Mississippi’s first and largest blues museum opened in the former Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad freight depot in 1999. The depot’s two-story office and long one-story storage wing testify to Clarksdale’s importance in the Delta’s cotton economy. The two-story Muddy Waters Addition on the west end maintains the linear form, end walls, and brick of the older building. Inside the museum is the childhood home of blues-man Muddy Waters, a single-pen log cabin (c. 1900) moved from the nearby Stovall Plantation. A semi-glazed hyphen with an elevator tower pays homage to the Quaker Oats Company grain elevator (1946) across the railroad.
The former Delta Grocery and Cotton Company building (c. 1910; 0 Blues Alley) now houses the Ground Zero blues club. The former Y&MV passenger depot (1926; 326 Blues Alley) is divided into three sections separated by open breezeways: the easternmost handled baggage while the westernmost housed a restaurant. In the larger central section, a ticket office divided segregated waiting rooms. Passenger service ceased in 1965, and following a 1999 renovation, the building now accommodates a restaurant and community center.