenty of links.
Along U.S. Highway 61, AKA Great River Road and "The Blue Highway", is Port Gibson. Chartered as a town in 1803, Port Gibson is Mississippi's third oldest European American settlement. General Grant used most of Port Gibson as a military hospital, as it was at a strategic crossroads in the Western Theater of the Civil War. Most of the town is photogenic, and you may be able to stay in a historic home that has been converted into a bed and breakfast, the Isabella Bed and Breakfast, which can be found on the web here Welcome to Southern Hospitality | Isabella Bed and Breakfast. You might want to book accommodation in advanced, as this and one other bed and breakfast are the only accommodations you will find in the whole town, possibly in the whole county.
The town of Port Gibson is probably best known for the Civil War battle of Port Gibson, in which a Union victory leading up to the battle of Vicksburg took place outside of Port Gibson and killed 200 Confederates in the process.
Other Notable facts about Port Gibson: Earl Van Dorn, nephew of Andrew Jackson and Cofederate general, was born in Claiborne County, of which Port Gibson is the seat of government, and his father Peter Van Dorn planned the grid plan of Jackson, the current state capitol; Until 2014, Port Gibson was home to Chamberlain Hunt, which was one of the oldest college preparatory boarding schools in the South,which since has been abandoned and remained basically intact ever since the school closed; The Rabbit's Foot Company was established in 1900 by Pat Chappelle, an African-American theatre owner in Tampa, Florida. He owned the leading travelling vaudeville show in the southern states, with an all-black cast of singers, musicians, comedians and entertainers. After his death in 1911, the company was taken over by Fred Swift Wolcott, a white farmer, who based the touring company in Port Gibson after 1918, and continued to run it until 1950.A historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail has been placed by the Mississippi Blues Commission in Port Gibson, commemorating the contribution that The Rabbit's Foot Company made to the development of the blues in Mississippi; lastly, although Port Gibson no longer has a Jewish community, Gemiluth Chessed synagogue, built in 1892, had an active congregation when the town was thriving as the county seat. It is the oldest synagogue and the only Moorish Revival building in the state. It's now all but abandoned, although a private couple may still own the building, according to the local Jewish history institute, Institute for Southern Jewish Life. The ISJL would have plenty of history on that structure for you to include in your book. They can be on the web here: http://http://www.isjl.org/.
Now the best region overall in Mississippi for the "Southern Gothic feel" would have to be the Delta. The Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and Ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The region is a 52 mile wide, 200 mile long alluvial plain (a river flood plain). The whole region is built on a system of levees to control river water from submerging the whole area and is littered with cotton farms and corn and soybean and rice fields and decaying old plantation homes. It's home to some of the poorest communities in the United States, and the region is haunted with the ghosts of its past. Slavery dominated the region in the Antebellum period, although it was very scarcely populated until after reconstruction ended. After reconstruction, much of the Delta, which was mostly swamp and forest during the Antebellum period, was cleared of its forests and made into cotton fields, picked by sharecropper labor, in which African Americans were held in perpetual debt to the white people and forced to stay on the plantations. White leasers would lease their land to African American tenants, and the African American tenants were obliged to give their whole "share" of cotton crop to the white landlords, so they could make money off of it. African Americans therefore had no money to buy anything because their whole livelihood had to go to the white planter landlords. The only places they could get food would be the company store of the white landlord's plantation, where they would get seeds or dry goods or some canned foods, which they could only get on credit offered by the white landlord. This system lasted until about the Second World War, when many of the African Americans went off to serve in the then segregated military of the United States. Many began leaving for the North long before then during the First World War. These African Americans coming from Mississippi multiplied in the Northern Cities of Chicago, Saint Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland primarily, secondarily in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. After the Second World War, many of those who served in the United States Military during "The War" began demanding their rights as citizens of the United States of America for equal protection under the law. After the Civil Rights movement when African Americans received the right to vote and when schools and school buses were integrated, the farm economy became fully mechanized, and many African Americans moved from the countryside into town to attend the local schools. Manufacturing jobs came to the Delta because of the lack of a labor union presence. However, with Declining cotton prices from the 80s onward, the outsourcing of manufacturing labor to Mexico and elsewhere after the North American Free Trade Agreement, manufacturing jobs left the once prosperous Delta, just as lowered farm prices decimated the economy. Add to that the rise of "Big-Box" retailers like Walmart decimating the economy with their huge marketing campaigns advertising "lower prices", The flight of most lower-to-middle income white people from the Delta after school integration and the sending of most the rest to all white academies, the decimation of whole neighborhoods in certain cities in the Delta by crime, and the rise of nearby white-flight cities known for their "good" public schools such as Madison, DeSoto County, and Oxford, plus the gradual automation and gradually increasing use of robots in manufacturing jobs, and the result is a region of poverty comparable or possibly worse than several developing countries.
Decaying plantation homes, Family Cemeteries buried in weeds, neglected pre-1960s houses, with some well kept up in white-only neighborhoods, the extreme of poverty found anywhere in the United States outside of the poorest Native American Indian reservations, farm structures everywhere, some haunting Civil War history (though not as much as in Vickburg and Natchez), Not at all in suburbia, huge history of African American suffering and struggles, Huge presence of the Blues in the history of the region, some upmarket, but only in maybe Greenwood, maybe Clarksdale. Definitely pre-60s creepy, vintage feel. Pure, Authentic, Southern Gothic/Southern Decay feel.
The Delta has several towns, all of which have a burgeoning tourism industry, especially as Music enthusiasts from around the globe come to the region to learn about the history of the blues music industry and its influence on Rock and Roll and other genres of music.
A good book to read about the Delta is the book "Dispatches From Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta" by Richard Grant (Dispatches From Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta; Grant, Richard. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.) In it, he describes the history of the Mississippi Delta as he makes a new home after buying an old (1920s) plantation house in the Mississippi Delta, in Pluto, near Tchula (pronounced CHEW-Luh), Holmes County, The Poorest County in the Poorest State, Mississippi.
