The Block on Main gives downtown in Holly Springs another new attraction

In July 2019, I did a post here about the opening of the new Town Hall Commons that Holly Springs officials hoped would inject some economic vitality into the heart of the town's downtown economic district. 

At the time, I didn't know the town wasn't going to stop there. Maybe the town didn't know it then either. 

But in the past two weeks, a second new business attraction, called The Block on Main, opened immediately adjacent to (south, to be precise) of Town Hall Commons. It's a sort of horseshoe-shaped structure with a brick facade to complement Town Hall Commons. 

The two buildings alone take up three blocks on the west side of Main Street and certainly give the downtown corridor a different — and modern — look. And there is unused space south of The Block on Main for even more development, if the town is open to it, if not already considering or planning it.

When I read about the opening in the local daily newspaper last week, I felt compelled to return to Holly Springs and check it out, which is what I did on Dec. 4 before heading to Cary to take the Downtown Park photos that comprised the previous post at this blog.

The photo leading off today’s post shows one of The Block on Main's most distinguished features -- an open, below-street-level courtyard with tiered, backless, brick-and-concrete bench-type casual seating, presumably for visitors and employees to use while taking meals or work breaks, or just to relax during nice weather. Two other views of this seating area are shown in the images immediately below.

To view a full gallery of shots from my recent visit to downtown Holly Springs, follow the link in this sentence.    

Above and next three below are shots of The Block on Main's four sides, beginning with the north side above, followed by the east side below, then west side (second below) and finally, the open ended south side. On its website, the Block on Main has a cool overhead video of the property taken using a drone camera.

Above: The Block on Main's north facade, as seen from the parking garage of Town Hall Commons. 

Above and below: Examples of season decorations on windows in The Block on Main. 

Above: The stairway leading to the backless bench seating (behind the "More Shops" sign on the left). 

 

Revisiting the completed Town Hall Commons (above) and a long focal-range compression shot (below) encompassing the town's water tower along with the steeple of Kirk of Holly Springs Presbyterian Church (right) and backside of First Baptist Church (left). 

Hotel, chicken wings inspired this post

This might seem a trivial, lame or even silly reason or premise to compose a blog post. But I decided to proceed anyway because it struck me as a little odd. 

While reading the e-edition of the local newspaper this morning, I came across articles within a few pages of each other about places I had photographed since I arrived in North Carolina in 2017. I use the word "odd" because while I've been here now for 4 1/2 years, various safety admonitions -- avoidance, social distancing and mask-wearing -- that are tied to the Covid pandemic have precluded me from venturing out to indulge my photography itch a whole lot the past two  years. 

True ... I've squeezed in a few exceptions, the most notable of which was a weeklong exploration of amusement theme parts in the Orlando area of Florida last May and early June. But those involved extended family, and we all observed CDC and park health-safety protocols for the duration. Ditto two trips to Myrtle trip after that, one in mid-June, the other in December.  

Because of that, my personal photo archive has not been growing nearly to the degree to which I had been accustomed while living in Indianapolis pre-pandemic. 

The first article (above) I came across of the two I mentioned above was about the circular Holiday Inn hotel on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, a story I first saw on the local TV news last night. Last night's report extolled the hotel's unique place in the Raleigh skyline, something to which I can attest because I was just a block away from it in December 2018 as Lee Ann, her daughter Lea and I headed to the Morgan Street Food Hall for lunch to mark Lea's birthday. 

At the time, I had just learned about the emergence of food halls in the Triangle, so it seemed like a good place for us to check out considering we were looking for something new and/or different. After we parked on a surface lot that Sunday around the noon hour, the Holiday Inn was just a block and a half away. I was struck by the hotel's circular architecture immediately, so I grabbed my camera, walked a block or so closer and made the picture you see leading off the post. 

Personally, I think it's unfortunate that Raleigh's skyline will lose this novel structure. Construction on the high-rise that will replace it isn't supposed to begin until the end of 2023. Presuming the Holiday Inn isn't razed a whole lot earlier than that, I have plenty of time to return and capture more photos of it for posterity. 

A couple pages later in today's newspaper, I came across the article above about the poll to identify the local  eatery serving the best chicken wings in the Triangle. Coming in second place (you have to go to the bottom of the article's penultimate leg to read about it) was The My Way Tavern, whose home establishment is in the rear of a modest strip shopping center off Center Street in the nearby town of Holly Springs. 

I haven't dined at the tavern, but I did photograph its exterior (below) while I did my first walk-through in the community in April 2019. If the photo comes off a bit sterile (it does to me), I elected to crop it this way because the tavern has outdoor seating, and there were identifiable people sitting at a couple of the outdoor tables at the time I made this picture, and I did not want to make them part of the composition without their permission. 

After the above article informed me about the tavern's great reputation for wings, I put the newspaper down and looked up the tavern online and checked out its menu. I was impressed. I've made a mental note to add it to my places I want to visit in the future. 

Holly Springs' splashy downtown development is ready to open

When I first visited the Holly Springs downtown merchants district in April, the expansive two-level Town Hall Commons commercial and retail development (including a two-level parking garage) across West Ballentine Street from Town Hall was under construction.

