There aren’t many structures in Holly Springs with more history than the Needham Norris house. Standing guard on a soft curve on Avent Ferry Rd, the unassuming two-story house is only a shadow of its original self – hardly an attraction these days. But when you start talking to long-time residents of our community, a history begins to emerge that will blow you away with its significance.
The history of Holly Springs didn’t start in the 1980’s when the remaining 60% of the homes finally got running water and indoor toilets. It didn’t even begin after the Civil War when the women had to pick up and carry on after most of the men in the community had been killed at Gettysburg. It has its roots in the earliest years of our country, with the bustling small towns of Collins and Enno at what is now called Holleman’s Crossroads, and families farming and fighting in the Revolutionary War.
One of our earliest residents, John Norris, Jr. was one of those who fought in the Revolutionary War, and his grave is located a quick jaunt off of Avent Ferry Road in the Norris family cemetery. His military service is marked by a roadside memorial stone along Avent Ferry Road, not far from his actual grave site. The Daughters of the American Revolution maintain the memorial and it stands as a simple marker of our town’s great heritage.
John Norris’s son, Needham Norris, built the house that still stands today not far from that memorial stone for his father. The Needham Norris house was built on land grant from the 1780s and is considered a Federalist period home. Needham Norris ran a gristmill in the area of Bass Lake Park and served as a minister for the Holly Springs Baptist Church. He lived in the house until his death in 1852. Upon Norris’s death, he bequeathed the house and farm to his nephew, Simpson Washington Holland.
Holland and his wife Mary Ann, whom he married when she was 13, had six children before and during the Civil War. Most of their male siblings had enlisted to fight in the conflict, but Holland was the eldest child and felt he was too old to enlist, so he worked the farm, cared for his aging parents and cared for other family members whose husbands and fathers were off fighting the war. Shortly after his daughter Florence was born in 1864, Holland left for Richmond to bring home his wounded brother, Turner. Holland never returned. He was killed and buried in Richmond, leaving Mary Ann alone
with six children under the age of 11.
Back in Holly Springs, Mary Ann Holland faced the remaining months of the Civil War and beyond without a husband to help keep the farm in good shape. Her 10-year old son Theopolos was the man of the house and Union troops weren’t far away. This is where the Needham Norris house solidifies its place in Holly Springs history. In April of 1865, Union troops passed through Holly Springs on their way back from defeating Sherman’s army in the South. Stopping for 14 days while General Grant’s team negotiated the surrender of the western Confederate troops in Durham, the 14th Union corps led by General Henry Slocum set up an encampment all along the ridge just a short ways back from Avent Ferry Road. Campsites sprang up everywhere and the Norris house (and Holland farm) sat at the foot of the ridge upon which the bulk of the troops were stationed.
Because of the solid construction of the house, Union officers determined that it would make a good field hospital for their wounded and sick. While the troops used it as a hospital, Mary Ann and her children lived upstairs and witnessed the horrors of war wounded first-hand. In exchange for her help with the wounded and her willingness to accommodate the soldiers, her farm was left undamaged by the Union troops.
The dead, mostly Union soldiers who did not survive their wounds or illness during their stay in Holly Springs, were buried in graves on the farm marked with wooden crosses. Although those crosses have not stood the test of time, and the graves have not yet been located, there are plenty of first-person accounts of their existence.
Today, the house is not in the best shape. The front part of the house is still usable, but needs renovation, and water leaks in the back of the house have had an impact on the structure’s integrity. The home remained in the Norris family until 2004, and has since been sold a couple of times. The home today is part of a parcel of land destined to become incorporated as part of the Union Ridge subdivision. The name of the subdivision is inspired by the fact that the home served as a field hospital during the Civil War.
Barb Koblich, local historian and town employee, wrote a book about the history of Holly Springs in 2008 that documents the details of the Needham Norris house and its relevance in the timeline of American history. The home is considered one of the more significant in the Holly Springs area. While photos of the house in its heyday are almost nonexistent, the quality of its original construction has kept it upright for over 300 years! Not many homes from the Federalist era are still standing in North Carolina, making the Needham Norris house a slice of history in Southern Wake County.