The first town, though not geographically in the Delta, but is culturally in the Delta, is at the edge of the lowland Loess Hills region and the Delta, and it's the first town coming from the south from Port Gibson heading north on U.S. Highway 61 is Vicksburg.
The Best example of a haunted place I know of in Vicksburg, and probably in Mississippi as a whole, is the Kuhn State Memorial Hospital. According to the onlyinyourstate Mississippi article found here:http://http://www.onlyinyourstate.co...tate-hospital/
Kuhn State Memorial Hospital was founded in 1832 to combat a smallpox outbreak in the Vicksburg area. It later served as a hospital for the confederates in the American Civil War to treat injured soldiers. At one point, the hospital served as a maximum security prison, and it also served as a state mental ward at one point. n 1954, a former Vicksburg resident by the name of Lee Kuhn passed away, leaving behind $400,000 and somewhat of an unusual request. In addition to leaving his estate to the hospital, Kuhn’s will instructed that a seven-person committee, consisting of three Jews, two Catholics, and two Protestants, be formed and, in turn, decide the best way to use the funds. The committee chose to use the funds to construct a larger facility. The new building, which was located to the rear of the original buildings, was completed in 1959 and re-named Kuhn Memorial State Hospital. The Hospital 1989, due to political and financial issues. The Hospital, according to the article, was featured on the American ghost-hunting series "Ghost Asylum," and in 2015, ghost hunters found the body of a slain woman in the building while exploring the premises of the former hospital.
Kuhn State Memorial hospital is located at 1422 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Vicksburg, MS. It can be found on Google Maps here:Kuhn State Memorial Hospital. It's totally abandoned, and free for you to enter to take photographs at your own risk.
Much of Vicksburg is actually well preserved, probably due to the tourism presence accompanying the Vicksburg Battlefield National Military Park (a preserved Civil War battlefield with several monuments to both sides of the war) and is one of the nicer towns in Mississippi and in the Delta, however, some houses do claim to be haunted by ghosts, and I'm sure you will find plenty of decay or Southern Gothic, pre-1960s businesses or architecture as you venture into south Washington street heading north into downtown.
I know of at least one antebellum home that is Haunted, the McRaven Home. You can find out about booking tours for the historic homes here: Tour Homes - Visit Vicksburg.
A good repository on other travel information for Vicksburg can be found on the Visit Vicksburg website, maintained by the official Visitors & Convention Bureau of the city:Visit Vicksburg - Visit Vicksburg.
Up the Road from Vicksburg is Lake Washington, which can be accessed from Highway 61 by way of Mississippi State Highway 1.
Along Eastside Lake Washington Road west of Glen Allen,Washington County, Mississippi, in County Line Community Cemetery, is the Saint John's Church ruins, the ruins of the Delta's oldest Antebellum Episcopal church. Built in 1856 by slave labor, the church avoided getting directly hit by the Civil War. However, during the post Civil War era, the church fell into disrepair, and in 1907 a tornado blew the roof off the church, leaving it abandoned to wear and fall into further disrepair ever since. All that remains today are a few cornerstones, wall sections, and a portion of the belfry, all forming parts of the mostly-brick former church.
Today, there is a group that does historical tours of the cemetery and former churchyard, and their facebook page (and only web page as far as I can find) can be found here: facebook.com | Greenfield Cemetery Candlelight Tour.
Another famous antebellum landmark nearby, although also in ruins, is Mount Holly, an Italianate style home with 32 rooms and built primarily of red brick. The house was built by a Philadelphia, PA based architect who designed Longwood in Natchez, Samuel Sloan, in 1855 for Dr. Charles Wilkins Dudley for his wife, Margaret Johnson Erwin Dudley. William H. Foote, ancestor of the author on the authoritative history anthology on the Civil War, "Civil War", Shelby Foote, purchased the Antebellum home in 1880. Unfortunately, the house has been abandoned since the mid 90s (I think?) and was gutted by fire in 2015. Definitely a good opportunity for the "Southern Decay" side of the antebellum Delta. The house can be found here: Google Maps | Mount Holly Plantation.
Now, this next place may not be haunted, but it definitely is pre-1960s Southern Gothic. Doe's Eat Place in Greenville, the county seat of Washington County, north of Lake Washington on MS State Highway 1, is definitely a dive. Best known for its steaks and tamales, Doe's Eat place was founded in a building built in 1903 by Dominick "Big Doe" Signa's. Signa started the restaurant in 1941 in the very same building built in 1903 that served as his father's grocery store from 1903 to 1941. The Restaurant is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and previously served as a bootlegging business in addition to a grocery store during Prohibition. It can be found on Google Maps here:Google Maps | Doe's Eat Place.
And if you want to spend the night in Greenville, what better way to do it than in a historic Hotel.
The Greenville Inns and Suites hotel in downtown Greenville, Mississippi, was retrofitted into a hotel from the Historic Levee Board Building. It can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Greenville Inns and Suites.
All around Greenville are several very blighted neighborhoods, mostly filled with dilapidated homes and abandoned homes, however, there are a few areas with historic, better maintained homes. For Southern Gothic, pre 1960s, I'd take a look at South Main and South Washington streets north of Reed Rd.
Heading east along U.S. Highway 82, you'd find Leland, just east of Greenville in Washington County. The Highway 61 blues museum is located on Broad Street in downtown Leland, in the exact same building that Marion Post Wolcott photographed in 1939 as the "Rex Theater for Colored People". Deer Creek, a Bayou and the two main streets of the town, is lined on both sides with mostly pre-1960s homes dating from the early to mid 1900s, giving the town a cool Southern Gothic feel to it all over. Head east South Deer Creek Road to the Kermit the Frog Birthplace Museum if you want to get a bit of nostalgia over the Muppets while learning about the life of Jim Henson, the Muppets' creator, who grew up in Leland.
