St. Paul Church: A Delta RelicTucked along Old Highway 49 near Clarksdale’s Hopson Plantation, St. Paul Church, built in 1963, was a spiritual haven for Black sharecroppers on the 4,000-acre estate. Part of a plantation that pioneered mechanized cotton harvesting in 1944, the church thrived during a time of economic upheaval. As sharecropping waned and the plantation became a blues tourism site with the Shack Up Inn, the church fell silent. By 2025, its steeple had collapsed onto the pews, overtaken by kudzu. Now an abandoned shell, St. Paul stands as a haunting echo of the Delta’s faith and resilience.