When I returned Saturday for the weekly farmers market and to check on the development's progress, Town Hall Commons looked like it was close to completion. Indeed, one tenant -- the eatery Osha Thai Kitchen and Sushi -- had already opened.

Frankly, the rest of the space still looked like more than a couple weeks away from being ready. But ... a sign near the farmers market indicated that Town Hall Commons would hold an open house from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. July 30.

In the photo leading off the post, the development is seen from its south end, with the tip of the Town Hall dome visible in the distance on the far right. The first photo below is the development from the north end looking south. Below that is a picture I took of the development from the same point in April.

As always, to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. This is particularly helpful if you access the blog on a mobile device. To view a full gallery of Saturday's shoot of the updated Town Hall Commons, follow the link in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: All photos in this post were taken with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens equipped with a polarizing filter. I bracketed all compositions for three exposures to allow for melding later in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software.

Above and next three below: The north corner of Town Hall Commons, where Osha Thai Kitchen and Sushi has opened and is doing business right now. The north end has a fountain close to the pedestrian paths at Ballentine and Main streets.

The development full north facade (above) along Ballentine Street, which includes Osha Thai Kitchen and Sushi and the fountain. Town Hall is immediately behind me in this photo. The two shots immediately below are different looks at the corner section.   

Above: This shot looking at the north end of Town Hall Commons gives you an idea of the proximity of Town Hall to the development. They are right across Ballentine Street from each other. 

Above: The sign of Family Focus Chiropractic, above a small lower-floor opening to the building's backside, is right around the mid-point of the block-long development.  

Above: These pergola-like beams add character to the structure's south facade, where there is an access drive to the parking lot (first photo below), where if you look hard enough, you can make out a boy on a skateboard just to the right of the drive in the distance. The second and third photos below provide a look at the upper and lower levels of the parking garage. 

A return to Holly Springs and Apex for food, dining, music and shopping

On Saturday, I returned to two nearby towns for different reasons. In Holly Springs, I wanted to check on the progress of the Town Commons development construction in the downtown district. Plus, the town had its weekly farmers market. And Apex had an intriguing collection of shops in its historic downtown, so I swung by that town after finishing in Holly Springs.

The Rusty Bucket (the outside of which is featured in the lead-off photo) was one of the stops in

Apex, and across the street, at the Salem Street Pub, I lunched for the first time, electing to try its "My Wife Said It Would Never Sell" burger (first photo below) -- cheddar cheese, bacon, peanut butter and honey on top of a ground beef patty. It was tasty -- although I wasn't thrilled with the sticky fingers it left me with at the end of the meal.

The mural you see in the second photo below is on a back wall of the eatery.

As always, to view a larger, sharper version of a photo, simply click on the image. This is particularly helpful if you access the blog on a mobile device. Full galleries of my visits Saturday to Holly Springs Farmers Market and Apex can be found via the links provided in this sentence.

Photo geek stuff: Most of the images in this post were taken with my Canon 6D and Tamron 28-300mm f/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD lens equipped with a polarizing filter. A few interior shots in Apex were taken with the camera in my iPhone X. For all compositions taken with the 6D, I bracketed three exposures to allow for melding later in post-processing using Photomatix high-dynamic range (HDR) software. The composition leading off the post was taken with a low shutter speed to convey motion because the brightly colored balloons were spinning quickly from the effects of a slight breeze.

On a corner of an intersection in Apex's downtown merchants' district, the town has made a sort of garden out of its free-book rental service (above). The photo below is a closeup of the J.C. Knowles "ambassador" sign you see in the background of the full perspective shot above. J.C. Knowles is a publisher, writer and retired auctioneer who is designated as the town's official ambassador.  

Above: This outdoor display along Salem Street wasn't there when I first visited the merchants' district several months ago. 

Above and below: These novelties were on The Rusty Bucket's shelves on my visit Saturday. The sauce above piqued my interest (I didn't buy any though), and I had some fun with the picture of the bottle below. If you're familiar with the "toejam football" phrase from the gobbledygook lyrics of John Lennon's "Come Together" song (The Beatles "Abbey Road" album) ... well, I sent this picture to friends and told them I finally figured out what "toe jam" was, but I that I was now even more puzzled about what a football had to do with it. OK, so maybe not comedy club material, but still ...  

Above: Mister Rogers was an important figure in my kids' early development years. I would frequently watch his show with my kids in the morning. I don't think any of my kids looks in on my blog, so I don't mind sharing that I probably will return to this store and pick up this book to give to at least one of them for Christmas this year. 

An interesting confluence of signs and decor along Salem Street (above), near the Peak City Grill and Bar, and the elegant doors of the Peak City Grill and Bar (below), which a judge ordered closed in January because of financial mismanagement. 

Above: The eye-catching exterior of a house along Salem Street on the first block south of the merchants' district. 

Most of the photos I shot at Holly Springs Farmers Market were of the musical entertainment outside the cultural center. The photos above and almost all of the ones below are shots of the Holly Springs Community Band. The final two photos are proof that I actually did stroll through the market area. 

Next up: Town Commons, Holly Springs