Nearby is where John Fogerty from the band Credence Clearwater Revival paid for James "Son" Thomas to be buried. The grave is Bogue Memorial Cemetery at 364 Old Tribbett Road, in front of Greater St. Matthew Missionary Baptist (MB) Church. It can be found on google maps here: Google Maps | Old Tribbett Road . More information can be found here: James "Son" Thomas's Grave | Visit Mississippi
Head Back onto Highway 82 east to go towards Indianola, a town of about 12,000, and stop for lunch at Betty's Place, a true dive/restaurant that serves great burgers, barbecue, and soul food (African-American cuisine), all within convenient distance of the B.B. King museum.
The B.B. King museum is a Museum dedicated to the heritage of the late blues musician B.B. King and the musical heritage of the surrounding area. The Museum is in a building that was formerly used as a cotton gin, a mill that removes the seeds from cotton, where B.B. King worked during his early years. More info on the B.B. King museum atBBKingMuseum – BB King museum official site.
After an afternoon at the B.B. King Museum, you can can follow U.S. 82 east into Greenwood, the seat of government and largest town in Leflore County, Mississippi (population about 14,400). The most Southern Gothic restaurant (IMHO) in Greenwood is Lusco's, although Gardenia's Restaurant inside the Alluvian offers similar fare in a more upscale setting (Inside the Alluvian Hotel, which is the best hotel in Greenwood.)
Lusco's was started by Charles and Marie Lusco, Immigrants from Italy, who entered the United States through Louisiana at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (around 1900). The building dates from 1933, when it was built as a grocery store in the front, with privately-partitioned booths in the rear for dining.
Today, Lusco's is generally a seafood and steak restaurant with some pasta, as it is an Italian restaurant.
Lusco's is located at 722 Carrollton Avenue in Greenwood, east of Downtown. It can be found here: Google Maps | Lusco's.
After a dinner at Lusco's You can take rest for the night at the Alluvian Hotel in Downtown Greenwood, located on Google Maps Here:Google Maps | The Alluvian.
The Alluvian was the vision of Fred Carl, then CEO of Viking (cooking) Range Corporation. His company, Viking, built and owns the hotel, the first luxury boutique hotel in the Mississippi Delta. It's located in a rennovated historic building across from the Episcopal Church of the Nativity.
The next day after checking out of the Alluvian, you can drive north across the Tallahatchie-Yalobusha River on Fulton Street until Fulton Street turns into Grand Boulevard.
Grand Boulevard was the widest street in Greenwood before the Highway 82 Bypass was built. It was once named "The Most Beautiful Street in America" by the Garden Club Association of America once. The majority of homes built along there were built between the 1900s decade and the 1960s, so it will definitely constitute what you may call "Historic Homes." Many Neoclassical, Tudor, Revival, and Beaux-Arts style buildings.
For good blues history, travel up Grand Boulevard past where it turns into Money Road, and you go up along this road for a few miles and you'll reach Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, where legendary founder of the blues Robert Johnson is buried. Find out more about the Robert Johnson grave site here: http://http://www.msbluestrail.org/b...nson-gravesite. The grave site can also be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church.
Up Money Road from Little Mount Zion MB Church is Money, the site of where Emmett Till . a young African American 14 year old man who in 1955 was killed in nearby Tallahatchie County, "wolf whistling" at a white woman. His wolf whistling at a white woman in Money got him killed, and in response to his murder his mother put an open casket photo of his dead, mauled body on the front page of Look Magazine, a then popular American general interest magazine. The Bryant's Grocery Store where he "wolf whistled" the white lady is now in ruins, though a historical marker (albeit one that has been sometimes vandalized, then cleaned up) recalls the story of Emmett Till, and you can find it on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market.
Continue up Money Road until you reach Highway 8, then go down Highway 8 heading west towards Cleveland, but before reaching Cleveland, going through then past Ruleville, stop by Dockery Farms, a former plantation with several early 20th century buildings and farm structures well preserved in perfect unit. Known as the Birthplace of the Blues, Dockery Farms is probably best known for being the adopted home of Charley Patton and Son House, and possibly the father of the blues, Robert Johnson. Find out more about the Dockery Farms here Home | Dockery Farms Foundation. Dockery Farms can be found on Google maps here: Google Maps | Dockery Farms.
For Lunch, stop by the town of Cleveland (population: about 12,300), and stop by Delta Meat Market, a downtown restaurant specializing in high-end version of local classics (Southern Food, Italian, Sandwiches, Tamales) made light with the freshest produce and meats. Delta Meat Market is located at 118 North Sharpe Avenue in Downtown Cleveland. It can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Delta Meat Market.
After lunch at Delta Meat Market, you can make your way to Hollywood Plantation. Also known as Baby Doll and the Burrus House. Built in 1858, it is the last remaining antebellum home in Bolivar County. Formerly known as the Hollywood Plantation, the house and the grounds were the set for the 1956 movie "Baby Doll." The historic home and grounds are open for tours by appointment only. Click here for the contact information of the owner: Baby Doll House | Contact.
If you have enough time to make it to Rosedale before sunset, drop by there and take a few photos of the town, as well as Grace Episcopal Church, which was built in 1879 and is located at 203 Main Street in Rosedale.
Accommodation for the night will be best had at the Hampton Inn franchise hotel on the outskirts of Cleveland (as there are no hotels in downtown or any luxury hotels, and the Hampton Inn is the best you'll get.) It can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Hampton Inn Cleveland.
The next morning, you can make your way to Mississippi Grounds, a Coffee Shop not too far from the Delta State University main campus in Cleveland. It can be found here: Google Maps | Mississippi Grounds.
