Holly Union Depot

The Holly Historic Commercial District derives its significance from historic and architectural features related to the town's heydey as a railroad junction. Beginning with the arrival of the first rail line in 1855 and accelerating with the 1864 completion of Henry H. Crapo's Plint and Holly Railroad, the town experienced a burst of prosperity and growth reflected in the high quality Italianate, Queen Anne, Richardsonian, and Neo-Classical buildings of its central business district. Saloons and hotels sprang up adjacent to the tracks in hopes of attracting business from the over 25 trains which daily passed through Holly. A particularly notorious row of saloons clustered along Martha Street, an area which was nicknamed 'Battle Alley' after a heated brawl between local rounders and a traveling circus. The famed prohibitionist Carry Nation stopped in Holly during her 1908 Michigan tour and attacked saloon keepers, including the owner of the Holly Hotel, for their sale of 'demon rum.' The colorful history of Battle Alley has been the theme for recent revitalization efforts. Despite alterations to many ground level facades, the District retains the visual character of a turn-of-the-century railroad town.

The two-block long, L-shaped Holly Historic Commercial District comprises 5 acres of the central business district in downtown Holly, a village of 5342 (1980) located in northeast Oakland County. The District contains 23 one-to-three story brick, stone, and wood commercial buildings, some with residential uses in the upper stories, the majority of which represent well-preserved examples of Italianate, Neo-Classical, Richardsonian, and Queen Anne commercial buildings of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Although many street level facades on S. Saginaw have been altered through the application of various types of siding, the addition of inappropriate awnings and signs, or the remodeling of original windows and doors, the downtown as a whole--and especially the properties on Broad Street and Battle Alley--has been undergoing historically sensitive restoration and contains a number of structures of high design quality.