Delta Blues Museum

Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Passenger Depot

Clarksdale Passenger Depot in the early 1900s
Location Bounded by N. Edwards, Sharkey and Issaquena Aves., and the ICRR main track, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Coordinates 34°12′3″N 90°34′15″W / 34.20083°N 90.57083°W / 34.20083; -90.57083Coordinates: 34°12′3″N 90°34′15″W / 34.20083°N 90.57083°W / 34.20083; -90.57083
Built 1926
NRHP Reference # 95001194[1]
Added to NRHP October 31, 1995

The Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale exists to collect, preserve, and provide public access to and awareness of the blues. Along with holdings of significant blues-related memorabilia, the museum also exhibits and collects art portraying the blues tradition, including works by sculptor Floyd Shaman and photographer Birney Imes.

The museum is located in the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Passenger Depot, also known as Illinois Central Passenger Depot or Clarksdale Passenger Depot, which was built in 1926 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1995.[1]

The museum has been visited by many notable artists such as Eric Clapton and Paul Simon. The Texas-based rock band ZZ Top, especially front man Billy Gibbons, have made this museum their pet project and have raised thousands of dollars in support. The museum also focuses on educating young people interested in learning to play musical instruments.

The museum houses many artifacts related to the blues, notably the shack where blues legend Muddy Waters purportedly lived in his youth on Stovall Plantation, near Clarksdale. The shack was restored to structural stability through the intercession of Isaac Tigrett the House of Blues owner and transported from Stovall Plantation on a tour of HoB venues before being returned to Mississippi to the museum and rebuilt inside.

There is a 2003 30-minute documentary of the same name.

Railroad Building

External video
Mississippi Roads; Delta Blues Museum, 26:46, Mississippi Public Broadcasting[2]

The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1995. The museum then moved into the former railroad depot in 1999. The circa 1918 brick building served as the passenger rail depot of the Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad and later the freight depot of Central Illinois Railroad.[3][4]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
  2. ↑ "Mississippi Roads; Delta Blues Musuem". Mississippi Public Broadcasting. American Archive of Public Broadcasting, (WGBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. November 16, 2006. Retrieved September 13, 2016.
  3. ↑ "About the Museum". Delta Blues Museum. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  4. ↑ "1999 Heritage Awards". Mississippi Heritage Trust. 1999. Retrieved 2009-06-09.
  Former services  
Preceding station   Illinois Central   Following station
Bobo
toward New Orleans
Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad
Main Line
Lyon
toward Memphis
Claremont
toward Jackson
Clarksdale – JacksonTerminus
Claremont
toward Yazoo City
Clarksdale – Yazoo CityTerminus


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