Tour de force.

After the Civil War, the Walter Place would see headquarters duty once again, in 1878, as a refuge for victims of yellow fever, and while the house survived, owner Harvey Washington Walter and his three sons who stayed to tend to the sick did not. For a time the house served as a home for the Walters’ daughter and her husband, Oscar Johnson, who made his first fortune selling boots to the army and later helped found Red Goose shoes. Today, the mansion sits on 15 acres of developing gardens with two English style cottages that are part of its tour.

After the Walter Place, it’s one down and an amazing 65 to go. That’s how many antebellum structures are still standing in Holly Springs, a remarkable fact given that the town suffered through more than 60 different Civil War raids. Today, Holly Springs architecture runs a gamut of styles from Italianate to Greek Revival to Gothic, churches reaching skyward with gorgeous spires, homes bearing appropriately romantic names and dramatic, sometimes tragic, stories.

Inside the gold-dust embellished Grey Gables, a hand-carved winged Icarus adorns parlor doors to commemorate a young son drowned in a lily pond. At Heritage, on the very eve of a wedding, a marriage was postponed because the future mother-in-law foresaw a vision of doom; only at her death two decades later did the couple finally say their vows and enjoy their original wedding cake, preserved through the years with copious amounts of brandy—though how their love survived was another matter! At Greenwood, the owners built a tunnel underneath the house to secret their belongings and themselves during the many Civil War raids. On the front door of Magnolia, you can still see the stab marks of Union bayonets; after attacking the door soldiers rushed inside and stabbed out the eyes on all the fine portraits that lined the walls.

Considered the state’s finest example of Greek Revival architecture, Athenia was owned by a two-time vice presidential candidate as well as by a local resident who made his fortune by patenting the “Indian Queen” hair straightener. Athenia was the first house in town to boast indoor plumbing; today, you can still see the wooden zinc-lined tub once considered the height of luxury. At Wakefield, a romance between the widowed owner and a Union soldier outraged the town; a later owner gave up the house when her husband bet it in a poker game, and she chose to honor the wager.

There are other, more uplifting examples of homes changing hands, among them the majestic Montrose and Montrose Arboretum, gifts to the Holly Springs Garden Club that all visitors may now enjoy. Holly Springs churches, historical treasures themselves, also offer inspiring stories. 

Visitors can see the past come alive in Holly Springs with Time Travel Tours, "the entertainment adventure like no other".