Interesting detours
Dr. Will Norton, former dean of the Overby Journalism School at Ole Miss, and I have had some interesting detours over the past many years that has uncovered lots of history, mostly around the old newspapers around this state.
Over the two years that I was president of the Mississippi Press Association we knocked on the door of every newspaper office from Byhalia to Biloxi. It was a remarkable, multi-trip adventure.
I was reminded of those trips recently when we convened in the offices of The South Reporter in Holly Springs. We were there to visit with the outstanding newspaper staff but took a few detours, as we always do.
One of those was a visit with Lincoln Martin at his South Center Print shop next door to the newspaper. Mr. Martin and Dr. Norton have a much deeper history together as you quickly realize when the stories start flowing, often involving my late father-in-law S. Gale Denley.
We left the print shop to go find Marianne Monson, a relatively new resident of Holly Springs, as she and her husband Professor Andrew Behnke, had moved from Oregon and set up shop in the more than 150-year-old Wynne House on North Randolph Street.
Reading of its history, it was built in 1871 by German-born architect, Gustavius Adolphus Palm, who received architectural and military training in his native Prussia. After emigrating, Palm served during the Civil War with the 9th Mississippi Infantry. He designed two additional Italianate style houses in Holly Springs: The Pines (1871), Turner Lane House (1870), and the Wynne House, which he built for his family. Palm married Martha Woodson of Mississippi, and the couple had a daughter named Anna Palm, the first child born in the house.
The Palms sold the house in 1882 and it passed to several different owners. In 1919, Dr. T. Carey Wynne, a beloved Holly Springs Dentist, and his family bought the house and lived in it for 28 years.
Another remarkable previous owner of the house is Rosalind Wilcox, musician and visual artist, who also is known as the blues artist, “Mississippi Rose,” one of the few black female artists to tour on the Blues music circuit. During her ownership (1999-2001), many famous local blues artists, such as R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough, performed their music on the porch of the home.
In 2007, the property went into foreclosure and was purchased by Stephen and Suzette Woodgate, who undertook a massive restoration to bring it back to life.
Dr. Norton and I walked through the black wroughtiron gates and approached the beautiful front door where we were greeted by Mrs. Monson, who had just moved in within the month.
Mrs. Monson, an author by trade, explained she is in the midst of a historical project on Ida B. Wells – the famed civil rights leader and journalist. Wells was born in the home directly across the street from the Wynne House.
Monson, the author of The Opera Sisters, Women of the Blue and Gray, Frontier Grit and more, said she instantly fell in love with the place and its location was undeniable for her current project. So what was supposed to be an extended visit for work, turned into a house purchase.
Prof. Behnke was in the process of some house improvement projects as we gathered in the ornate front study to visit. Monson suggested she might have some interest in sharing some of her historical writing talents with The South Reporter and gave us the details about the beautiful Wynne House.
You never know what you might come across in Holly Springs, especially when you’re in the company of Dr. Will Norton.