RIVERSIDE HOTEL
Frank "Rat" Ratliff told me folks who stay at the Riverside Hotel don't want him to change a single thing about where they bunk. They like it just fine the way it is. Old and decrepit is in at the inns, only now a'days, Riverside Hotel isn't heated by coal.
The Riverside Hotel is a two story building that was originally the G.T. Thomas Hospital, the only facility where blacks could be treated in those days. It was sold and converted into a hotel in 1944, again, the only hotel available to blacks. Since then, several riverside bungalows adjacent to the hotel have also been acquired and renovated. Frank and his wife do it all themselves, soup to nuts: maintenance, decorating, cleaning, reservations, landscaping, repairs whatever is involved in owning and maintaining a hotel. It may be funky and unpretentious, but it's immaculate, and pride of ownership is evident in dozens of little homey details.
I spent several hospitable hours hanging out with Frank while he gave me a tour of Riverside and entertained me with its history and stories about prominent guests who've stayed with him over the years, including John Kennedy, Jr.
Each comfy room comes equipped with a microwave, mini refrigerator and TV, a place to hang your hat -- bathroom down the hall.
Rat was embarrassed to notice (I didn't!) that the pillows didn't have cases yet and didn't want me to photograph this room. He snatched one of the pillows off the bed -- too late. I was speedier!
The Bessie Smith room is a virtual shrine. She died in this room in 1937, when it was the hospital's ER, from injuries sustained in an automobile accident. Rat has made sure Bessie lives on in people's hearts.
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HOPSON PLANTATION...
...is renowned for several things, primarily a metamorphosis that started in the mid-thirties and lasted about a decade. By the mid-forties, Hopson was the first plantation to completely mechanize its cotton operation, from planting, harvesting, baling and ginning. While this certainly revolutionized the agriculture industry, the mechanization was a major factor in the great migration of African-Americans from the south to northern cities.
Mail Room and Commissary
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Its other claim to fame is that you can rent a room in the loft or an entire shack at its infamous B&B (Bed and Beer) Shack Up Inn. The shack exteriors have been meticulously preserved (tin roofs, cedar walls) as they were when they housed sharecroppers and their families. I couldn't find anyone to show me around inside, but I understand all accommodations have been renovated to include 21st century amenities, such as indoor plumbing and air conditioning!
Individual rooms can also be reserved in The Loft
It was a treat to walk the grounds and envision life on the plantation fifty years ago. The commissary is a mini museum and serves as a venue for Delta Blues bands and Pinetop Perkins' annual homecoming, and it looked like the fields were planted. Something's still going on there besides people listening to music, drinking beer and shacking up!!!
You can read James Thweatt's delightful, first-hand memoir of plantation life at Hopson and his observations leading up to the mechanization conversion at the Hopson website:
