The entire porch, including balustrade, is constructed of lacy cast iron grillwork made at the local Jones-Mcllwain Foundary. The home has only had two owners, Dr. Charles Bonner and the Belk family. Sherwood Bonner, Dr. Bonner’s daughter was the secretary and protégé to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and was known for her Southern dialect stories. She used scenes of Holly Springs in her novel “Like Unto Like”. While with Longfellow in Boston she heard of the Yellow Fever Epidemic that had stricken her home town and, even at the urging of her teacher to stay in Boston to fulfill her bright literary future, returned home to find her father and brother stricken. She stayed by their sides until they both passed away on the same day and never returned to Boston.