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Holly Springs is a town in Wake County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town population was 41,239, a 67% increase from
2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
.


History


Etymology

The town's name refers to the free-flowing springs that merge into a stream and small lake surrounded by large, mature holly trees.


Early history

The Tuscarora Indians used the area around Holly Springs as a hunting ground prior to colonial settlement. This tribe fled North Carolina around 1720 to escape the influx of Europeans, and eventually became the sixth nation of the
Iroquois The Iroquois ( ), also known as the Five Nations, and later as the Six Nations from 1722 onwards; alternatively referred to by the Endonym and exonym, endonym Haudenosaunee ( ; ) are an Iroquoian languages, Iroquoian-speaking Confederation#Ind ...
. The town of Holly Springs grew around freshwater springs, believed to be the original "holly springs", near the intersection of what is now Avent Ferry Road and Cass Holt Road. These roads linked Raleigh to the Cape Fear River and ultimately to Fayetteville, as well as linking Hillsborough to Smithfield.


19th century

By 1800, the crossroads had spawned a village, including a
general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...
built by Richard Jones, a
Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...
church, and a
Masonic lodge A Masonic lodge (also called Freemasons' lodge, or private lodge or constituent lodge) is the basic organisational unit of Freemasonry. It is also a commonly used term for a building where Freemasons meet and hold their meetings. Every new l ...
. In 1805, the Baptist minister Needham Norris built his house on land granted to his father, a Revolutionary War veteran. These buildings were soon followed by a
sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...
and
cotton gin A cotton gin—meaning "cotton engine"—is a machine that quickly and easily separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation.. Reprinted by McGraw-Hill, New York and London, 1926 (); ...
. Archibald Leslie, a Scottish tailor, arrived in the community around 1817, opened a tailoring business and a store, and soon began construction of a house near the springs. This 38-room mansion, now known as the Leslie-Alford-Mims House, is located off Avent Ferry Road near Town Hall. Holly Springs Baptist Church, established in 1822, was the town's first successful church. The Masonic Lodge #115 was formed in 1847, and in 1854 a two-story lodge building was erected. This building also served as one of the town's first schools. Holly Springs Academy opened its doors in 1854 to prepare young men for admission to Wake Forest College.Two years later, the first floor of the lodge was used as a school for local girls. The lodge was honored with a historical-site plaque in the fall of 2006. During the
Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...
, North Carolina seceded from the Union. Captain Oscar R. Rand recruited willing men of all ages to join Governor Zebulon Baird Vance's 26th Infantry Regiment in the
Confederate States Army The Confederate States Army (CSA), also called the Confederate army or the Southern army, was the Military forces of the Confederate States, military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) duri ...
. On a single day at the
Battle of Gettysburg The Battle of Gettysburg () was a three-day battle in the American Civil War, which was fought between the Union and Confederate armies between July 1 and July 3, 1863, in and around Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle, won by the Union, ...
, during the assault known as Pickett's Charge, 13 of the 14 commanding officers died. Only 81 soldiers, out of a unit of 880, survived. With the men of the town gone, both schools in Holly Springs closed, and Holly Springs became a virtual ghost town. When the Union Army retreated northward, Holly Springs lay in its path. Bands of marauding robbers known as "bummers" raided the area farms and homesteads, taking food, supplies, silver, clothes, and anything of value. Also during the war, for a two-week period, a segment of the Union Army encamped near Holly Springs and set up headquarters in the Leslie-Alford-Mims House. Mrs. Leslie reportedly hated the Yankees bitterly, but loved her home more, so she treated them with cool civility. This may have protected the house from destruction, the fate of many other grand southern houses. Mrs. Leslie is said to have “charmed the soldiers so that they didn't burn the house down, but they did get the chickens.” Union troops turned the Norris-Holland house into a field hospital for Union soldiers, nursed by Mary Ann Matthews Holland. The little community of Holly Springs had appeared to be on its way to becoming a bustling town, but the Civil War ultimately left the community economically devastated. Some families moved away. The exodus was encouraged by construction of the Chatham Railroad through the village of Apex, giving that neighboring town a link to the outside world, which Holly Springs did not have. Historian M. N. Amis described Holly Springs in 1871 as "a deserted village." The Town of Holly Springs was established in 1877. In 1875, George Benton Alford moved his successful mercantile business from Middle Creek Township to Holly Springs, and was instrumental in beginning an economic revival in the community. A year later, he bought the Leslie house, which was the centerpiece of the village. Over the years, he made significant additions and improvements to the house until it became one of the largest mansions in Wake County, one of the few with its own ballroom. Alford, a businessman and politician, started several businesses, including a mercantile store, a sawmill, a cotton gin, and the Holly Springs Land and Improvement Company, and eventually, the General Assembly granted the town a charter. He started a newspaper, ''The Cape Fear Enterprise,'' which he used to promote the town. He also got other prominent men in the community to join him in seeking a charter of incorporation for the Cape Fear and Northern Railroad, which became the Durham and Southern Railway. During the postwar period, several attempts were made to revive the Holly Springs Academy, but none was successful. For a time, children were taught in private homes, and eventually the first co-educational school, serving 125 students, was opened by the Masons.


