The Wynne House was built in 1871 by Gustavius Adolphus Palm (1839-1917), a German-born architect who came to Holly Springs just before the Civil War and worked on many of the houses and churches in town. Palm is best known for his three great Italianate houses in Holly Springs: The Pines (1871) and Turner Lane House (1870), and this house, which Palm built for himself.
G. A. Palm sold his house in 1882 to William Lea, and eventually moved to Memphis. Lea owned the house until 1895, when it was sold to I. D. Blumenthal. The Blumenthal family lived here until 1906, when they sold it to L. A. Rather (1859-1930). In 1919 the house was purchased by Doctor Thomas C. Wynne, a dentist who lived here with his family until 1947. The Huggins family lived in the Wynne House from 1947 to 1973, and Reverend M. G. Schereff and his wife lived here from 1973 until 1999. Rosalind Wilcox owned the house for two years, before selling it to Irving Hall in 2001.
In 2008, Stephen and Jan Woodgate purchased the house and began a significant renovation of the Wynne House and the cottage next door, which the Woodgates called Hummingbird Cottage, and is today an excellent Bed and Breakfast whose proceeds go towards the continuing renovation and restoration of the Wynne House.
In 2016, the fully-restored Wynne House opened to the public as the Wynne House Inn.
The Wynne House is a two-story flanking-gable frame Italianate house, with gable-front ell, a tent-roof bay window and three-bay hip-roof porch. The house is noted for its heavy cornice brackets, the hallmark of the Italianate style.
Hill Country History 
Thanks so much Phillip for the beautiful photos and history of our house! We did not know G. A. Palm built it for himself or the peticular architectural style. It no doubt has been a special house and home not only to us, but to all previous owners as well. We plan on finishing renovations this fall and hope to be part of the Holly Springs Christmas 2016 Tour of Homes.
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Mr. Knecht,
Below is a reply I got from retired Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ned Lester, younger brother to Pat Lester in the picture with Warren Slayden and Shep Smith. Also on the right in the Picture with the car, looks like Mr. Claude Smith with Shep Smith in front of him.
There were 4 girls and 2 boys in the Lester family. Ned (Edwin) Lester was born in 1938. Pat and Shep were in the Marine Corps in the late 1940’s I think.
“Bobby,
I believe that you have all the Lester kids in that picture at that time (1932). I believe that it is Jane (12), Dor, (10), Nancy (8) standing behind Pat (Born Jan 1928). Wil Fant enticed Dad ( John Lester) to leave an excellent job as Southwest Sales manager for Standard Oil and move from Batesville, MS to Holly Springs in 1927 to set up Acme Oil Company. I know very little of the history of our family during the 1930’s (since I was born in 1938) but we did move to the farm – Which Will Fant owned – for the family to survive the depression. Any additional information that you might have during this period would be appreciated.”
Regards,
Bobby Seale
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