Bank of Holly Springs

City gets grant for restoration of building

Thanks to a recent grant announcement, restoration of the Old Water and Light Building in downtown Holly Springs is on its way to completion.

Last week, the Board of Trustees of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History awarded the city $151,086 through the Community Heritage Preservation Grant program. More than $3 million was awarded for various preservation and restoration projects statewide.

Mayor Kelvin Buck said this grant money will be combined with city funds to wrap up the project.

“We can put our money with it and make the building inhabitable,” he said. “We want to go ahead and finish it all the way.”

The recent grant itself is specified for reroofing, restoring windows and doors, and utilities improvement.

Plans call for the Old Water and Light Building to be a welcome center with tourism offices and a type of Blues Trail interpretive museum, highlighting Hill Country and Cotton Patch blues. The building is located on East Falconer Avenue.

“We are glad to get the grant,” said alderman at-large Tim Liddy. “It is going to be a big boost to this project.

“We think it will be a great welcome center, with plenty of room for parking, too.”

A previous grant helped the city stabilize the historic structure.

Mayor Buck said the restoration of the Old Water and Light Building is another step in improving the entire downtown area.

“It’s all coming together,” he said. “The board has approved money for green space on the downtown square.

“We’re sprucing everything up. It is our goal to make the area more accommodating for pedestrian activity.”

He said a new restaurant will soon be opening on the square, and the overall effort to improve the downtown area is indeed a private/public partnership with many involved.

The Community Heritage Preservation Grant program, authorized and funded by the Mississippi Legislature, helps preserve and restore historic courthouses and schools and, in Certified Local Government communities, other historic properties. Over the life of the program the department has awarded more than $37 million to 300 projects.

“The Legislature has saved hundreds of significant Mississippi properties through this program,” said MDAH director Katie Blount. “The Department of Archives and History is grateful for the Legislature’s support and pleased to be able to help preserve these local treasures.”

Grant awards are paid on a reimbursable basis upon the successful completion of the entire project or at the time of the completion of preestablished phases of the project. Prior to application, all buildings must have been designated Mississippi Landmarks.

The Old Holly Springs Water and Light Building has seen many different uses in its nearly 120 years, according to Hill Country History compiled by local historian Phillip Knecht.

Before the building was constructed, the N.W. Cawthon’s Flour Mill and Gin was located on the spot. Nearby, at the corner of Market Street, was the Old Market House.

In 1897, city leaders decided to build a public waterworks and electric plant at the location, as part of a plan to attract new businesses to the town. The Old Market House and Gin were destroyed, and construction began on the waterworks and electric plant in 1897. Construction was largely completed by the end of 1898, and Holly Springs became one of the earliest towns in Mississippi to have its own water and light plant.

On March 30, 1899, electricity illuminated the city for the very first time. By June of that year, more than 100 households had running water. The adjoining fire department building was constructed sometime after the 1920s.

A small brick building, which connected the waterworks to the fire department garage, was built in the 1950s.

By the 1950s, the city waterworks had moved a block east of this site, and the Holly Springs Police Department took over the location.

A small jail area was built just to the east of the garages, and much renovation was done inside the building to accommodate the police department and their employees. The city’s main garages were located below the main building, in a separate garage which overlooked Spring Hollow Park.

In the 1990s, the police department, fire department and other city employees had left the building, and it became vacant, according to Knecht’s Hill Country History.

The Old Holly Springs Water and Light Plant was built in the Romanesque Revival style, and has well-defined brick piers, round arch windows with sandstone imposts, and a cornice line with brick corbelling.

Holly Springs South Reporter

P.O. Box 278
Holly Springs, MS 38635
PH: (662) 252-4261
FAX: (662) 252-3388
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