After visiting Mississippi Grounds, you can stop by the Mississippi Grammy Museum, a newly opened museum covering the musical heritage of Mississippi's Grammy award winning musicians. It can be found on Google maps here: Google Maps | Mississippi Grammy Museum.
After the Grammy museum head up Highway 61 up to Merigold, onto Po Monkey Road. Until 2016, this was the home of Po' Monkey's, which for a while was the last remaining authentic juke joint in the state of Mississippi. The building still stands, but it's been all but abandoned since. Po Monkey's can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Po' Monkey's.
Head up North on Highway 61 up to the town of Clarksdale (population 16,200), where you'll find the Devil's Crossroads. Legend has it that at that spot Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so that he could have the talent to learn the blues. Some would say it payed off, but at a price. Johnson died at age 27 in Greenwood, Mississippi. The Devil's Crossroads can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Devil's Crossroads
For Lunchtime, stop by a real Mississippi dive (and a great barbecue joint) Abe's, located at the crossroads right on the southeast corner. Abraham Davis founded his first business in 1924 named Bungalow-Inn, located on Fourth Street; now called Martin Luther King Boulevard, where his excellent Bar-B-Q reputation spread across North Mississippi and Mid-South. The business moved to the crossroads of U.S. 49 & 61 where legend has it that the Delta blues king, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil and the blues was born. It’s very possible that Robert Johnson, while sitting on a Coca-Cola case under one of the sycamore trees that was prominent at that corner back then, eating an Abe’s Bar-B-Q made that legendary deal.
In the afternoon, you can head over to the Delta Blues Museum, housed in the old Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Passenger Depot, found here: Google Maps | Delta Blues Museum.
For dinner and drinks in the afternoon, head over to Ground Zero Blues Club, a modern day blues bar co-owned by Charleston, Mississippi resident Morgan Freeman. Ground Zero Blues Club is found here: Google Maps | Ground Zero Blues Club
Finally, for your last night's stay in the Delta, the most Southern place on the planet, I reccommend the Shack Up Inn, an old cotton plantation that has out buildings that have been converted into hotel rooms. Shack Up Inn can be found here:
Google Maps | Shack up Inn.
After leaving Clarksdale in the morning, your best bet on getting back to England would be to catch a flight leaving from Memphis International, either go to Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago O'Hare, or Charlotte Airport, and catch a flight out of there to either the continent or Ireland or back directly to London; or from there to New York or Philadelphia or Washington or Boston, and from there to England.
This took me literally 4 days to write.
For all of you Georgia residents, I'm sorry if this was off topic, but he did mention Mississippi, and I just had to write this.
Great post, emmerich01. I'd like to see some of those places in Mississippi.
Another place worth mentioning is Sparta, GA in Hancock, County (middle GA). Amazing place that is in disrepair. The county is one of the poorest in the state of GA. There are several homes there from the late 1700s. It was an agricultural area that was devastated by the boll weevil in the early 1900s and never recovered economically.
"The abandoned buildings of Central State Hospital, now in a state of neglect and decay, once comprised the largest mental health facility the world had ever seen, with more than 200 buildings on 2,000 acres."
And our state Capitol was in Milledgeville at one time and is now occupied by Georgia Military College. The old Capitol building was built with gothic architecture, but not in a state of decay.
Last edited by hughga; 08-17-2017 at 05:45 PM..
Reason: link
I like what the Georgians here have said about Georgia, and it probably has had much more of its heritage preserved because it's on the east coast and is a more populous state. However, my home state of Mississippi wouldn't be a bad state for what you're looking for.
None of the Deep South states (Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and maybe South Carolina) are bad at all for what you describe as the "Southern Gothic" vibe. It's just that none of them, except maybe Georgia and South Carolina in their low country, have a particular "Voodoo" vibe like Louisiana or New Orleans. And that's okay.
What definitely is present, at least in most of the Deep South, is the Southern Gothic vibe. Maybe not the one with the Spanish moss, but definitely the decaying plantations, graveyards and historic houses, and the poverty, the undercurrent of violence.
The South is definitely still gripping with the social implications of slavery and the plantation economy, as well as the devastation of the countryside in the aftermath of the American Civil War.
By far the best city for you to visit in Mississippi would have to be Natchez. Natchez is home to the most Antebellum homes PER CAPITA on the National Register of Historic Places or National Historic Landmarks, (NRHPs and NHLs are both designations by the U.S. Department of the Interior (designations similar to Listed Buildings by the British Government) of any city in the United States. Check the website for the Park Service in Natchez at https://www.nps.gov/natc/index.htm
The overwhelming majority are still privately held, although some operate as private museums, and the Melrose plantation house and William Johnson House Townhouse are effectively units of the National Park Service operated as museums. The National Park Service museums do a good job interpreting the historical background of the area and of the individual houses and their role in local and American history. For the most prominent private homes, check them out during the Spring or Fall Pilgrimage, more information at Natchez Pilgrimage Tours.
For a good example of the "decaying plantation" Southern vibe in the city limits of Natchez, Arlington house is a good example. Keep in mind it's been abandoned since suffering a fire in 2002 according to the Mississippi Heritage Trust and has been on the Mississippi Heritage Trust's 10 most endangered places in Mississippi in 2009. It currently is on a private lot, but is located in the town proper and is generally abandoned and neglected, so you probably won't have much trouble in visiting Arlington as long as the absentee landlord isn't visiting (which is rare, as far as I know). Arlington is on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark. It has its own page on Wikipedia, and I am sure you may be able to find links to web pages about it from there.
