The Norris-Holland-Hare House is a historic

Federal style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...

farm house in Holly Springs, North Carolina. It is the oldest building in the town of Holly Springs. The house was used as a field hospital by the

Union Army During the American Civil War, the Union Army, also known as the Federal Army and the Northern Army, referring to the United States Army, was the land force that fought to preserve the Union (American Civil War), Union of the collective U.S. st ...

following the Battle of Bentonville of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

History

The Norris-Holland-Hare House was built around 1805 by Needham Norris, a Baptist minister and the son of

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

veteran Pvt. John Norris Jr. Needham Norris was the grandfather of the Raleigh socialite Cornelia Alice Norris. The house was constructed on a portion of a land grant given to John Norris Jr. Built in the

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style, the house features wood sash windows, plain weatherboards, stone foundation piers, and Flemish bond brick chimneys. Norris bequeathed the house and farm to his nephew, Simpson Washington Holland. In September 1864, Holland traveled to Virginia to search for his brother, a

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

soldier fighting in the

. Holland died two months later, without having returned home. The widowed Mary Ann Matthews Holland was left to care for their young children. In April 1865, after the Battle of Bentonville, an encampment of

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

soldiers encircled the house. The family lived upstairs while the soldiers occupied the first floor as a field hospital. The home later passed to the Hare family, descendants of the Hollands, who owned it until 2004. In 2017, the town purchased the 1,904-square-foot house to save it from demolition, with plans to sell it with preservation requirements. The home was purchased by a family later that year.

References

{{Reflist American Civil War hospitals American Civil War sites in North Carolina Farmhouses in the United States Holly Springs, North Carolina Houses completed in 1805 Federal architecture in North Carolina Houses in Wake County, North Carolina