Holly Springs - Town History (original) (raw)

The Town of Holly Springs in southwest Wake County had its beginnings as a crossroads near springs of fresh water at a spot where holly trees were numerous. Travelers along the road from Raleigh to the Cape Fear River and on to Fayetteville or those traveling from Hillsborough to Smithfield stopped by the springs to quench their thirst.

By 1800, the crossroads had become the site of a budding village, its first foundations were a general store built by Richard Jones, a Baptist Church, and a Masonic Lodge.

About 1817, a Scottish tailor arrived in the community, opened a tailoring business and a store and soon began construction of a large, impressive home near the springs. Although the original Masonic Lodge built in the area was destroyed by fire, and the original Baptist Church disbanded because "several members became indulged in things of the world and became unfaithful" the business community thrived and soon a second Baptist Church was founded and a new Lodge established. By 1860 the village boasted of five stores, as well as the church as lodge, two schools, the Holly Springs Academy, which had been founded in 1854 for the stated purpose of preparing young men for admission to Wake Forest College, and another, founded a year later, specifically for girls.

The little community of Holly Springs appeared to be on its way to becoming a bustling town. Then came the Civil War, which took away the young men, led to the closing of the schools and left the community economically devastated. Some families moved away. The exodus was encouraged by construction of the Chatham Railroad through the village of Apex, giving that neighboring town a link to the outside world which Holly Springs did not have. Historian M N. Amis described Holly Springs in 1871 as "a deserted village."

But Holly Springs was to make a comeback, starting with the arrival in 1875 of George Benton Alford who moved his successful mercantile business from Middle Creek Township of Holly Springs and was instrumental in beginning an economic revival in the community. A year later he bought the Leslie house which was the centerpiece of the village. Over the years he made significant additions and improvements to the house until it became one of the largest mansions in Wake County, one of the few with its own ballroom.

Alford, a dynamic businessman and politician, started several businesses including a mercantile store, a sawmill, a cotton gin and the Holly Springs Land and Improvement Company. He got the General Assembly to grant the town a charter. And he started a newspaper, the Cape Fear Enterprise, which he used to promote the town. He also got other prominent men in the community to join him in seeking a charter of incorporation for the Cape Fear and Northern Railroad.

By 1899, Alford was a wealthy man. He had dreams of turning Holly Springs into an industrial city of 10,000 people. The town�s population had not increased a great deal, holding at around 300, but the business community and the schools were drawing outsiders to shop and to get for their children a good education. Holly Springs was poised a second time to boom. But a second time, the flourishing village was struck down by war, World War I. Young men went off to fight; others went away to work in war-related industry.

In 1923 Alford died, leaving the town without an effective voice in political circles. Then came the Depression. The Bank of Holly Springs, established before the turn of the century, failed in 1924. Holly Springs muddled along between the two World Wars, not growing much, if any, but making do, using some PWA funds to build a school auditorium but missing out on the new federal road-building projects being carried out to provide employment.

World War II did what World War I had done, drawing more young people away from Holly Springs to war and/or to cities for jobs. At the close of the war Holly Springs was faced with a depleted population. During the early 1950�s, while most Piedmont cities were booming, Holly Springs was slumbering and dreaming of what could have been.

During the early 1960�s, with a population stabilized at around 580, the little town installed fluorescent street lights about the same time that Highway 55 (Main Street) was widened. A general clean-up fix-up effort netted the town an award from a state appearance committee.

But it was not until the town built its first sewer plant in 1987 that any real growth occurred. Development began tentatively. It was 1992 before Holly Springs, in line for the spillover from burgeoning populations in Cary and Apex, suddenly boomed. Population increased from 900 in 1992 to an estimated 6000 in 1998.

Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce
344 Raleigh Street, Suite 100
Holly Springs, NC 27540
Phone: (919) 567-1796 Fax: (919) 567-1380