Another Abandoned plantation to visit near Natchez is the Prospect Hill Plantation. Founded in 1808 in the days of the Mississippi Territory by South Carolinian Isaac Ross, The plantation is famous for its association with the American Colonization Society that took slaves to what is now Liberia in what was called the Mississippi-in-Africa colony. According to the its Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospect_Hill_Plantation), In 1836, Isaac Ross died, and in his will he willed that all his slaves be liberated and resettled in Liberia. A good book on the history of the plantation and of its descendants that colonized Liberia is "Mississippi in Africa: The Saga of the Slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and Their Legacy in Liberia Today" by Alan Huffman (Mississippi in Africa: the saga of the slaves of Prospect Hill Plantation and their legacy in Liberia Today; Huffman, Alan; New York: Gotham Books, a division of Penguin Books. Pub. Jan. 2004). In order to access it, you may have to contact its current owner, the Archaeological Conservancy of America, Southeast Regional Office. The regional director, according to its website found at Contact Us - Archaeological Conservancy
The Archaeological Conservancy
P.O. Box 270
Marks, MS 38646
(662) 326-6465
I don't know if they do tours, but I bet it wouldn't hurt to try to call and ask about visiting the site.
While on the road in the area, you definitely want to check out the ghost town of Rodney. The town was founded as a river settlement by the French in 1763 and acted as a trading post during French colonial rule, but was named in honor of Thomas Rodney, a brother to a signer of the American Declaration of Independence who was from Delaware. Rodney's population peaked at 210 in 1850 according to the 1850 U.S. Federal Census. However, after the American Civil War, the Mississippi River, upon which Rodney was founded, changed its course, so Rodney was no longer a river town. This took the lifeblood of the economy out of the town, and it has remained a ghost town practically ever since. For good information for your book on the town, check out the description of the town found on page 8 of the official National Register nomination form for the town found here: Rodney Nomination Form Link
Nearby is Windsor Ruins, located in Claiborne County, north of Rodney. Windsor is the ruins of what may have been one of the largest plantation homes in the South. burned by a fire started by a discarded cigarette in 1890. It was used by the Confederates as an observation post during the Civil War, and was saved from destruction in 1863 by Catherine Daniel, the wife of the plantation owner, who offered it to the Union soldiers to be used as a war hospital while her husband, Smith Coffee Daniel II, was serving for the Confederacy elsewhere. See the Wikipedia page on Windsor Ruins for more information. There will be plenty of links.
Along U.S. Highway 61, AKA Great River Road and "The Blue Highway", is Port Gibson. Chartered as a town in 1803, Port Gibson is Mississippi's third oldest European American settlement. General Grant used most of Port Gibson as a military hospital, as it was at a strategic crossroads in the Western Theater of the Civil War. Most of the town is photogenic, and you may be able to stay in a historic home that has been converted into a bed and breakfast, the Isabella Bed and Breakfast, which can be found on the web here Welcome to Southern Hospitality | Isabella Bed and Breakfast. You might want to book accommodation in advanced, as this and one other bed and breakfast are the only accommodations you will find in the whole town, possibly in the whole county.
The town of Port Gibson is probably best known for the Civil War battle of Port Gibson, in which a Union victory leading up to the battle of Vicksburg took place outside of Port Gibson and killed 200 Confederates in the process.
Other Notable facts about Port Gibson: Earl Van Dorn, nephew of Andrew Jackson and Cofederate general, was born in Claiborne County, of which Port Gibson is the seat of government, and his father Peter Van Dorn planned the grid plan of Jackson, the current state capitol; Until 2014, Port Gibson was home to Chamberlain Hunt, which was one of the oldest college preparatory boarding schools in the South,which since has been abandoned and remained basically intact ever since the school closed; The Rabbit's Foot Company was established in 1900 by Pat Chappelle, an African-American theatre owner in Tampa, Florida. He owned the leading travelling vaudeville show in the southern states, with an all-black cast of singers, musicians, comedians and entertainers. After his death in 1911, the company was taken over by Fred Swift Wolcott, a white farmer, who based the touring company in Port Gibson after 1918, and continued to run it until 1950.A historic marker on the Mississippi Blues Trail has been placed by the Mississippi Blues Commission in Port Gibson, commemorating the contribution that The Rabbit's Foot Company made to the development of the blues in Mississippi; lastly, although Port Gibson no longer has a Jewish community, Gemiluth Chessed synagogue, built in 1892, had an active congregation when the town was thriving as the county seat. It is the oldest synagogue and the only Moorish Revival building in the state. It's now all but abandoned, although a private couple may still own the building, according to the local Jewish history institute, Institute for Southern Jewish Life. The ISJL would have plenty of history on that structure for you to include in your book. They can be on the web here: http://http://www.isjl.org/.
Now the best region overall in Mississippi for the "Southern Gothic feel" would have to be the Delta. The Delta begins in the lobby of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis and Ends on Catfish Row in Vicksburg. The region is a 52 mile wide, 200 mile long alluvial plain (a river flood plain). The whole region is built on a system of levees to control river water from submerging the whole area and is littered with cotton farms and corn and soybean and rice fields and decaying old plantation homes. It's home to some of the poorest communities in the United States, and the region is haunted with the ghosts of its past. Slavery dominated the region in the Antebellum period, although it was very scarcely populated until after reconstruction ended. After reconstruction, much of the Delta, which was mostly swamp and forest during the Antebellum period, was cleared of its forests and made into cotton fields, picked by sharecropper labor, in which African Americans were held in perpetual debt to the white people and forced to stay on the plantations. White leasers would lease their land to African American tenants, and the African American tenants were obliged to give their whole "share" of cotton crop to the white landlords, so they could make money off of it. African Americans therefore had no money to buy anything because their whole livelihood had to go to the white planter landlords. The only places they could get food would be the company store of the white landlord's plantation, where they would get seeds or dry goods or some canned foods, which they could only get on credit offered by the white landlord. This system lasted until about the Second World War, when many of the African Americans went off to serve in the then segregated military of the United States. Many began leaving for the North long before then during the First World War. These African Americans coming from Mississippi multiplied in the Northern Cities of Chicago, Saint Louis, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Cleveland primarily, secondarily in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington D.C. After the Second World War, many of those who served in the United States Military during "The War" began demanding their rights as citizens of the United States of America for equal protection under the law. After the Civil Rights movement when African Americans received the right to vote and when schools and school buses were integrated, the farm economy became fully mechanized, and many African Americans moved from the countryside into town to attend the local schools. Manufacturing jobs came to the Delta because of the lack of a labor union presence. However, with Declining cotton prices from the 80s onward, the outsourcing of manufacturing labor to Mexico and elsewhere after the North American Free Trade Agreement, manufacturing jobs left the once prosperous Delta, just as lowered farm prices decimated the economy. Add to that the rise of "Big-Box" retailers like Walmart decimating the economy with their huge marketing campaigns advertising "lower prices", The flight of most lower-to-middle income white people from the Delta after school integration and the sending of most the rest to all white academies, the decimation of whole neighborhoods in certain cities in the Delta by crime, and the rise of nearby white-flight cities known for their "good" public schools such as Madison, DeSoto County, and Oxford, plus the gradual automation and gradually increasing use of robots in manufacturing jobs, and the result is a region of poverty comparable or possibly worse than several developing countries.
