Spires Boling (1812–1880), whose name is often misspelled as Spires Bolling, was a slaveowner, master builder, architect, and distillery founder in

Holly Springs, Mississippi Holly Springs is a city in, and the county seat of, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, near the southern border of Tennessee. Near the Mississippi Delta, the area was developed by European Americans for cotton plantations and was dep ...

. He is known for holding the journalist

Ida B. Wells Ida B. Wells (full name: Ida Bell Wells-Barnett) (July 16, 1862 – March 25, 1931) was an American investigative journalist, educator, and early leader in the civil rights movement. She was one of the founders of the National Association for ...

and her family in bondage. There is now a museum dedicated to her in his former home the Boling–Gatewood House. He is also remembered for his grand, columned, neoclassical residential buildings and his design for the

Marshall County, Mississippi Marshall County is a County (United States), county located on the north central border of the U.S. state of Mississippi. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, the population was 37,144. Its county seat is Holly Springs, Mississippi, ...

Courthouse in Holly Springs. His courthouse design was also used by the firm of Willis, Sloan, and Trigg for two other courthouses and featured in the work of

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most of ...

. The Walter Place mansion he designed was home to

Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...

and his wife for a period during 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 ...

. Originally from North Carolina, Boling lived in Ohio for a while before he moved to Holly Springs in 1845. He married a woman named Nancy who was originally from Virginia. Walter Place, Holly Springs, Mississippi

Walter Place, Holly Springs, Mississippi

In 1858–1860,

Harvey Washington Walter Colonel Harvey Washington Walter (1819–1878) was an American lawyer and railroad business executive. He served as the President of the Mississippi Central Railroad. During the Civil War, he invited Union General Ulysses Grant and his wife, ...

commissioned Boling for Walter Place, a mansion in Holly Springs, Mississippi. After the Civil War, one of his former slaves, Jim Wells (who was still living on the Boling property with his family), moved his carpentry business across the street after Boling urged him to vote for Democrats. Boling built and operated the Johnson's Mill distillery at Randolph's Springs behind his house where Spring Hollow Park is now located. Willis, Sloan, and Trigg was a short-lived partnership that contracted the courthouse as well as others. According to local preservationist Phillip Knecht, he also designed

Montrose (Holly Springs, Mississippi) Montrose is a historic mansion in Holly Springs, Mississippi, United States. Location It is located at 335 East Salem Avenue in Holly Springs, a small town in Northern Mississippi. History The mansion was commissioned by Alfred Aaron Brooks ( ...

(1858) Athenia (1858), Wakefield (1858), and Pointer House (c. 1858 and eventually demolished). Before it was converted into an armory for the production and repair of guns, the Jones, McElwain and Company Iron Foundry in Holly Springs produced

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

adornments including gates and fittings that were used in some of the area's grand homes such as Boling's. In 2018 a monument was added to his gravesite at

Hillcrest Cemetery Hillcrest Cemetery is a historic cemetery in Holly Springs, Mississippi, United States. Established in 1837, it is known as the "Little Arlington of the South." It contains the burials of five Confederate generals. Location The cemetery is locat ...

by Hubert McAlexander, a historian, author, and emeritus professor of literature at the

University of Georgia , mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things." , establ ...

Works

* Bolling-Gatewood House (1858) * White Pillars * Buildings on the Holly Springs Courthouse Square (which show Boling's typical cast-iron window lintels) * Finley Place *

(1858) * Oakleigh / Athenia (1858) *

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

(1858), part of

East Holly Springs Historic District East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

. The home is two-stories * Pointer House (c. 1858 and eventually demolished) * Walter Place (1859) * Masonic Hall (burned 1952) * Marshall County Courthouse in Holly Springs, the building's design was also used for: :: Lafayette County Courthouse in Oxford, Mississippi ::Old Handeman County Courthouse Bolivar, Tennessee. It features in the work of William Faulkner.

Gallery

File:Holly Springs home.jpg, Montrose File:Marshall county mississippi courthouse 2007.jpg, Marshall County Courthouse File:Old Courthouse in Spring, Bolivar TN.JPG, Handeman County Courthouse File:NRHP 77000791 Lafayette County Mississippi Courthouse NE Facing.JPG, Lafayette County Courthouse

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boling, Spires 1812 births 1880 deaths Architects from Mississippi 19th-century American architects American slave owners Architects from North Carolina People from Holly Springs, Mississippi