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Holly Springs is defined by a rich and varied history. Events through the centuries have left an indelible imprint on the face of this town. In the early days, at a place known only to a brave and civilized tribe of Chickasaw Indians, natural springs flowed through hills of holly trees. It became a gathering place for traders and explorers. They called it Holly Springs. Treaties with the government sent the Chickasaws away from their land on the trail of tears to reservations in Oklahoma. There’s not much left to indicate their presence except honorary names of streets like Chulahoma or names of houses like Latoka or Tallalossa.
The fertile bottoms and rolling hills became the new frontier in the early 1830s. The move was on to develop this new territory and settlers came from the Carolinas, Georgia and Virginia.
Land agents set up offices to service the demands for city lots and thousand-acre plantations. They were the first to build log cabin homes, which were soon remolded or torn down to build quaint raised-basement cottages, such as Polk place, Featherston and Dunvegan.
Holly Springs became a center for law, commerce and agriculture. At one time the county produced more cotton and had more lawyers than any other place in Mississippi.
The fortunes being made in cotton and commerce and sale of land fueled an appetite among its citizens and town leaders for the finer things of society.
They set about building churches and establishing schools. For their families, they replaced the dog-trot cabins and built wondrous mansions with tall Corinthian columns like the Greek Revival homes built throughout the South.
These flush times disappeared when the planters, lawyers and shopkeepers went off with the Confederate army to fight the Civil War. Located at the crossroads of two railroads, Holly Springs was a strategic prize fought over by both armies. When Union General U.S. Grant captured the town, his army camped on the lawns of the grand mansions while the General moved his wife into the Walter Place and made his headquarters at Airliewood.
When the town began to recover after the war, an even deadlier enemy struck Holly Springs when the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878 wiped out much of the leadership of the town.
Restoration of the city’s most historic antebellum mansions and cottages has preserved a place in history for another generation. And now Holly Springs is opening its doors to welcome visitors year-round.
More than 64 houses, churches and buildings pre-dating the Civil War stand as a testament to a time when cotton, commerce, land and lawyers forged a raw frontier Indian trading post in a city of culture, wealth and refinement.
Today, Holly Springs is experiencing a renaissance: its columned mansions, quaint cottages and stately churches attract thousands each spring to the annual Garden Club Pilgrimage, and now visitors are also welcomed throughout the year!
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