20th century

In 1906, the town addressed the need for a larger and better-equipped facility to educate the children. Under the leadership of Raymond A. Burt, J. Carter, and the Women's School Betterment Association, 10 acres (40,000 m2) near the springs were purchased (this was, in time, the site of the library and cultural arts center). The first bell rang for classes in 1908. By this point, Alford was a wealthy man, and he had dreams of turning Holly Springs into an industrial town of 10,000 people. The town's population had not increased a great deal, holding at around 300, but the business community and the schools were drawing outsiders. The flourishing village was once again struck down by war with the start of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. The young men went off to fight, and many others went away to work in war-related industry. In 1923, Alford died, leaving the town without an effective voice in political circles. Then came the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
. The Bank of Holly Springs, established before the turn of the 20th century, failed in 1924. Holly Springs experienced difficulty during this time, although
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
funds were used to build a school auditorium. The town missed out on the new federal road-building projects being carried out to provide employment.
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
did what World War I had done, drawing more young people away from Holly Springs to war and/or to cities for jobs. At the close of the war, Holly Springs was faced with a stagnant population. During the early 1950s, while most
Piedmont Piedmont ( ; ; ) is one of the 20 regions of Italy, located in the northwest Italy, Northwest of the country. It borders the Liguria region to the south, the Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna regions to the east, and the Aosta Valley region to the ...
cities and towns were booming, Holly Springs remained at a standstill. During the early 1960s, with a population stabilized at around 580, the town installed fluorescent streetlights about the same time that Highway 55 (Main Street) was widened. A general clean-up effort netted the town an award from a state appearance committee. Racially, the town became less balanced with a stronger minority population existing to the late 1980s. During this period, several black businesses were flourishing; a dry-cleaning business, barbershop, three neighborhood stores, and the local gathering place of the "Packhouse" built by one of the town's prominent black citizens by the name of George Grigsby, for whom Grigsby Avenue (previously called Old Fuquay Road) was named. The town board consisted of many of its prominent black citizens, among them Burnis Lassiter, Cora Lassiter, James Norris (Holly Springs' first black mayor), John McNeil, Edison Perkins, George Kimble, and "Preacher" Beckwith. Later, in the 1980s other prominent black citizens joined the town council, among them Nancy Womble, Reverend Otis Byrd, and Parrish "Ham" Womble, who served on the council for 28 years and was also interim mayor for a year. During this period, the town hired Dessie Mae Womble, the first black female chief of police in North Carolina. As segregation gave way to integration, the Holly Springs School for Blacks was closed, and many of its students were sent to surrounding communities to further their educations. This was the beginning of an era of
busing Desegregation busing (also known as integrated busing, forced busing, or simply busing) was an attempt to diversify the racial make-up of schools in the United States by transporting students to more distant schools with less diverse student pop ...
for the community, which continued until the late 1990s, when Holly Springs Elementary School on Holly Springs Road was opened. The town built its first sewage plant in 1987, then real growth occurred. Holly Springs, in line for the spillover from increased populations in Cary and Apex, suddenly boomed; its population increased from 900 in 1992 to an estimated 6,000 in 1998 to nearly 25,000 in 2010.