Decaying plantation homes, Family Cemeteries buried in weeds, neglected pre-1960s houses, with some well kept up in white-only neighborhoods, the extreme of poverty found anywhere in the United States outside of the poorest Native American Indian reservations, farm structures everywhere, some haunting Civil War history (though not as much as in Vickburg and Natchez), Not at all in suburbia, huge history of African American suffering and struggles, Huge presence of the Blues in the history of the region, some upmarket, but only in maybe Greenwood, maybe Clarksdale. Definitely pre-60s creepy, vintage feel. Pure, Authentic, Southern Gothic/Southern Decay feel.
The Delta has several towns, all of which have a burgeoning tourism industry, especially as Music enthusiasts from around the globe come to the region to learn about the history of the blues music industry and its influence on Rock and Roll and other genres of music.
A good book to read about the Delta is the book "Dispatches From Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta" by Richard Grant (Dispatches From Pluto: Lost and Found in the Mississippi Delta; Grant, Richard. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.) In it, he describes the history of the Mississippi Delta as he makes a new home after buying an old (1920s) plantation house in the Mississippi Delta, in Pluto, near Tchula (pronounced CHEW-Luh), Holmes County, The Poorest County in the Poorest State, Mississippi.
The first town, though not geographically in the Delta, but is culturally in the Delta, is at the edge of the lowland Loess Hills region and the Delta, and it's the first town coming from the south from Port Gibson heading north on U.S. Highway 61 is Vicksburg.
The Best example of a haunted place I know of in Vicksburg, and probably in Mississippi as a whole, is the Kuhn State Memorial Hospital. According to the onlyinyourstate Mississippi article found here:http://http://www.onlyinyourstate.co...tate-hospital/
Kuhn State Memorial Hospital was founded in 1832 to combat a smallpox outbreak in the Vicksburg area. It later served as a hospital for the confederates in the American Civil War to treat injured soldiers. At one point, the hospital served as a maximum security prison, and it also served as a state mental ward at one point. n 1954, a former Vicksburg resident by the name of Lee Kuhn passed away, leaving behind $400,000 and somewhat of an unusual request. In addition to leaving his estate to the hospital, Kuhn’s will instructed that a seven-person committee, consisting of three Jews, two Catholics, and two Protestants, be formed and, in turn, decide the best way to use the funds. The committee chose to use the funds to construct a larger facility. The new building, which was located to the rear of the original buildings, was completed in 1959 and re-named Kuhn Memorial State Hospital. The Hospital 1989, due to political and financial issues. The Hospital, according to the article, was featured on the American ghost-hunting series "Ghost Asylum," and in 2015, ghost hunters found the body of a slain woman in the building while exploring the premises of the former hospital.
Kuhn State Memorial hospital is located at 1422 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Vicksburg, MS. It can be found on Google Maps here:Kuhn State Memorial Hospital. It's totally abandoned, and free for you to enter to take photographs at your own risk.
Much of Vicksburg is actually well preserved, probably due to the tourism presence accompanying the Vicksburg Battlefield National Military Park (a preserved Civil War battlefield with several monuments to both sides of the war) and is one of the nicer towns in Mississippi and in the Delta, however, some houses do claim to be haunted by ghosts, and I'm sure you will find plenty of decay or Southern Gothic, pre-1960s businesses or architecture as you venture into south Washington street heading north into downtown.
I know of at least one antebellum home that is Haunted, the McRaven Home. You can find out about booking tours for the historic homes here: Tour Homes - Visit Vicksburg.
A good repository on other travel information for Vicksburg can be found on the Visit Vicksburg website, maintained by the official Visitors & Convention Bureau of the city:Visit Vicksburg - Visit Vicksburg.
Up the Road from Vicksburg is Lake Washington, which can be accessed from Highway 61 by way of Mississippi State Highway 1.
Along Eastside Lake Washington Road west of Glen Allen,Washington County, Mississippi, in County Line Community Cemetery, is the Saint John's Church ruins, the ruins of the Delta's oldest Antebellum Episcopal church. Built in 1856 by slave labor, the church avoided getting directly hit by the Civil War. However, during the post Civil War era, the church fell into disrepair, and in 1907 a tornado blew the roof off the church, leaving it abandoned to wear and fall into further disrepair ever since. All that remains today are a few cornerstones, wall sections, and a portion of the belfry, all forming parts of the mostly-brick former church.
Today, there is a group that does historical tours of the cemetery and former churchyard, and their facebook page (and only web page as far as I can find) can be found here: facebook.com | Greenfield Cemetery Candlelight Tour.
