The Marshall County Historical Museum

A trip to the Marshall County Historical Museum in Holly Springs, Mississippi, is like a visit to grandma's attic. The eclectic mixture of artifacts donated by local residents and other supporters is truly a treasure trove waiting to surprise and delight the unsuspecting visitor. The down home style of display with handwritten notes indicates a collection that has grown with love and helps create a warm, cozy feeling rather than the sterile, impersonal tone of the larger, more formal museums. Signs located around the rooms alert the visitors that, despite their natural inclination, they cannot “reach out and touch” so that these fragile reminders of Mississippi’s past can be preserved for the future.

A walk through the museum naturally begins in the Civil War room, but the museum shows that life did not begin and end in Marshall County with the war, for among the items in the adjoining room are Victorian dollhouses. Each room in the dollhouses is carefully decorated with exact replicas of the period and gives the visitor a glimpse in miniature of the Victorian lifestyle.

The three floors of the museum are so crammed with artifacts (more than 40,000) that sometimes the visitor doesn't know where to look first. But wherever the eye lights, there is something special to see whether it is a nineteenth century crazy quilt, a velocipede used by artist Kate Freeman Clark, the first private bathtub in Holly Springs, a Civil War revolver made from melted church bells, military uniforms worn in America's different wars, or a Victorian dress with a twelve-inch waist.

The building began as a dormitory for the Mississippi Synodical College, a school for girls, almost one hundred years ago. It was scheduled to be destroyed when the local historical society and other interested people rescued it. Now it is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The museum, located at 220 East College Avenue in Holly Springs, is open all year except for the week before Christmas. The hours are from 10:00 a. m. to 4:30 p. m. Monday through Friday and from 10:00 a. m. to 2:00 p. m. on Saturday. Admission is $3.00 for adults and $2.00 for children. For more information or to arrange for a group tour, call 662-252-3669.

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