21st century

Holly Springs Community Library, part of the Wake County Public Library system, and a cultural-arts facility opened in early December 2006. On July 18, 2006, pharmaceutical company
Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...
announced it would be building a manufacturing facility in Holly Springs and employing about 350 to produce flu vaccines using new technologies. The manufacturing facility was built on in Holly Springs Business Park off N.C. 55 Bypass. Construction was completed in late 2008. Novartis's investment is at least US$267 million and eventually could reach US$600 million. Bristol-Myers Squibb expressed interest in county-owned land along N.C. 55 Bypass at the future interchange of Interstate 540. The county originally expressed a desire to allow the proposed landfill site to be used for economic development to be sold to the company, but county leaders refused to relocate a solid-waste transfer station which would be at the entrance. When the company decided not to locate on the site, the Wake County Board of Commissioners voted five to two to proceed with plans to build a landfill there. For years, town leaders have become increasingly confident that Holly Springs is positioned to experience high growth, propelled by the economic engine of Research Triangle Park (RTP). At a distance of , Holly Springs is close to RTP. On April 16, 2011, a large
tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with the surface of Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, although the ...
touched down close to the Holly Springs town center, uprooting trees and destroying homes and buildings.


Geography

According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the town has a total area of , of which , or 0.78%, is covered by water. Neighboring towns include Apex to the north and Fuquay-Varina to the south.


Demographics


2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, 41,239 people, 11,202 households, and 9,307 families resided in the town.


2010 census

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2010, 24,661 people, 8,147 households, and 6,706 families lived in the town. In the 2000 census, 9,192 people, 3,316 households, and 2,609 families resided in the town, demonstrating a large rate of growth during the subsequent decade. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was 1,633.18 people per square mile. The town had 8,658 housing units in 2010, an increase from only 3,642 housing units in 2000. The racial makeup of the town was 79.8% White, 12.6% African American, 0.4% Native American, 2.9% Asian, 1.8% from other races, and 2.5% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 6.30% of the population. Of the 8,147 households, 55.5% had children under 18 living with them, 70.1% were married couples living together, 9.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 17.7% were not families. About 14.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 2.9% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 3.03, and the average family size was 3.38. In the town, the age distribution was 32.4% under 18, 5.0% from 18 to 24, 45.0% from 25 to 44, 15.9% from 45 to 64, and 4.9% who were 65 or older. The median age was 33.1 years. For every 100 females, there were 97.3 males. The population was 51.4% female and 48.6% male. The median income for a household in the town was $85,000, and for a family was $92,539. Males had a median income of $66,630 versus $43,326 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the town was $31,527. About 2.6% of families and 3.7% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 4.7% of those under age 18 and 12.9% of those age 65 or over.


Arts and culture

The Harrington-Dewar House, Holly Springs Masonic Lodge, and Leslie-Alford-Mims House are listed on the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
. A historic marker was placed at the Norris-Holland-Hare House by the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program.


Sports

The Holly Springs Salamanders, founded in 2015, are a
collegiate summer baseball Collegiate summer baseball leagues are amateur baseball leagues in the United States and Canada featuring players who have attended at least one year of college and have at least one year of athletic eligibility remaining. Generally, they operat ...
team in the Coastal Plain League.


Parks and recreation

Public recreation facilities include: * Bass Lake Park * Capital Area Greenway * Holly Springs Cultural Center * Jones Park * North Main Athletic Complex * Parrish Womble Park * Sugg Farm Park * W.E. Hunt Recreation Center


Education


Public charter schools

* Pine Springs Preparatory Academy


Public schools (Wake County Public School System)

* Holly Grove Elementary School * Holly Ridge Elementary School * Holly Springs Elementary School * Oakview Elementary School * Holly Ridge Middle School * Holly Grove Middle School * Holly Springs High School


Private schools

* The New School Montessori Center * Primrose School at Holly Grove * Thales Academy at Holly Springs


Notable people

* Andrew Capobianco, Olympic diver, won silver medal at the
2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...
* Daniel Dhers, professional BMX rider * Brad Fritsch, professional golfer * C. J. Leslie, professional basketball player * Kiara Leslie, WNBA player * Cornelia Alice Norris, socialite and genealogist * Hoke Norris, journalist and author * Carlos Rodón,
MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...
pitcher *
Andrew Wantz Andrew Hunter Wantz (born October 13, 1995) is an American professional baseball pitcher in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Los Angeles Angels, for whom he made his MLB debut in 202 ...
, MLB pitcher * Susana Žigante, women's
soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
player, member of the Croatia women's national teamSusana Zigante - Women's Soccer - Grand Canyon University
Retrieved October 30, 2020.


References

* Town of Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce: Town History
/cite> * Town of Holly Springs: Town History
/cite>


External links


Town of Holly Springs official website

Holly Springs Chamber of Commerce
{{authority control Holly Springs, North Carolina Towns in Wake County, North Carolina Towns in North Carolina Populated places established in 1800 1800 establishments in North Carolina