Hirst Hotel

The Holly Hotel is significant for its prominent role in the social life of Holly and as an example of the rapidly vanishing railroad hotels once so common in small town America. The hotel was built in 1891 by John Hirst who named it after himself. Holly's location on a major railroad route ensured a steady flow of travelers through the town on the twenty-two passenger trains that passed this junction daily. Hirst located his hotel immediately adjacent to the tracks in order to capture as much of the trade as possible. The hotel rapidly became the social center of the region as the finest and largest dining room in the area. Many local private clubs and organizations held their meetings here, such as the Washington Club, the oldest private club in Oakland County. Its convenient location near the tracks made it a popular dining place for area residents, many of whom would come by rail from surrounding towns for an afternoon or evening meal and then return home on a later train. As the finest hotel in Holly, many notable visitors to the town stayed there including Governor Thomas E. Dewey and Governor G. Mennen Williams. A less welcome visitor was temperance crusader Carrie Nation who railed against the evils of alcohol at the Holly Hotel Bar in 1908. The heyday of the hotel was from 1891 to 1930. During this period the domestically-scaled Queen Anne building was one of the more architecturally notable structures in the town. Its tower was a local landmark. In January of 1913, the structure suffered a disastrous fire. The second and third floors were completely destroyed. Mr. Joseph P. Allen, who had bought the building the previous year, immediately rebuilt it in a much more modest style lowering the roof, eliminating the top two levels of the tower and substituting robust, tuscan-columned porches for the more delicately scaled original ones on the north and east facades. The second floor fenestration was slightly rearranged at this time, although the first floor remained unchanged from its original design. Allen re-opened it as the Allendorf later that year. While Holly flourished and rail traffic remained steady the hotel thrived. By the 1930's, though, the old inn, like small town life and passenger railroad service, was fading in importance. In 1930 the Allendorf was purchased by Henry Norton who redecorated the interior and renamed it the Hotel Norton. With the passing of passenger rail service and the stagnation of Holly's growth and prosperity the hotel drifted into a marginal existence as a local restaurant.

The Holly Hotel is located in the central business district of the town of Holly on a side street (Battle Alley) one block off the main street adjacent to the railroad tracks. The neighboring buildings are 2-story, late Victorian, commercial buildings. The hotel is a domestically scaled, 2½-story, gabled hip-roofed, red brick, rectangular, Queen Anne style structure about 50 feet wide by 75 feet long. There are two equally important facades: a long north elevation facing Battle Alley (Martha Street), and a narrow east elevation facing the railroad tracks on Broad Street. The transition from the dormered, hip-roofed, north elevation is accomplished by means of a 3-story, helmet-domed, octagonal, corner tower, which is the most architecturally distinctive feature of the building. The first story of the north elevation is asymmetrical with a pair of off-center doors flanked by single windows and two, large, tripartite windows set under broad segmental arches. The plain, one-over-one sash openings on the second floor are aligned with the fenestration of the lower story. Two large, gabled, shingled dormers with paneling separating the sash windows are placed low on the towering, steeply pitched, hip roof. The Tuscan columned porch sheltering the entrance is a 1913 replacement of the original 1891 one which burned. The first story of the east elevation is symmetrical with a central entrance with a small-paned transom flanked by segmentally-arched, tripartite windows of the same type as those on the north elevation. On the second floor, three one-over-one sash windows are centered over the first story fenestration. A small porch sheltering the entrance was destroyed by fire in 1978 and has not yet been rebuilt. Placed low in the tall gable that dominates this elevation are three, closely-spaced, plain, one-over-one, sash windows. The interior is simply finished with stock millwork and plaster walls dating from a 1913 rebuilding. In addition, some ornamental, ceramic tile floors and pressed tin ceilings can be found in the lobby and dining room. The interiors were damaged by fire in 1978, but are being restored using as much of the old woodwork, tin ceilings and ceramic tile floors as can be salvaged.