Another famous antebellum landmark nearby, although also in ruins, is Mount Holly, an Italianate style home with 32 rooms and built primarily of red brick. The house was built by a Philadelphia, PA based architect who designed Longwood in Natchez, Samuel Sloan, in 1855 for Dr. Charles Wilkins Dudley for his wife, Margaret Johnson Erwin Dudley. William H. Foote, ancestor of the author on the authoritative history anthology on the Civil War, "Civil War", Shelby Foote, purchased the Antebellum home in 1880. Unfortunately, the house has been abandoned since the mid 90s (I think?) and was gutted by fire in 2015. Definitely a good opportunity for the "Southern Decay" side of the antebellum Delta. The house can be found here: Google Maps | Mount Holly Plantation.
Now, this next place may not be haunted, but it definitely is pre-1960s Southern Gothic. Doe's Eat Place in Greenville, the county seat of Washington County, north of Lake Washington on MS State Highway 1, is definitely a dive. Best known for its steaks and tamales, Doe's Eat place was founded in a building built in 1903 by Dominick "Big Doe" Signa's. Signa started the restaurant in 1941 in the very same building built in 1903 that served as his father's grocery store from 1903 to 1941. The Restaurant is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and previously served as a bootlegging business in addition to a grocery store during Prohibition. It can be found on Google Maps here:Google Maps | Doe's Eat Place.
And if you want to spend the night in Greenville, what better way to do it than in a historic Hotel.
The Greenville Inns and Suites hotel in downtown Greenville, Mississippi, was retrofitted into a hotel from the Historic Levee Board Building. It can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Greenville Inns and Suites.
All around Greenville are several very blighted neighborhoods, mostly filled with dilapidated homes and abandoned homes, however, there are a few areas with historic, better maintained homes. For Southern Gothic, pre 1960s, I'd take a look at South Main and South Washington streets north of Reed Rd.
Heading east along U.S. Highway 82, you'd find Leland, just east of Greenville in Washington County. The Highway 61 blues museum is located on Broad Street in downtown Leland, in the exact same building that Marion Post Wolcott photographed in 1939 as the "Rex Theater for Colored People". Deer Creek, a Bayou and the two main streets of the town, is lined on both sides with mostly pre-1960s homes dating from the early to mid 1900s, giving the town a cool Southern Gothic feel to it all over. Head east South Deer Creek Road to the Kermit the Frog Birthplace Museum if you want to get a bit of nostalgia over the Muppets while learning about the life of Jim Henson, the Muppets' creator, who grew up in Leland.
Nearby is where John Fogerty from the band Credence Clearwater Revival paid for James "Son" Thomas to be buried. The grave is Bogue Memorial Cemetery at 364 Old Tribbett Road, in front of Greater St. Matthew Missionary Baptist (MB) Church. It can be found on google maps here: Google Maps | Old Tribbett Road . More information can be found here: James "Son" Thomas's Grave | Visit Mississippi
Head Back onto Highway 82 east to go towards Indianola, a town of about 12,000, and stop for lunch at Betty's Place, a true dive/restaurant that serves great burgers, barbecue, and soul food (African-American cuisine), all within convenient distance of the B.B. King museum.
The B.B. King museum is a Museum dedicated to the heritage of the late blues musician B.B. King and the musical heritage of the surrounding area. The Museum is in a building that was formerly used as a cotton gin, a mill that removes the seeds from cotton, where B.B. King worked during his early years. More info on the B.B. King museum atBBKingMuseum – BB King museum official site.
After an afternoon at the B.B. King Museum, you can can follow U.S. 82 east into Greenwood, the seat of government and largest town in Leflore County, Mississippi (population about 14,400). The most Southern Gothic restaurant (IMHO) in Greenwood is Lusco's, although Gardenia's Restaurant inside the Alluvian offers similar fare in a more upscale setting (Inside the Alluvian Hotel, which is the best hotel in Greenwood.)
Lusco's was started by Charles and Marie Lusco, Immigrants from Italy, who entered the United States through Louisiana at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries (around 1900). The building dates from 1933, when it was built as a grocery store in the front, with privately-partitioned booths in the rear for dining.
Today, Lusco's is generally a seafood and steak restaurant with some pasta, as it is an Italian restaurant.
Lusco's is located at 722 Carrollton Avenue in Greenwood, east of Downtown. It can be found here: Google Maps | Lusco's.
After a dinner at Lusco's You can take rest for the night at the Alluvian Hotel in Downtown Greenwood, located on Google Maps Here:Google Maps | The Alluvian.
The Alluvian was the vision of Fred Carl, then CEO of Viking (cooking) Range Corporation. His company, Viking, built and owns the hotel, the first luxury boutique hotel in the Mississippi Delta. It's located in a rennovated historic building across from the Episcopal Church of the Nativity.
The next day after checking out of the Alluvian, you can drive north across the Tallahatchie-Yalobusha River on Fulton Street until Fulton Street turns into Grand Boulevard.
Grand Boulevard was the widest street in Greenwood before the Highway 82 Bypass was built. It was once named "The Most Beautiful Street in America" by the Garden Club Association of America once. The majority of homes built along there were built between the 1900s decade and the 1960s, so it will definitely constitute what you may call "Historic Homes." Many Neoclassical, Tudor, Revival, and Beaux-Arts style buildings.
For good blues history, travel up Grand Boulevard past where it turns into Money Road, and you go up along this road for a few miles and you'll reach Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, where legendary founder of the blues Robert Johnson is buried. Find out more about the Robert Johnson grave site here: http://http://www.msbluestrail.org/b...nson-gravesite. The grave site can also be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church.
Up Money Road from Little Mount Zion MB Church is Money, the site of where Emmett Till . a young African American 14 year old man who in 1955 was killed in nearby Tallahatchie County, "wolf whistling" at a white woman. His wolf whistling at a white woman in Money got him killed, and in response to his murder his mother put an open casket photo of his dead, mauled body on the front page of Look Magazine, a then popular American general interest magazine. The Bryant's Grocery Store where he "wolf whistled" the white lady is now in ruins, though a historical marker (albeit one that has been sometimes vandalized, then cleaned up) recalls the story of Emmett Till, and you can find it on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market.
