By ERIC ORANGE, REVOLUTIONARY WAR ALLIANCE
In my line of work, you get to meet people from all over the country. It never ceases to amaze me how impressed people are with our downtown. As we go about our busy days, we can sometimes take for granted how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful historic town.
A few winters ago, a woman who visited from California told me she was walking down High Street after it snowed when the church bells at Saint Andrew’s rang. She immediately called a friend back in California and said, “This place is like a Hallmark Movie, you should see it”.
And she isn’t alone. One woman from Michigan mentioned that she thought High Street looked like a movie set. She very politely sat through a couple of my best historical stories about Mount Holly and said “Yes, it’s beautiful.” She might have been impressed with our history, but it is the way the town looked that touched her.
I once played host to a family from Colorado who were interested in Revolutionary War history. They had read our stories and wanted to see the places where the battles happened. But, it was our architecture and our old buildings that captured their interest. They just don’t have buildings from the 1700s in Colorado. They were enjoying the wonderful collection of shops along High Street and noticed the roof lines of the old buildings right away. They were impressed with the way we have repurposed our historic buildings for modern use. It was the best of both worlds.
Mount Holly is special. Towns in California, Michigan, or Colorado have their own stories, but they cannot say that British troops battled Americans on the main street.
Mount Holly’s historic sense of place transports people to the very beginning of our American story. Its physical appearance has charisma and character that other towns can only simulate with new buildings. The shopkeepers in town realize that. They know it is possible to repurpose downtown buildings to retain its charisma and character. The best of both worlds.
