“Cougars in Holly Springs”
Situated at the corner of Main & Earp Street is a house with a very intriguing past. Said to have been built circa early 1840s, it certainly has had a front row seat to the comings and goings of much of our community’s history. According to the meeting of the Wake County Historical Society in 1973, the “Brown-Holloway House” was built by a Dr. Brown who had come from the New Hill area in the early 1800s. Reportedly this house and the Leslie-Alford-Mims House are two of the oldest houses still standing in Holly Springs, according to the late historian Edwin “Ed” Mims. There even is speculation from Capital Area Preservation, citing several “hints” of architectural style and the actual proximity of the house to the street, that it may be even older than originally thought and quite probably had served as an inn or tavern in the colonial era.
Family lore from members of the Holland family recall a story of an ancestor, Anna Jane Rowland-Holland, supposedly dying in the house back in the early 1870s. It would seem that Mrs. Holland was paying her respects to a deceased relative and sat overnight near an open window on a chilly November eve and passed away herself. There is a connection to a Dr. McLean and the Holland family which may corroborate the ownership of the house to Dr. McLean.
In digging through old census records, I couldn’t find a Dr. McLean, or Dr. Brown, for that matter, living on what was Main Street. Of course, back then Main Street wasn’t called Main Street. In fact, over the decades it has been called by many names, such as Apex Street. So, pinpointing who exactly lived where is often a challenge. But, even a blind pig gets an ear of corn every now and then and in the Will of a known resident of the Brown-Holloway House it is referred to as the “John McLean Place.” Old Wake County Register of Deeds records aren’t much help either as “the hickory stump and the northeast corner and that sweet gum tree” are now long gone. But we can somewhat say with a kind of certainty that a John McLean did live there at one point in time, and it also leads you to wonder if years ago folks got the names mixed up and the house should have been labeled the “McLean-Holloway House.” Who knows? What we do know is one particular occupant of the old house was a woman not to be reckoned with.
I’m speaking of Mrs. Jenny Nichols. In Elizabeth Reid Murray’s book, WAKE, Capital County of North Carolina Vol. II, Murray tells of the reopening of the post office in “Holly Spring” in 1877. The residents succeeded in having the post office brought into the village purportedly in the home of Mrs. Jennie Nichols, with her husband and local merchant Marquis C. Nichols named postmaster. According to United States Postal Appointments, Mr. Nichols was reappointed in 1879, 1881, 1883, 1885 & lastly in 1891. It was said that Jenny distributed the mail out to the residents from her kitchen window, which was located at the back of the house.
The 1880 federal census shows a M.C. Nichols age 28 and his wife Virginia H. “Jennie” age 24 living in what the Census Bureau listed as “Buckhorn,” which, in reality, was downtown Holly Springs in this particular case. We can safely assume that, as a few households away was George B. Alford and his wife, Charlotte, living in what we now know as the Leslie-Alford-Mims House. Nichols came to Holly Springs at the encouragement of fellow business owners George B. Alford and Thomas B. Holt in the late 1870s. Nichols and his partner, Thomas B. Holt, opened a general store on the east side of Main Street, where Holt continued in business for nearly forty years. A wealthy man with farmland and houses in both Holly Springs and Fuquay Springs, Nichols had quite an impressive estate. In his Last Will and Testament, M.C. Nichols left his estate to his widow, with certain conditions.
I, Marquis C. Nichols, of Fuquay Springs, Wake Co. N.C. being of sound mind and memory and in usual good health, but knowing that life is in certain and death is certain do make and publish this my last will and testament I herein and now (in this will) declare that I only loan to my aforesaid wife all the real estate before mentioned wherein her name is specifically in connection therewith mentioned, to have and to hold the same only during her widowhood or during her life-time, I do now and here make exceptions, viz; that if she marry again, that in that event she is to loose or forfeit at once all of said mentioned.
All other real estate if any overlooked by me in this will I give to Adolphus W. Nichols, my nephew. And last I hereby constitute and appoint my said wife Virginia H. Nichols and my nephew Adolphus W. Nichols to be the Executrix and Executor of this my last will and testament, this is my first one (none to revoke or annul) I therefore ratify and confirm this and no other, to be my last will and testament in witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this 26th day of September, A.D. 1907.”
So, the widow, Nichols, not being one to be told what to do, decided to wed her late husband’s nephew and the heir to the late Marquis Nichols estate, as she would forfeit the estate with her remarriage.
We now fast forward to the present time. The old house has been purchased by Christy & Matt Griffith who are opening the “Pimiento Tea Room.” Christy says she fell in love with the old house back in 2006 when they moved to Holly Springs from Raleigh. Their vision is to have a quaint restaurant where folks can enjoy lunch, dinner and brunch on Sundays. The Griffiths love the old charm of the house. The square headed hand-forged nails in the heart of pine flooring, the mantles, the staircase and the general feeling of history that seeps from the walls. You can almost hear the whirl of silks as Jenny runs by to take the mail to the back window of her kitchen to the waiting neighbor, trading that letter for a bit of gossip. Out of the corner of your eye sitting by that window you can see Anna Jane Rowland-Holland as she falls asleep thinking about returning to her husband William and children that next morning. All old houses have stories to be told. You just have to sit and be still. And listen.