Continue up Money Road until you reach Highway 8, then go down Highway 8 heading west towards Cleveland, but before reaching Cleveland, going through then past Ruleville, stop by Dockery Farms, a former plantation with several early 20th century buildings and farm structures well preserved in perfect unit. Known as the Birthplace of the Blues, Dockery Farms is probably best known for being the adopted home of Charley Patton and Son House, and possibly the father of the blues, Robert Johnson. Find out more about the Dockery Farms here Home | Dockery Farms Foundation. Dockery Farms can be found on Google maps here: Google Maps | Dockery Farms.
For Lunch, stop by the town of Cleveland (population: about 12,300), and stop by Delta Meat Market, a downtown restaurant specializing in high-end version of local classics (Southern Food, Italian, Sandwiches, Tamales) made light with the freshest produce and meats. Delta Meat Market is located at 118 North Sharpe Avenue in Downtown Cleveland. It can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Delta Meat Market.
After lunch at Delta Meat Market, you can make your way to Hollywood Plantation. Also known as Baby Doll and the Burrus House. Built in 1858, it is the last remaining antebellum home in Bolivar County. Formerly known as the Hollywood Plantation, the house and the grounds were the set for the 1956 movie "Baby Doll." The historic home and grounds are open for tours by appointment only. Click here for the contact information of the owner: Baby Doll House | Contact.
If you have enough time to make it to Rosedale before sunset, drop by there and take a few photos of the town, as well as Grace Episcopal Church, which was built in 1879 and is located at 203 Main Street in Rosedale.
Accommodation for the night will be best had at the Hampton Inn franchise hotel on the outskirts of Cleveland (as there are no hotels in downtown or any luxury hotels, and the Hampton Inn is the best you'll get.) It can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Hampton Inn Cleveland.
The next morning, you can make your way to Mississippi Grounds, a Coffee Shop not too far from the Delta State University main campus in Cleveland. It can be found here: Google Maps | Mississippi Grounds.
After visiting Mississippi Grounds, you can stop by the Mississippi Grammy Museum, a newly opened museum covering the musical heritage of Mississippi's Grammy award winning musicians. It can be found on Google maps here: Google Maps | Mississippi Grammy Museum.
After the Grammy museum head up Highway 61 up to Merigold, onto Po Monkey Road. Until 2016, this was the home of Po' Monkey's, which for a while was the last remaining authentic juke joint in the state of Mississippi. The building still stands, but it's been all but abandoned since. Po Monkey's can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Po' Monkey's.
Head up North on Highway 61 up to the town of Clarksdale (population 16,200), where you'll find the Devil's Crossroads. Legend has it that at that spot Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil so that he could have the talent to learn the blues. Some would say it payed off, but at a price. Johnson died at age 27 in Greenwood, Mississippi. The Devil's Crossroads can be found on Google Maps here: Google Maps | Devil's Crossroads
For Lunchtime, stop by a real Mississippi dive (and a great barbecue joint) Abe's, located at the crossroads right on the southeast corner. Abraham Davis founded his first business in 1924 named Bungalow-Inn, located on Fourth Street; now called Martin Luther King Boulevard, where his excellent Bar-B-Q reputation spread across North Mississippi and Mid-South. The business moved to the crossroads of U.S. 49 & 61 where legend has it that the Delta blues king, Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil and the blues was born. It’s very possible that Robert Johnson, while sitting on a Coca-Cola case under one of the sycamore trees that was prominent at that corner back then, eating an Abe’s Bar-B-Q made that legendary deal.
In the afternoon, you can head over to the Delta Blues Museum, housed in the old Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Passenger Depot, found here: Google Maps | Delta Blues Museum.
For dinner and drinks in the afternoon, head over to Ground Zero Blues Club, a modern day blues bar co-owned by Charleston, Mississippi resident Morgan Freeman. Ground Zero Blues Club is found here: Google Maps | Ground Zero Blues Club
Finally, for your last night's stay in the Delta, the most Southern place on the planet, I reccommend the Shack Up Inn, an old cotton plantation that has out buildings that have been converted into hotel rooms. Shack Up Inn can be found here:
Google Maps | Shack up Inn.
After leaving Clarksdale in the morning, your best bet on getting back to England would be to catch a flight leaving from Memphis International, either go to Atlanta, Dallas, Chicago O'Hare, or Charlotte Airport, and catch a flight out of there to either the continent or Ireland or back directly to London; or from there to New York or Philadelphia or Washington or Boston, and from there to England.
This took me literally 4 days to write.
For all of you Georgia residents, I'm sorry if this was off topic, but he did mention Mississippi, and I just had to write this.
I guess. Except he's dead and I'm only 20. I just know the Delta. That's where my dad grew up and where my ancestors on his mother's side came from.
I didn't mean to put down Georgia or anything, I just thought this would be helpful. Mississippi really is an awesome place to explore if you know where you're going and you know your history. I thought the Delta and Natchez and Vicksburg would fit his "Southern Gothic" theme well. Lot's of decay and poverty, especially in the Delta, but definitely a rich history.
I guess. Except he's dead and I'm only 20. I just know the Delta. That's where my dad grew up and where my ancestors on his mother's side came from.
I didn't mean to put down Georgia or anything, I just thought this would be helpful. Mississippi really is an awesome place to explore if you know where you're going and you know your history. I thought the Delta and Natchez and Vicksburg would fit his "Southern Gothic" theme well. Lot's of decay and poverty, especially in the Delta, but definitely a rich history.
I meant it as a compliment. My mother is a native of Hattiesburg.
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Visit Mississippi for Southern Gothic Feel
