Downtown Holly Commercial District

Downtown Holly Commercial District
	Downtown Holly Commercial District
	U.S. National Register of Historic Places
	East side of Saginaw Street, at Battle Alley
Location	Roughly bounded by Maple St., S. Broad St., Grand Trunk RR, and First St., Holly, Michigan
Coordinates	42°47′32″N83°37′38″W / 42.79222°N 83.62722°W Coordinates: 42°47′32″N83°37′38″W / 42.79222°N 83.62722°W
Area	5 acres (2.0 ha)
Built	1870
Architectural style	Classical Revival, Late Victorian
NRHP reference #	86000866 [1]
Added to NRHP	April 25, 1986

Last updated March 25, 2019

The Downtown Holly Commercial District is a commercial historic district located primarily South Saginaw Street and Battle Alley in Holly, Michigan. The district is roughly bounded by Maple Street, South Broad Street, First Street, and the Grand Trunk Railroad tracks. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.^[1]

Holly is a village in north Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 6,086 at the 2010 census. The village is located almost entirely within Holly Township with a very small portion extending into Rose Township. It is about 15 miles (24 km) south of Flint and 55 miles (89 km) northwest of Detroit.

National Register of Historic Places federal list of historic sites in the United States

The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance. A property listed in the National Register, or located within a National Register Historic District, may qualify for tax incentives derived from the total value of expenses incurred preserving the property.

History

Ira C. Alger built a grist mill along the Shiawassee River in 1843-44, establishing the town of Holly. In 1855 the Detroit and Milwaukee Railroad built a line through the area, followed in 1864 by the Flint and Holly Railroad. The railroads brought growth, as in the five years after the Civil War, the population tripled. The depot on Broad Street became the center of activity, and commercial activity quickly spread along Saginaw Street and Battle Alley.^[2]

The Detroit, Grand Haven and Milwaukee Railway is a defunct railroad which operated in the US state of Michigan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Itself the product of several consolidations in the 1870s, it became part of the Grand Trunk Western Railroad in 1928.

The Flint and Holly Railroad (F&H) is a defunct railroad that operated in eastern Michigan from 1863 to 1868. It was founded by Henry H. Crapo, a Massachusetts-born lumber merchant who served as Governor of Michigan (1865–1869). The line was originally chartered as the Flint and Fentonville Railroad on January 3, 1863, and was amended on October 16, 1863. On November 1, 1864, the F&H completed a railway line from Flint, Michigan to Holly, Michigan. Via an agreement with the Detroit and Milwaukee Railway (D&M), F&H ran into Detroit's Brush Street Station over D&M tracks.

American Civil War Civil war in the United States from 1861 to 1865

The American Civil War was a war fought in the United States from 1861 to 1865, between the North and the South. The Civil War is the most studied and written about episode in U.S. history. Primarily as a result of the long-standing controversy over the enslavement of black people, war broke out in April 1861 when secessionist forces attacked Fort Sumter in South Carolina shortly after Abraham Lincoln had been inaugurated as the President of the United States. The loyalists of the Union in the North proclaimed support for the Constitution. They faced secessionists of the Confederate States in the South, who advocated for states' rights to uphold slavery.

In 1875, a devastating fire destroyed many of the frame buildings along Saginaw, and they were quickly replaced with brick buildings. The town continued to prosper through the rest of the nineteenth century. However, with the advent of the automobile, growth slowed. In the downtown district, the last major construction projects occurred in the late 1910s and early 1920s. In the subsequent decades, many of the buildings fell into disrepair, and some were demolished. However, in the early 1970s, renovations began, and a number of the historic structures were refurbished.^[2]

Description

The Downtown Holly Commercial District is a two-block-long L-shaped district, covering 5 acres and containing 23 structures. The structures are one to three stories high, made of brick, stone, and wood. They are primarily commercial buildings constructed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, with architectural styles ranging from Italianate to Neo-Classical, Richardsonian Romanesque, and Queen Anne. Buildings aling the one-lane Battle Alley tend to be relatively small in scale, contrasting to the larger structures located on Saginaw.^[2]

Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style principally derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles, and the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886), whose masterpiece is Trinity Church, Boston (1872–1877), designated a National Historic Landmark. Richardson first used elements of the style in his Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane in Buffalo, New York, designed in 1870.

In the United States, Queen Anne-style architecture was popular from roughly 1880 to 1910. "Queen Anne" was one of a number of popular architectural styles to emerge during the Victorian era. Within the Victorian era timeline, Queen Anne style followed the Stick style and preceded the Richardsonian Romanesque and Shingle styles.

The most significant buildings in the district are:^[2]

Wilson Block (127-127 S. Saginaw Street): This two-story brick Italianate was constructed in 1877 after the 1875 fire for Wilson's Cyclone Fence Co. and C.A. Wilson's Drugs. It faces onto bot Saginaw Street and Battle Alley, and is distinguished by the retention of cornices on both facades and by etched designs in the keystones of the second story lintels.
Commercial Building (117 S. Saginaw Street): This two-story, predominantly brick block was constructed in 1891 for C.E. Lockwood's furniture store. It is significant for the stone elliptical arch and elliptical fanlights on the second story.
Holly Town Hall (102 Front Street): This 2-1/2 story brick Queen Anne building was constructed in 1890, and is Holly's first dedicated town hall. The ground level contains garages for a fire station; above is a turret that is visually similar to that on the Holly Hotel.
Old Citizens Bank (109 Battle Alley): This small, one-story Neo-Classical brick and stone building was constructed in 1902, and originally housed a bank.
Holly Hotel (202 S. Front Street): This two-and-one-half story building was constructed in 1891. A major landmark, it survives two fires, the latest of which, in 1978, spurred a concerted rehabilitation effort. The corner of the building contains a distinctive three-story tower. It is separately listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Holly Hotel, also known as the Hirst Hotel, is an inn located at 110 Battle Alley in Holly, Michigan. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. It currently operates as a restaurant.

Gallery

South side of Battle Alley, at Saginaw
Holly Town Hall
East side of Saginaw Street
West side of Saginaw Street
Hirst (Holly) Hotel

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References

1 2 National Park Service (2013-11-02). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.
1 2 3 4 Laurie K. Sommers (January 30, 1985), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: Downtown Holly

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[nris-1] 1 2 National Park Service (2013-11-02). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service.

[nom-2] 1 2 3 4 Laurie K. Sommers (January 30, 1985), National Register of Historic Places Inventory-Nomination Form: Downtown Holly

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