Photo above: Carrie Nation and gentleman in 1904 image. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
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Spotlight on Lesser Known History
Holly Hotel and Carrie Nation
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America's Best History Spotlight
On this page we're going to Spotlight the lesser known historic sites and attractions that dot the history landscape across the USA and are worth a visit if you're in their area. And while they may be lesser known, some are very unique, and will be that rare find. You'll be, at times, on the ground floor, or maybe even know something others don't. It'll be fun. Visit them.
Holly Hotel and Carrie Nation
Note: The Holly Hotel and other buildings on Battle Alley were damaged by fire in late June, 2022. Owners George and Chrissy Kutlenios said they intend to restore and rebuild the Holly Hotel. Many of the articles and paintings in the building were saved by brave responders. The reopening after reconstruction was scheduled for late 2023 and the building was in the process of being restored, including the west wall near the Battle Alley Arcade property (where the fire had started) and the eaves. However, a new owner (some would say jerk) of the arcade building told the owners to tear down the west wall; it was a couple inches, and had always been, over the property line.
The property line battle is in court, but the owners have given up and are now forced to sell the Holly Hotel, on the National Register for Historic Places, and famous for the Carrie Nation raid, to new owners. We can only hope that they will continue the process of rebuilding. If you want to help in any way, even if it's just a note of hope or thanks, contact the Holly Hotel at https://hollyhotel.com.
It may no longer have been a hotel. It was a restaurant. It may no longer cater to the railroad men who made the hotel prosper and caused more than a few ruckases outside on what used to be known as Martha Street. Today, there's talk of more than a few ghosts. It may be, in some quarters, be known for good food and comedy, spirited amongst the lore of that woman with a hatchet who came a calling in 1908 and now has a Holly Festival named after her, Carrie Nation. But all this adds up to a current Battle Alley establishment with an amazing charm, great food, a plaque from the National Register for Historic Places, and a whole lot of historic lore, it's hard to know where to start.
- Info
- What is There Now
- History Nearby
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Holly House Hotel
Situated around every corner of the towns and cities of the United States were inns and hotels that catered to the guests of their time. For many, this became accentuated with the advent and establishment of railroad lines in the ones lucky enough to be chosen as depots. In 1863, Holly, Michigan gained that advantage when the Detroit and Milwaukee Line laid tracks through town; by 1891, the Holly Hotel, first known as the Hirst Hotel due to its owner, began catering to passengers from the twenty-five trains that clacked through town each day. And the Holly Hotel remains to this day, unlike many Queen Anne and Victorian structures that used to sit along the main streets of their towns, but are now gone. It has adapted at the same time as retaining its history. Now with modern ameneties of comedy and food, but no rooms, and despite two fires that created concern for its future, the removal of passenger service to town, and a 1908 meeting with that brawling temperance woman, Carrie Nation, you can visit and dine in its 19th century splendor and recount the past, or laugh at it.
And you ask, just why did that famous woman trek her way to a small town fifteen miles from Flint and fifty-five miles from Detroit, fifteen hundred residents at the time and six thousand residents today. She was a Kansas and Texas woman, for the most part. She just plain didn't like the attitude of the hotel operator, who tolerated the drinking habits of his bar guests, and was asked by a local prohibition committee to come. With her cohorts swinging umbrellas and Carrie carrying her ax, the scantily clad lady in the painting above the bar prompted whiskey bottle smashes and condemnation. It also landed her in jail, plus a Holly visit by the Republican Governor Fred M. Warner one day later, during her time in Holly custody. Apparently he wanted to parley the notoriety of Nation into an additional term. He'd get it.
Today see a Carrie Nation Festival, usually in September, plus ghosts that seem to have the run of the restaurant from time to time. There's also quaint shops up and down Battle Alley. So if you're in the suburbs of Flint or Detroit some day and would like to get a bite to eat in a historic place with lots of cool past and fine food present, head out to the town Mrs. Nation decided to visit on August 28, 1908, and you can have a drink in the place where she swung a tool and got arrested.
Photos above: Courtesy Holly Hotel.
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Holly Hotel, Holly, Michigan
What's There
Historic National Register of Historic Places hotel with bar, restaurant, and Comedy Club.
Hotel was built in 1891. Was rebuilt after fires on January 19, 1913, and exactly sixty-five years later on the same date and time, January 19, 1978. You say that's odd. Yep.
How Much to Visit
Restaurant and Bar - Entrees range from $28 and up with soups and appetizers in the range from $6. For diners in the area, you can belong to their Diners Club, which lowers prices with other benefits. Diners Club cost is $59 per year. Afternoon tea prices are $14 plus.
Comedy Club - Friday and Saturday cover charge $15, for dinner guests $12.
Hours Open
Open Monday to Saturday for dinner 4:00 to 10:00, Sunday 4:00 to 8:00. Afternoon tea from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Monday thru Saturday. Sunday brunch from 10:00 to 2:30 p.m.
Comedy Club - Friday and Saturday nights, two shows at 8:30 and 10:30.
Where Is It Located
The Holly Hotel is located at 110 Battle Alley, Holly, Michigan. From Flint, Michigan, it's a 17 mile drive down I475 South and I75 South. Take exit 108 onto Holly Road Drive (South) to Battle Alley. From Detroit, it's a 53 mile drive. Take I75 North to Exit 98, East Holly Road (West). Continue to Battle Alley.
Website - Holly Hotel
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More Flint Area Historic Sites
So what else is there to do near Holly and Flint.
Seven Lakes State Park
Crossroads Village and Railroad
Flint Institute of Arts
Sloan Museum, Longway Planetarium, Buick Automotive Galley
Photos, History, and More Spotlights
Carrie Nation History
It's hard to believe when you read the accounts of Carrie Nation and the other prohibitionists, that one day, in the next decade and one half, they would win the fight across the nation and get a constitutional amendment banning the sale and use of alcohol. That happened on January 17, 1920, the 18th Amendment, ten years after Nation's death. Just ask the patrons at your local bar about that one. Many in the younger crowd might not even think it happened. But it was true. These women and their allies were a diligent bunch.
Carrie Nation was born in Kentucky on November 25, 1846, nursed soldiers during the Civil War after a raid on Independence, Missouri, and became enamored with the prohibition movement after earning her teacher's certificate, history degree, in 1872, moving to Texas with her second husband, then moving back north to Medicine Lodge, Kansas in 1889. She started a local chapter of the Woman's Christian Temperance movement there and campaigned for the Kansas law against alcohol to be administered. She began a more violent form of protest after a vision on June 5, 1900. A series of rock and hatchet attacks began.
Between June 7, 1900 at Dobson's Saloon, Kiowa, Kansas and 1910, she would be arrested thirty-two times for destruction of saloons and bars.
Amendments to the Constitution
18th Amendment - Section 1. After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all the territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.
Section 2. The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
21st Repeal, December 15, 1933 - Section 1. The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.
Section 2. The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited.
Section 3. This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.
Photo above: Governor Fred Warner speaking to the townspeople of Holly, Michigan on August 29, 1908, while Carrie Nation was in jail for smashing the Holly Hotel saloon. Photo courtesy Holly Hotel.
Today, you can also visit the Carrie Nation Home and Stockade Museum in Medicine Lodge, Kansas, to learn more about the her life and the temperance movement.
September Spotlight
Hagley Museum, Wilmington, Delaware.
August Spotlight
Civil War Tails at the Homestead Museum, Gettysburg.
