81st Annual Tour of Historic Homes
April 5 -7, 2019
Sponsored by the Holly Springs Garden Club
Headquarters Location: First Baptist Church-Activity Center
190 East College Avenue
TOUR OF HISTORIC HOMES
(including churches and museums)
Open Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Open Sunday 1 p.m. - 5 p.m.
MONTROSE: 335 Salem Avenue
Built in 1858 by Robert McGowan and his wife Margaret Brooks. Margaret Brooks was the daughter of Alfred Brooks, a wealthy landowner. Alfred Brooks rescued the house from foreclosure twice. Montrose was constructed by Spires Boling, the famed local architect. It displays the classic Greek Revival architecture with cast iron Corinthian columns. The interior features a graceful circular stairway, parquet floors, marble mantel pieces, beautiful cornices and ornate ceiling medallions. The wooded land surrounding Montrose is an arboretum. Montrose is a historic restoration project of the Holly Springs Garden Club, sponsor of the tour of historic homes.
FINLEY PLACE: 285 East Falconer Avenue
Built in 1859 by Martha Reese Jones, the widow of Egbert Rufus Jones, a plantation owner near Tallaloosa, a lost town southwest of Holly Springs. Martha moved to Holly Springs with her children and built this house. During the Civil War, the house was occupied by Union soldiers under the command of General Grant. In 1872 Martha Reese Jones deeded the house to her son-in-law, Dr. Shuford. The house remained in the Jones-Shuford family for over forty years, until Reese Shuford deeded the house to George J. Finley in 1906. George Finley named the house “Woodland”, but the house has been known as the Finley House since 1906. After George Finley’s death in 1910, the house was passed on to George’s youngest son, Thomas Finley. Thomas lived in the home with his wife and two daughters. The home was deeded to the National Audobon Society in 1983. Finley Place is a two-story Greek Revival flanking-gable frame home, portico supported by octagonal columns, the trademark of famed local architect Spires Bolling. The front entrance had a transom and sidelights, above which is a cast iron balcony. In 2016 Finley Place was purchased by Gary and Michelle Pleasants, who currently reside in the home.
LIVE OAKS: 310 West Chulahoma Avenue
Built in 1848 by Mr. Walter Goodman, the president of the MS Gulf Railroad and the co-owner of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, TN. Known as the Walter Goodman House. it caught fire and burned in approximately 1881. Mr. Eagleston Smith, a lawyer, bought the remains and rebuilt the house it is today. Mr. Smith named the home Linden Lodge in 1848. Three rooms of the original home still remain including the entry hall and the back porch. The brick and wrought iron fence around the property is original from 1848. Mr. and Mrs. Bert Bonds purchased the home in 1969 from the Smith's, and maintained ownership for many years. Mr. and Mrs. Mike McCarter purchased the home in December 2015 where they have since called home. With the only live oaks in town, they renamed the house "Live Oaks" in 2017.
COLONSAY COTTAGE: 315 East College Avenue
Built in 1839 by Mr. Levy. Stories of the cottage include it being used as a hospital during the Civil War and as a school during the 20th century. The Buchanan family purchased the home in the 1950's, renovated it, and named it Colonsay Cottage after their ancestral home in Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Tom Phillips bought and began renovation in 2009. Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Gozan moved into Colonsay Cottage in 2016 where they currently call "home."
SHADOW LAWN: 290 Salem Avenue
Built in 1839 by Adrian Mayer, a lawyer who came from South Carolina to set up practice in the young and burgeoning town. It was designed to be in the "new style" known as Greek Revival with its symmetry and floor length windows. The exterior design was intensified in a later update of the home by the addition of a full Greek style portico complete with classic ionic columns. In the twentieth century, Shadow Lawn was for many years, home to the Robert Anderson Seale family. It was sold by the Seale descendants to Fredonia Johnson Moss in the late 1960's, who then made it her home. Fredonia was the daughter of Oscar Johnson and Irene Walter Johnson of St. Louis, and the granddaughter of Harvey and Fredonia Brown Walter, the builder of Walter Place. After her death, it returned to the hands of the Seale family in the early 1990's. This is the home of the late Mr. Ben Seale and his wife, Robin Seale.
ANDERSON CHAPEL C.M.E. CHURCH CHRIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
750 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive 100 North Randolph Street
750 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive 100 North Randolph Street
Anderson Chapel C.M.E. Church, organized in 1879, was part of the newly All-African-American C.M.E. Church denomination established in 1870. The church was named after its founding pastor, the Reverend Isaac H. Anderson. It was firstlocated on College Avenue, next to the city park on West Boundary. The church moved to Memphis Street in 1903 and its present location in 1988. Anderson Chapel became the mother church to Mississippi Industrial College founded in 1905 by Bishop Cottrell. |
Christ Episcopal Church began in 1841 in a small frame church building. It was later sold and moved to East College in 1858 to make room for a new larger building. The present organ is actually the third organ. The first one was destroyed by Federal troops in the Civil War. The church was used as a stable for the soldiers' horses. The alter was turned upside down and used as a trough. |
CHURCH OF THE YELLOW FEVER MARTYRS MUSEUM
|
IDA B. WELLS-BARNETT
|
MARSHALL COUNTY HISTORICAL MUSEUM
|
Built in 1841 by the Episcopalians then sold to the Catholics in 1858, the structure was completely disassembled by hand and moved to its current location.
|
Ida B. Wells, one of the most important civil rights advocates of the nineteenth century, was born on this property soon after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. Completed in 1858, it is now the home of the museum.
|
There is truly a little bit of everything in our museum: soldiers’ uniforms spanning many eras, antique quilts, toys and an extensive collection of historic clothing for ladies and men. The organized jumble of items brings to mind a classic Victorian-era museum “curiosity collection” mingled with truly rare treasures, which only adds to the Museum’s charm. |
